Ezekiel 19 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Ezekiel 19

A Lament for the Princes of Israel

19:1 And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:

  What was your mother? A lioness!
    Among lions she crouched;
  in the midst of young lions
    she reared her cubs.
3   And she brought up one of her cubs;
    he became a young lion,
  and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men.
4   The nations heard about him;
    he was caught in their pit,
  and they brought him with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.
5   When she saw that she waited in vain,
    that her hope was lost,
  she took another of her cubs
    and made him a young lion.
6   He prowled among the lions;
    he became a young lion,
  and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men,
7   and seized¹ their widows.
    He laid waste their cities,
  and the land was appalled and all who were in it
    at the sound of his roaring.
8   Then the nations set against him
    from provinces on every side;
  they spread their net over him;
    he was taken in their pit.
9   With hooks they put him in a cage²
    and brought him to the king of Babylon;
    they brought him into custody,
  that his voice should no more be heard
    on the mountains of Israel.
10   Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard³
    planted by the water,
  fruitful and full of branches
    by reason of abundant water.
11   Its strong stems became
    rulers’ scepters;
  it towered aloft
    among the thick boughs;⁴
  it was seen in its height
    with the mass of its branches.
12   But the vine was plucked up in fury,
    cast down to the ground;
  the east wind dried up its fruit;
    they were stripped off and withered.
  As for its strong stem,
    fire consumed it.
13   Now it is planted in the wilderness,
    in a dry and thirsty land.
14   And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
    has consumed its fruit,
  so that there remains in it no strong stem,
    no scepter for ruling.

This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation.

Footnotes

[1] 19:7 Hebrew knew
[2] 19:9 Or in a wooden collar
[3] 19:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts in your blood
[4] 19:11 Or the clouds

Commentary

v1-4: The lioness is Josiah, himself a picture of Jerusalem. His cub was Jehoahaz, who was taken to Egypt, 2 Chr 36.1-4; 609 BC.

v5-9: Jehoiakim was taken to Babylon, 2 Chr 36.5-8. The surrounding states had also attacked, see 2 Kings 24.2.

v10-11: The fruitfulness of Josiah, full of branches, yet all that came to nothing. Much blessing came during his reign, 2 Chr 34-35, but was seemingly forgotten. The vine image is used a number of times to describe Israel.

The truths of chapter 18 are applied here in a national sense. The past blessings could not save the rebellious people.

v12-14: The tree was uprooted and thrown to the ground, never again to bear fruit. The wilderness, the dry and thirsty land, refers to where Ezekiel lives with the captives. They knew this to be true.

No strong branch was left; the work of restoration under Josiah was totally lost, as his sons turned away from his godly example.