A lamentation for the princes of Israel, under the parable of lion's whelps taken in a pit, 1-9; and for Jerusalem, under the parable of a wasted vine, 10-14.
1 "Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say,
'What is your mother? A lioness./
She lay down among lions./
She nourished her whelps/
among young lions.
3 And she brought up one of her whelps./
It became a young lion/
and it learned to catch prey./
It devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him./
He was taken in their pit,/
and they brought him with chains/
to the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that she had waited/
and her hope was lost,/
she took another of her whelps/
and made him a young lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions./
He became a young lion/
and learned to catch prey./
He devoured men.
7 And he knew their desolate palaces,/
and he laid waste their cities./
And the land and its fullness was desolate/
by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him/
on every side from the provinces/
and spread their net over him./
He was taken in their pit.
9 And they put him in a cage with hooks/
and brought him to the king of Babylon./
They brought him into holds,/
so that his voice should no longer be heard/
upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother is like a vine in your blood/
planted by the waters./
She was fruitful and full of branches/
by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong branches/
for the scepters of those who bore rule,/
and her stature was exalted/
among the thick branches,/
and she appeared in her height/
with the multitude of her branches.
12 But she was plucked up in fury,/
she was cast down to the ground,/
and the east wind dried up her fruit./
Her strong rods were broken and withered./
The fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness/
in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And fire has gone out of a rod of her branches./
It has devoured her fruit,/
so that she has no strong rod/
to be a scepter to rule.'"
[This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation.]
Matthew Henry Commentary - Ezekiel, Chapter 19[➚]
John Gill's Chapter Summary:
The subject matter of this chapter is a lamentation for the princes and people of the Jews, on account of what had already befallen them and what was yet to come (Ezekiel 19:1). The mother of the princes is compared to a lioness, and they to lions, who, one after another, were taken and carried captive (Ezekiel 19:2-9); again, their mother is compared to a vine, and they to branches and rods for sceptres, destroyed by an east wind and consumed by fire (Ezekiel 19:10-14).