The Word of the Lord to Ezekiel

Chapter 19

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.

And she brought up one of her whelps./
It became a young lion/
and it learned to catch prey./
It devoured men.

The nations also heard of him./
He was taken in their pit,/
and they brought him with chains/
to the land of Egypt.

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.

And he went up and down among the lions./
He became a young lion/
and learned to catch prey./
He devoured men.

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.

Then the nations set against him/
on every side from the provinces/
and spread their net over him./
He was taken in their pit.

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.]

Commentary

Matthew Henry Commentary - Ezekiel, Chapter 19[➚]

Notes

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).

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