Ezekiel 19

Eze 19:10-14 . In the first parable, the lioness is Jerusalem. The first of the young lions is Jehoahaz, deposed by the king of Egypt; and the second lion is Jehoiakim, whose rebellion drew on himself the vengeance of the king of Babylon. In the second parable the vine is the Jewish nation, which long prospered, its land being fertile, its princes powerful, and its people flourishing; but the judgments of God, in consequence of their guilt, had now destroyed a great part of the people, and doomed the rest to captivity. Verse 1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation - Declare what is the great subject of sorrow in Israel. Compose a funeral dirge. Show Be melancholy fate of the kings who proceeded from Josiah. The prophet deplores the misfortune of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, under the figure of two lion whelps, which were taken by hunters, and confined in cages. Next he shows the desolation of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, which he compares to a beautiful vine pulled up by the roots, withered, and at last burned. Calmet justly observes, that the style of this song is beautiful, and the allegory well supported throughout. Verse 2 What is thy mother? A lioness - Judea may here be the mother; the lioness, Jerusalem. Her lying down among lions, her having confederacy with the neighboring kings; for lion here means king. Verse 3 She brought up one of her whelps - Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, whose father was conquered and slain by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt. It learned to catch the prey - His reign was a reign of oppression and cruelty. He made his subjects his prey, and devoured their substance. Verse 4 The nations also heard of him - The king of Egypt, whose subjects were of divers nations, marched against Jerusalem, took Jehoahaz prisoner, and brought him to Egypt. Thus: - He was taken in their pit - Here is an allusion to those trap-pits digged in forests, into which the wild beasts fall, when the huntsmen, surrounding a given portion of the forest, drive the beasts in; by degrees narrowing the inclosure, till the animals come to the place where the pits are, which, being lightly covered over with branches and turf, are not perceived, and the beasts tread on them and fall in. Jehoahaz reigned only three months before he was dethroned by the king of Egypt, against whom it is apparent some craft was used, here signified by the pit, into which he fell. Verse 5 When she saw that she had waited - Being very weak, the Jews found that they could not resist with any hope of success; so the king of Egypt was permitted to do as he pleased. She took another of her whelps - Jehoiakim. And made him a young lion - King of Judea. Verse 6 And he went up and down among the lions - He became a perfect heathen, and made Judea as idolatrous as any of the surrounding nations. He reigned eleven years, a monster of iniquity, 2Kgs 23:30 , etc. Verse 8 The nations set against him - The Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, and the king of Babylon - king of many nations. He was taken - The city was taken by Nebuchadnezzar; and Jehoiakim was taken prisoner, and sent in chains to Babylon. Verse 9 That his voice should no more be heard - He continued in prison many years, till the reign of Evil-merodach, who set him at liberty, but never suffered him to return to the mountains of Israel. "The unhappy fate of these princes, mentioned Eze 19:4 , Eze 19:8 , Eze 19:9 , is a just subject of lamentation." - Newcome. Verse 10 Thy mother (Jerusalem) is like a vine in thy blood - Of this expression I know not what to make. Some think the meaning is "A vine planted by the waters to produce the blood of the grape." See Deu 32:14 . Others, for בדמך bedamecha, in thy blood, would read ברמון berimmon, in or at a pomegranate; like a vine planted by or beside a pomegranate-tree, by which it was to be supported. And so the Septuagint and Arabic appear to have read. Calmet reads כרמך carmecha, thy vineyard, instead of בדמך bedamecha, in thy blood. Here is no change but a ר resh for a ד daleth. This reading is supported by one of Kennicott's and one of De Rossi's MSS.: "Thy mother is like a vine in thy vineyard, planted by the waters." Though this is rather an unusual construction yet it seems the best emendation. Of the textual reading no sense can be made. There is a corruption somewhere. Full on branches - Many princes. See next verse. Verse 11 She had strong rods - Zedekiah, and his many sons. Her stature was exalted - Zedekiah grew proud of his numerous offspring and prosperity; and although he copied the example of Jehoiakim, yet he thought he might safely rebel against the king of Babylon. Verse 12 But she was plucked up in fury - Jerusalem; taken after a violent and most destructive siege; Nebuchadnezzar being violently enraged against Zedekiah for breaking his oath to him. She was cast down to the ground - Jerusalem was totally ruined, by being burned to the ground. Her strong rods were broken - The children of Zedekiah were slain before his eyes, and after that his own eyes pulled out; and he was laden with chains, and carried into Babylon. Verse 13 And now she is planted in the wilderness - In the land of Chaldea, whither the people have been carried captives; and which, compared with their own land, was to them a dreary wilderness. Verse 14 Fire is gone out - A vindictive and murderous disposition has taken hold: - Of a rod of her branches - Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, who was of the blood-royal of Judah: - Hath devoured her fruit - Hath assassinated Gedaliah, slain many people, and carried off others into the country of the Ammonites. But he was pursued by Jonathan, the son of Kareah, who slew many of his adherents, and delivered much of the people. She hath no strong rod - None of the blood-royal of Judah left. And from that time not one of her own royal race ever sat upon the throne of Israel. This is a lamentation - This is a most lamentable business. And shall be for a lamentation - These predictions shall be so punctually fulfilled, and the catastrophe shall be so complete, that it shall ever remain as a lamentation; as this state of Jerusalem shall never be restored. Even to the present day this, to a Jew, is a subject of mourning. Introduction A deputation of the elders of Israel, as usual, in their distress, came to request Ezekiel to ask counsel of God, Eze 20:1 . In reply to this, God commands the prophet to put them in mind

b. c. 593.) 1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 And say, What is thy 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 the prey; it devoured men. 4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. 5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then 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 the prey, and devoured men. 7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, 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 ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. Here are, I. Orders given to the prophet to bewail the fall of the royal family, which had long made so great a figure by virtue of a covenant of royalty made with David and his seed, so that the eclipsing and extinguishing of it are justly lamented by all who know what value to put upon the covenant of our God, as we find, after a very large account of that covenant with David ( Ps. lxxxix. 3 , 20 , &c.), a sad lamentation for the decays and desolations of his family ( v. 38, 39 ): But thou hast cast off and abhorred, hast made void the covenant of thy servant and profaned his crown, &c. The kings of Judah are here called princes of Israel; for their glory was diminished and they had become but as princes, and their purity was lost; they had become corrupt and idolatrous as the kings of Israel, whose ways they had learned. The prophet must take up a lamentation for them; that is, he must describe their lamentable fall as one that did himself lay it to heart, and desired that those he preached and wrote to might do so to. And how can we expect that others should be affected with that which we ourselves are not affected with? Ministers, when they boldly foretel, must yet bitterly lament the destruction of sinners, as those that have not desired the woeful day. He is not directed to give advice to the princes of Israel (that had been long and often done in vain), but, the decree having gone forth, he must take up a lamentation for them. II. Instructions given him what to say. 1. He must compare the kingdom of Judah to a lioness, so wretchedly degenerated was it from what it had been formerly, when it sat as a queen among the nations, v. 2 . What is thy mother? thine, O king? (we read of Solomon's crown wherewith his mother crowned him, that is, his people, Cant. iii. 11 ), thine, O Judah? The royal family is as a mother to the kingdom, a nursing mother. She is a lioness, fierce, and cruel, and ravenous. When they had left their divinity they soon lost their humanity too; and, when they feared not God, neither did they regard man. She lay down among lions. God had said, The people shall dwell alone, but they mingled with the nations and learned their works. She nourished her whelps among young lions, taught the young princes the way of tyrants, which was then used by the arbitrary kings of the east, filled their heads betimes with notions of their absolute despotic power, and possessed them with a belief that they had a right to enslave their subjects, that their liberty and property lay at their mercy: thus she nourished her whelps among young lions. 2. He must compare the kings of Judah to lions' whelps, v. 3 . Jacob had compared Judah, and especially the house of David, to a lion's whelp, for its being strong and formidable to its enemies abroad ( Gen. xlix. 9 , He is an old lion; who shall stir him up? ) and, if they had adhered to the divine law and promise, God would have preserved to them the might, and majesty, and dominion of a lion, and does it in Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But these lions' whelps were so to their own subjects, were cruel and oppressive to them, preyed upon their estates and liberties; and, when they thus by their tyranny made themselves a terror to those whom they ought to have protected, it was just with God to make those a terror to them whom otherwise they might have subdued. Here is lamented, (1.) The sin and fall of Jehoahaz, one of the whelps of this lioness. He became a young lion ( v. 3 ); he was made king, and thought he was made so that he might do what he pleased, and gratify his own ambition, covetousness, and revenge, as he had a mind; and so he was soon master of all the arts of tyranny; he learned to catch the prey and devoured men. When he got power into his hand, all that had before in any thing disobliged him were made to feel his resentments and become a sacrifice to his rage. But what came of it? He did not prosper long in his tyranny: The nations heard of him ( v. 4 ), heard how furiously he drove at his first coming to the crown, how he trampled upon all that is just and sacred, and violated all his engagements, so that they looked upon him as a dangerous neighbour, and prosecuted him accordingly, as a multitude of shepherds is called forth against a lion roaring on his prey, Isa. xxxi. 4 . And he was taken, as a beast of prey, in their pit. His own subjects durst not stand up in defence of their liberties, but God raised up a foreign power that soon put an end to his tyranny, and brought him in chains to the land of Egypt. Thither Jehoahaz was carried captive, and never heard of more. (2.) The like sin and fall of his successor Jehoiakim. The kingdom of Judah for some time expected the return of Jehoahaz out of Egypt, but at length despaired of it, and then took another of the lion's whelps, and made him a young lion, v. 5 . And he, instead of taking warning by his brother's fate to use his power with equity and moderation, and to seek the good of his people, trod in his brother's steps: He went up and down among the lions, v. 6 . He consulted and conversed with those that were fierce and furious like himself, and took his measures from them, as Rehoboam took the advice of the rash and hot-headed young men. And he soon learned to catch the prey, and he devoured men ( v. 6 ); he seized his subjects' estates, fined and imprisoned them, filled his treasury by rapine and injustice, sequestrations and confiscations, fines and forfeitures, and swallowed up all that stood in his way. He had got the art of discovering what effects men had that lay concealed, and where the treasures were which they had hoarded up; he knew their desolate places ( v. 7 ), where they hid their money and sometimes hid themselves; he knew where to find both out; and by his oppression he laid waste their cities, depopulated them by forcing the inhabitants to remove their families to some place of safety. The land was desolate, and the country villages were deserted; and though there was great plenty, and a fulness of all good things, yet people quitted it all for fear of the noise of his roaring. He took a pride in making all his subjects afraid of him, as the lion makes all the beasts of the forest to tremble ( Amos iii. 8 ), and by his terrible roaring so astonished them that they fell down for fear, and, having not spirit to make their escape, became an easy prey to him, as they say the lions do. He hectored, and threatened, and talked big, and bullied people out of what they had. Thus he thought to establish his own power, but it had a contrary effect, it did but hasten his own ruin ( v. 8 ): The nations set against him on every side, to restrain and reduce his exorbitant power, which they joined in confederacy to do for their common safety; and they spread their net over him, formed designs against him. God brought against Jehoiakim bands of the Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, with the Chaldees ( 2 Kings xxiv. 2 ), and he was taken in their pit. Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6 . They put this lion within grates, bound him in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon, v. 9 . What became of him we know not; but his voice was nowhere heard roaring upon the mountains of Israel. There was an end of his tyranny: he was buried with the burial of an ass ( Jer. xxii. 19 ), though he had been as a lion, the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Note, The righteousness of God is to be acknowledged when those who have terrified and enslaved others are themselves terrified and enslaved, when those who by the abuse of their power to destruction which was given them for edification make themselves as wild beasts, as roaring lions and ranging bears (for such, Solomon says, wicked rulers are over the poor people, Prov. xxviii. 15 ), are treated as such—when those who, like Ishmael, have their hand against every man, come at last to have every man's hand against them. It was long since observed that bloody tyrants seldom die in peace, but have blood given them to drink, for they are worthy. Ad generum Cereris sine cæde et sanguine pauci Descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni— How few of all the boastful men that reign Descend in peace to Pluto's dark domain! Juvenal . The Fall of the Royal Family. ( b. c. 593.)

For the princes - Jehoahaz, Jehoiachim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.

What - What resemblance shall I use to set out the nature, deportment, and state of the mother of these princes? Thy - One of whom was upon the throne at once, and therefore the prophet speaks to one at a time. Mother - The land of Judea, and Jerusalem, the chief city of it, the royal family of David. Lioness - Tho' chosen of God to execute justice; yet they soon degenerated into the fierce and ravening nature of the lioness. Lay down - Associated, and grew familiar with neighbour kings, called here lions; fierce and bloody. Her whelps - Her sons, successors to the crown. Young lions - Either foreign princes and kings, or some of the fierce, unjust, tyrannizing princes at home.

Brought up - Advanced, caused him to take the throne after the slaughter of Josiah. One - Jehoahaz the second son of Josiah. Became - Soon shewed his fierce, cruel, and bloody disposition.

The nations - The Egyptians heard what he did.

Made him - King, and infused the lion - like maxims into him.

He - Jehoiachim. Went up - He continued eleven years on the throne; whereas Jehoahaz was taken as soon as he first ventured out. The lions - Heathen kings, with whom he entered into leagues. He became - Fierce, ravenous, unsatiable.

He knew - By taking them, he came to know their places, which are here called, what he made them, desolate. Roaring - By the perpetual violent threats of this cruel king.

The nations - Which were tributary to Nebuchadnezzar. Set against - By order of the king of Babylon. The provinces - Which belonged to the Babylonish kingdom.

10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 11 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare 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 is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here represented by another similitude; she is a vine, and the princes are her branches. This comparison we had before, ch. xv. 1 . Jerusalem is as a vine; the Jewish nation is so: Like a vine in thy blood ( v. 10 ), the blood-royal, like a vine set in blood and watered with blood, which contributes very much to the flourishing and fruitfulness of vines, as if the blood which had been shed had been designed for the fattening and improving of the soil, in such plenty was it shed; and for a time it seemed to have that effect, for she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of the waters, the many waters near which she was planted. Places of great wickedness may prosper for a while; and a vine set in blood may be full of branches. Jerusalem was full of able magistrates, men of sense, men of learning and experience, that were strong rods, branches of this vine of uncommon bulk and strength, or poles for the support of this vine, for such magistrates are. The boughs of this vine had grown to such maturity that they were fit to make white staves of for the sceptres of those that bore rule, v. 11 . And those are strong rods that are fit for sceptres, men of strong judgments and strong resolutions that are fit for magistrates. When the royal family of Judah was numerous, and the courts of justice were filled with men of sense and probity, then Jerusalem's stature was exalted among thick branches; when the government is in good able hands a nation is thereby made considerable Then she was not taken for a weak and lowly vine, but she appeared in her height, a distinguished city, with the multitude of her branches. Tanquam lenta solent inter viburna cupressi—Midst humble withies thus the cypress soars. "In thy quietness " (so some read that, v. 10 , which we translate in thy blood ) "thou wast such a vine as this." When Zedekiah was quiet and easy under the king of Babylon's yoke his kingdom flourished thus. See how slow God is to anger, how he defers his judgments, and waits to be gracious. 2. This vine is now quite destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar, being highly provoked by Zedekiah's treachery, plucked it up in fury ( v. 12 ), ruined the city and kingdom, and cut off all the branches of the royal family that fell in his way. The vine was cut off close to the ground, though not plucked up by the roots. The east wind dried up the fruit that was blasted. The young people fell by the sword, or were carried into captivity. The aspect of it had nothing that was pleasing, the prospect nothing that was promising. Her strong rods were broken and withered; her great men were cut off, judges and magistrates deposed. The vine itself is planted in the wilderness, v. 13 . Babylon was as a wilderness to those of the people that were carried captives thither; the land of Judah was as a wilderness to Jerusalem, now that the whole country was ravaged and laid waste by the Chaldean army—a fruitful land turned into barrenness. "It is burnt with fire ( Ps. lxxx. 16 ) and that fire has gone out of a rod of her branches ( v. 14 ); the king himself, by rebelling against the king of Babylon, has given occasion to all this mischief. She may thank herself for the fire that consumes her; she has by her wickedness made herself like tinder to the sparks of God's wrath, so that her own branches serve as fuel for her own consumption; in them the fire is kindled which devoured the fruit, the sins of the elder being the judgments which destroy the younger; her fruit is burned with her own branches, so that she has no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule, none to be found now that are fit for the government or dare take this ruin under their hand, as the complaint is ( Isa. iii. 6, 7 ), none of the house of David left that have a right to rule, no wise men, or men of sense, that are able to rule." It goes ill with any state, and is likely to go worse, when it is thus deprived of the blessings of government and has no strong rods for sceptres. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is a child, for it is as well to have no rod as not a strong rod. Those strong rods, we have reason to fear, had been instruments of oppression, assistant to the king in catching the prey and devouring men, and now they are destroyed with him. Tyranny is the inlet to anarchy; and, when the rod of government is turned into the serpent of oppression, it is just with God to say, "There shall be no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule; but let men be as are the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less." Note, This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation. The prophet was bidden ( v. 1 ) to take up a lamentation; and, having done so, he leaves it to be made use of by others. " It is a lamentation to us of this age, and, the desolations continuing long, it shall be for a lamentation to those that shall come after us; the child unborn will rue the destruction made of Judah and Jerusalem by the present judgments. They were a great while in coming; the bow was long in the drawing; but now that they have come they will continue, and the sad effects of them will be entailed upon posterity." Note, Those who fill up the measure of their fathers' sins are laying up in store for their children's sorrows and furnishing them with matter for lamentation; and nothing is more so than the overthrow of government.

Thy mother - O thou prince of Israel. By the waters - In a very fruitful soil. Full of branches - Full of children; when Josiah died, he left four behind him, beside other branches of the royal line.

Strong rods - Many excellent persons endowed with qualifications befitting kings, that they might sway the scepter. Exalted - Above the ordinary majesty of other kingdoms. Thick branches - This kingdom equalled, if not excelled, the greatest neighbour - kingdoms, and her kings exceeded all their neighbouring kings, in riches and power.

The east wind - God raised up the king of Babylon to pull up this sinful kingdom. Dried up - Blasted all her fruit, deposed her king, captivated him, his family, and the whole kingdom. Strong rods - All the choice men.

She - A few of the branches of the last pruning. In the wilderness - Tho' Babylon was in a very fruitful place, yet the cruelty of the Babylonians, made it to the Jews as terrible as a wilderness.

Fire - The fire of rebellion, kindled by Zedekiah, who is of the blood - royal. No strong rod - The regal dignity is ceased.