Ezekiel 19
KJV
1Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. 3And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 4The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. 5Now 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. 6And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. 7And 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. 8Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. 9And 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.
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. 11And 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. 12But 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. 13And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 14And 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.
Introduction
Ezekiel 19
The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of the 17th, to foretel and lament the ruin of the house of David, the royal family of Judah, in the calamitous exit of the four sons and grandsons of Josiah - Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, in whom that illustrious line of kings was cut off, which the prophet is here ordered to lament (Eze 19:1). And he does it by similitudes. I. The kingdom of Judah and house of David are here compared to a lioness, and those princes to lions, that were fierce and ravenous, but were hunted down and taken in nets (Eze 19:2-9). II. That kingdom and that house are here compared to a vine, and these princes to branches, which had been strong and flourishing, but were now broken off and burnt (Eze 19:10-14). This ruin of that monarchy was now in the doing, and this lamentation of it was intended to affect the people with it, that they might not flatter themselves with vain hopes of the lengthening out of their tranquility.
Cross-references: Ezek 19:1 · Ezek 19:2 · Ezek 19:10