Ezekielchapter 19
14 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
A funeral song for the princes of Israel. The mother is a lioness among lions; she rears one whelp that learns to catch prey and is taken with hooks to Egypt, then another brought in a cage to the king of Babylon: Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, the crown carried off twice. The image shifts to a vine planted by the waters, full of branches, with strong rods for the sceptres of them that bear rule; but she is plucked up in fury, dried by the east wind, and fire goes out of the rod of her branches. Now planted in a dry land, she has 'no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.'
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 19 falls in Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem (chapters 4–24). Lying on his side for 430 days; shaving the head with a sword; eating food in anxiety; the glory departs in stages (8–11); the prophet survives his wife's death without mourning (24).
Before it: Call and wheels-vision, chapters 1–3. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 19The history
This chapter is a lament, and Hebrew laments had a distinctive limping rhythm, a longer line followed by a shorter one, so the poem seems to stumble as it goes. Professional mourning women were hired for funerals, and the form was instantly recognizable. Singing a funeral song for a dynasty that still had a king on the throne was a deliberate scandal.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The lion imagery is royal imagery. Lions stood on the arms of Solomon's throne, and Assyrian and Babylonian kings had themselves carved hunting lions to show mastery. Judah's own tribal emblem was a lion.
The two cubs are two kings. The first was taken to Egypt with hooks: Jehoahaz reigned three months in 609 BC before Pharaoh Neco removed him, and he died there. The second was put in a wooden collar and cage and brought to the king of Babylon: Jehoiachin, deported in 597 BC. Assyrian palace reliefs show captured lions transported in wooden cages and prisoners led by rings and cords, so the picture was drawn from things people had actually seen.
The second half switches to a vine, the same national image as chapter fifteen, planted by water, with strong branches fit for rulers' sceptres, then torn up in fury, thrown down, dried by the east wind, and burned by fire from its own branch. The east wind off the desert is the scorching one that kills crops in a day.
What it meant to them
For the exiles, the monarchy was the thread holding the story together. This song tells them the thread has snapped, and it says so in the form used at a burial.
The final line is the emptiest in the book: there is no strong branch left, no sceptre to rule. Every human hope in the house of David is stripped out here, which is what makes the promise of a shoot planted by God in the previous chapter, and the shepherd-king of chapter thirty-four, land the way they do.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. A lioness and the two cubs taken in pits
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.a lamentation for the princes of Israel: A qinah, the meter of grief, is set over the house of David before a single line names its wrong. The mother is Judah, pictured as a lioness among lions, an image of royal strength lying down among the nations she once matched. Henry reads the whole chapter as a dirge sung in advance, mourning kings who had not yet finished reigning when Ezekiel wrote it.
Ezekiel 19:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 19:1
“Princes of Israel - Israel is the whole nation over which the king of Judah was the rightful sovereign. Compare Eze 2:3; Eze 3:1, Eze 3:7.”
Ezekiel 19:1
“And he does it by similitudes. 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,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 19:2, 4 voices
Ezekiel 19:2
“And say, what is thy mother?.... That is, say so to the then reigning prince, Zedekiah, what is thy mother like? to what is she to be compared? by whom is meant, not the royal family of David only, or Jerusalem the metropolis of the nation, but the whole body of the people; and so the Targum interprets it of the congregation of Israel.”
Ezekiel 19:2
“He calls the nation itself a lioness: for when he treats of the mother of the people, we know that the offspring is considered. He says, therefore, that the people was full of insolence. The comparison to a lion is sometimes taken in a good sense, as when Moses uses it of the tribe of Judea, as a lion's whelp shall he lie down, (Genesis 49:9,) a, phrase used in a good sense.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Ezekiel 19:2
24:9, this passage alludes. nourished . . . among young lions--She herself had "lain" among lions, that is, had intercourse with the corruptions of the surrounding heathen and had brought up the royal young ones similarly: utterly degenerate from the stock of Abraham. Lay down--or "couched," is appropriate to the lion, the Arab name of which means "the coucher."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 19:2
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2. (vv. 3-4)
a.brought up one of her whelps: The first whelp learns to catch the prey and devour men, then is trapped and dragged in chains to Egypt, a fit matched by the bench to Jehoahaz, whom Pharaoh Necho deposed and carried off after a three month reign. Gill and Clarke both read taken in their pit as the language of a beast hunt turned on the hunter, the king who fed himself as a lion is himself snared. The nations also heard of him is the chapter's own proof that this is public record, not private complaint.
Ezekiel 19:3, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:3
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:4, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:4
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3. (vv. 5-9)
a.took another of her whelps: When the mother's hope in the first whelp is lost she raises a second, who repeats the same course of violence and is likewise taken, this time to Babylon rather than Egypt. The bench divides over which king stands behind the second lion, since the chapter names no one and keeps the identification a beast's biography rather than a name. What the readings share is the verse's own point, his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel, a throne silenced rather than a man merely exiled.
Ezekiel 19:5, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:5
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:6, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:6
“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, 2Ki 23:30, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:6
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:7, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:7
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 19:8, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:8
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:9, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:9
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:9
“Margin, "hooks"; perhaps referring to the hook often passed through the nose of beasts; so, too, through that of captives, as seen in the Assyrian sculptures (see on Eze 19:4). voice--that is, his roaring. no more be heard upon the mountains--carrying on the metaphor of the lion, whose roaring on the mountains frightens all the other beasts.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B. The fruitful vine plucked up and dried in the desert
1. (vv. 10-11)
a.like a vine in thy blood: The allegory changes without warning: Judah is now a vine planted by the waters, fruitful, its strong rods fit to be the sceptres of them that bare rule. The image reads as the united strength of the Davidic house before exile stripped it, the fulness of many waters standing for the resources and royal offspring the kingdom once had. Keil ties the figure back to the vine brought out of Egypt in Psalm 80, the same national image carried across the canon.
Ezekiel 19:10, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:10
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:10
“A new metaphor taken from the vine, the chief of the fruit-bearing trees, as the lion is of the beasts of prey (see Eze 17:6). in thy blood--"planted when thou wast in thy blood," that is, in thy very infancy; as in Eze 16:6, when thou hadst just come from the womb, and hadst not yet the blood washed from thee.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 19:11, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:11
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:11
“The mention of their former royal dignity, contrasting sadly with her present sunken state, would remind the Jews of their sins whereby they had incurred such judgments. stature-- (Da 4:11). among the thick branches--that is, the central stock or trunk of the tree shot up highest "among its own branches" or offshoots, surrounding it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (vv. 12-14)
a.plucked up in fury: The vine is plucked up in fury and cast to the ground, the east wind, this book's standing figure for judgment out of the desert, drying its fruit until no strong rod remains for a sceptre. Planted now in a dry and thirsty ground rather than by the waters, the once fruitful vine sets fire in its own branches, a ruin that consumes itself rather than one only inflicted from outside. The chapter names its own genre a second time, this is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation, grief the text means the reader to feel rather than merely observe.
Ezekiel 19:12, 1 voice
Ezekiel 19:12
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:13, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:13
“And now she is planted in the wilderness,.... In the land of Babylon, which though a very fruitful country, yet, because of the hardships and miseries which the Jews were exposed unto in it, was a wilderness to them: in a dry and thirsty ground; which is a periphrasis or description of a wilderness, Psa 63:1; and designs the same place as before; where the Jews were deprived of their liberties, and had not the opportunities of divine worship, the word and ordinances; and were destitute of the comforts both of civil and religious life.”
Ezekiel 19:13
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:14, 2 voices
Ezekiel 19:14
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 19:14
“Fire - The fire of rebellion, kindled by Zedekiah, who is of the blood-royal. No strong rod - The regal dignity is ceased.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 19. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 9 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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