Ezekiel 19

Ezekiel sings a funeral song for the last kings of Judah. He pictures them first as two young lions caught and carried off, then as a once-flourishing vine now torn up and planted in a desert. The chapter mourns the fall of David’s royal line.

Ezekiel 19:1-2

God tells Ezekiel to sing a grief song for Israel’s rulers. The mother is the royal house or nation, a lioness among lions. Lions were a symbol of royal strength, and Judah was called a lion’s cub in Jacob’s blessing. The song begins in pride and ends in sorrow.

BSA: lament (“dirge, song of grief”): This is a funeral song, sung as if the kings were already dead. princes (“leaders, rulers”): The song is aimed at Israel’s leaders, who bore most responsibility for the nation’s fate.

See also: Genesis 49:9.

Ezekiel 19:3-4

The first cub grew strong and learned to hunt, devouring men. He used his power to prey on his own people. Then the nations heard of him and trapped him. Hooks in his nose dragged him to Egypt. This most likely describes Jehoahaz, taken captive by Pharaoh Neco.

BSA: hooks (“nose rings, chains”): The picture is of a wild beast led by a ring through the nose, helpless and humiliated.

Hebrew: חַח (ḥaḥ, H2397) — “hook, ring for the nose.” This is the hook put through the nose or jaw of an animal or prisoner. It shows the proud lion led around like a tamed beast.

See also: 2 Kings 23:31-34.

Ezekiel 19:5-7

The mother had waited and hoped, but her hope was lost. She raised a second cub, who also became a fierce lion. He broke strongholds and ruined cities, and the whole land shook at his roar. His strength brought fear, not blessing. Many take him to be Jehoiachin, though some think Zedekiah.

BSA: hope (“expectancy, a cord of attachment”): Hope is pictured as a cord tying her heart to her son, now cut. devastated (“laying waste”): The king left ruin behind him, not protection for his people.

Ezekiel 19:8-9

Once more the nations gather on every side, spread a net, and catch the lion in their pit. This time he is caged and brought to the king of Babylon. His roar is silenced on Israel’s mountains. The kings who terrified others end up powerless prisoners.

BSA: net (“trap, snare”): The nations hunt him like game, and he is caught by the very world he had threatened. caged (“put in a cage or enclosure”): A king is reduced to a caged animal, a picture of total loss of freedom.

See also: 2 Kings 24:10-15.

Ezekiel 19:10

The picture now changes. The mother becomes a vine planted by plentiful water. She was fruitful and full of branches. Israel’s vine image elsewhere shows God’s careful planting. Here it recalls a time of rich blessing and life.

BSA: planted (“transplanted, established”): The vine did not start itself; it was set in good soil by another hand.

See also: Psalm 80:8-11; Isaiah 5:1-2.

Ezekiel 19:11

The vine grew strong branches fit for rulers’ scepters. It rose high above the other trees and was seen from far away. This is the royal line of David at its height, with strength, honor and visibility. The tragedy that follows is all the greater.

BSA: scepter (“a rod or staff, a sceptre”): The branches were strong enough to become symbols of royal rule.

Ezekiel 19:12

Then the vine is torn up in fury and thrown to the ground. The scorching east wind dries its fruit, and its branches wither and burn. This is the judgment God allowed to fall on the royal house through Babylon. Glory without faithfulness could not last.

BSA: east wind (“a burning desert wind”): The hot wind from the desert shrivels the vine, a picture of invading power from the east. uprooted (“plucked up, torn away”): The nation was pulled out of its own soil, meaning exile from the land.

See also: Hosea 13:15.

Ezekiel 19:13

The vine now stands in a dry, thirsty wilderness. What once grew by abundant water now struggles in barren ground. This describes the exiles in Babylon and the royal house cut off from its land. The contrast with verse 10 is painful and deliberate.

BSA: wilderness (“desert, waste land”): It is the opposite of the watered place where the vine began, a place of loss and exile.

Ezekiel 19:14

Fire comes from the vine’s own main branch and burns its fruit. No strong branch is left for a scepter. Many see this as Zedekiah, whose rebellion brought ruin on his own house. The song closes as a lament, yet it leaves room to ask where God’s promise to David will go next.

BSA: branch (“a staff of authority”): The very source of royal authority became the source of destruction. lament (“a dirge, a song of sorrow”): The chapter ends by naming itself as a song of mourning to be sung again.

See also: 2 Samuel 7:16; Isaiah 11:1.