Ezekiel 19

Chap. XIX. Ver. 1—14. A lamentation for the princes of Israel.—Ezekiel was a great master of the parabolic kind of writing, of which this chapter contains two beautiful examples. Ver. 1 to 9, the Prophet laments the sad catastrophe of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, and then, ver. 10 to 14, he describes the desolation and captivity of the whole nation. In the first parable, the lioness is the land of Judea, the first of the young lions; the present text, however, seems to admit a very good sense.—He 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. ((2 Kings 24:1), &c.) 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.

Notes on the verses

Cast away your transgressions.—Not only cease from sin, but with indignation throw it away as a loathsome, pernicious thing, or as a burden that will sink you.—Make you a new heart.—As God requires, so it is the property of true repentance, that it does frame the heart against its own sins. Open your eyes, and let the clear convincing light of my words, arguments, and proceedings, shine upon you; do not obstinately harden your hearts.—Pool. Making a new heart and repentance, or the turning away from transgression, are in Ezekiel the same thing. It is therefore proper to call upon a sinner to repent, and as proper to call upon him to make a new heart. His duty does not militate against the grace of God.

‘(Ezekiel 19)—This chapter is poetical throughout; the eleven preceding chapters are in prose. Ver. 2. A lioness.—{See (Genesis 49:9). Judea which possessed strength, courage, and sovereignty.—Loydolon among lions.—Had confederacy with the neighbouring kings and learnt their manners.—Nourished her whelps.—The sons of Josiah, who learnt to be oppressive tyrants from the surrounding princes.—Bagster. (Genesis 49:9). car Ver. 3. One of her whelps.—{Jehoahaz, made king instead of Josiah, who became cruel and oppressive.}—Bagster. Ver. 4. Taken in their pit.—{Taken prisoner by Pharaoh-necho, and brought Ver. 5. Another of her whelps.—Jehoiakim, (or Eliakim) (2 Kings 23:34). Ver. 6. Went up and down, &c.—{Became a perfect heathen: he reigned 11 years, a monster of iniquity.}—Bagster. Ver. 7.

And he knew, &c.—On the authority of some ancient versions and a few MSS., Newcome and Boothroyd read, ‘He brought evil on their pastures, found out, explored, their “* widowed,” i.e. desolate, deserted: Ver. 8. In their pit.—This alludes to a covered pit, employed to snare wild beasts. Ver. 9. Into holds.—Newcome, “Strong holds;” i.e. confined him. Ver. 10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood.—The latter part of this sentence is hard to explain. Some of the Hebrew letters being very similar, has led Newcome and others to suppose, that instead of it, we should read, “As a vine—as a pomegranate;” which is countenanced by the LXX.; and other renderings have been suggested, with none of which is the writer satisfied; and if he suggests another, it may be not more satisfactory to others.

It is certain that blood is sometimes used for manure to fruit trees, (see Ency. Brit.) and if so used by the ancients, might, with “the waters,” be an additional cause of fruitfulness. It is also true that the kingdom of Israel was planted in the blood of the Canaanites, and other enemies. This, however, is only offered in preference to conjectural corrections of the text, which the Author is always reluctant to admit into the Cottage Bible. Ver. 11. Strong rods for sceptres.—This implied what was unusual in the vine, ((Ezekiel 15:3).) for sceptres were sometimes used for walking sticks, (Orient. Cust. No. 1118,) and even to dig with. See exposition of (Numbers 21:17). &c.—[Many powerful sovereigns, who rendered Judah very considerable Ver.

12. Plucked up.—{The kingdom was entirely ruined, and her princes cut off.}—Bagster. Ver. 13. In the wilderness.—{In Chaldea, whither they were carried captive.}—Bagster. Ver. 14. A fire is gone forth.—May allude to the conspiracy of Ishmael against Gedaliah. (Jeremiah 41:2).; (Ezekiel 15:7).; or, as some think, to the rebellion of Zedekiah, (2 Kings 24:20).