Ezekiel 19

Ezekiel 19:2

And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

What is Judea thy mother, even the whole land wherein thou dwellest? She is no better than a fierce and cruel lioness: she consorted with other merciless and cruel nations, and framed herself and her people accordingly.

Ezekiel 19:3

And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

She brought forth one amongst the rest, noted for a lion-like disposition, even Jehoahaz, the son of good Josiah, who tyrannized for a time over his people.

Ezekiel 19:4

The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

Insomuch as the neighbour nations heard the fame of his misgovernment; and set upon him, and took him violently away, and brought him captive in chains unto Egypt.

Ezekiel 19:5

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.

Then, when she saw herself disappointed of the hope of his success, she set up another of the seed royal, by the allowance of Pharaoh Necho; even Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.

Ezekiel 19:6

And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

And he ruled fiercely and wickedly amongst his people; and followed those courses of oppression and violence, which his brother had led him to.

Ezekiel 19:7

And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste

VOL. III. L. L. their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. And he usurped and took to himself their widowed palaces; and laid waste their populous cities, through his cruel extortions: yea, he made the whole land desolate; and, by his unmerciful exactions and cruel menaces, exhausted the fulness thereof.

Ezekiel 19:8

Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

Then the nations, being moved with his insolency, set against him on every side; and, both by force and policy, surprised him, and he was captived by them.

Ezekiel 19:10

Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by the reason of many waters.

Thy mother is like a vine in the time of her first peaceable plantation; set in a moist and fruitful soil; and thereupon yielded abundance of branches, and those branches abundance of grapes.

Ezekiel 19:11

And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height by the multitude of her branches.

And she brought forth many and potent princes, which bore rule over my people; and she grew populous and mighty, famous and renowned amongst the nations about her.

Ezekiel 19:12

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.

But now, through her unanswerableness to God’s proceedings with her and to her own good beginning, she is justly plucked up in fury, and cast down to the ground, and dried up, and withered, with the severe judgments of the Almighty: her princes and all those of her blood royal are consumed and utterly rooted out.

Ezekiel 19:13

And now she is planted in the wilderness, &c.

And now she is carried away in a woeful captivity, to be planted in the barren wilderness of Babylon.

Ezekiel 19:14

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.

And a destruction is risen from among themselves, even from the treachery of Zedekiah, which hath utterly consumed the remainders of her hopes; so that now, there is no more likelihood of any of the royal blood to be exalted to her government, &c.