Ezekiel 19

Ezekiel 19:1-9

The kingdom of Judah, and family of David, abandoned to violence and oppression, associated themselves with their Heathen neighbours, their princes and nobles, and learned their ways. Jeliouhaz, son of 97 108 king Josiah, was scarcely enthroned by the nation when he became a tyrannical oppressor. But the Egyptians quickly dethroned him, and carried him off a prisoner. The Jews, finding that there was no hope of his restoration, or of freeing themselves from their dependance on the Egyptians, did, with their consent, make Jehoiakim their king. Conversing with his heathen neighbours, he soon became a most cruel oppressor, and rendered his kingdom every where miserable by his tyrannical rage. The Chaldeans and their allies quickly invaded the country, and, by making him their prisoner, restrained his oppressive cruelties. Not long after, they transported to Babylon king Jehoiachin his son, and almost all the princes of Judah; and, after eleven years more, Zedekiah; and laid the land desolate

Ezekiel 19:10-14

Once the Jewish state and family of David wonderfully flourished, had many valiant princes fit to sway the sceptre, and in glory and power could have vied with any of the neighbouring nations. But, by the Egyptians, and especially by the Assyrians and Chaldeans from the east, the nation is wholly ruined, and the princes either murdered or carried captive; and now the poor remains of the nation are miserable captives in Babylon. And king Zedekiah, by his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, hath occasioned the ruin of his family and nation; and never shall any of his family be honoured with an earthly sceptre

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIX.—Faithful ministers have often mournful work put into their hands to declare the awful consequences of sin. It is just and common for those, who terrified and enslaved others, to be affrighted and enslaved in their turn. And they, who fill up the measure of their father’s sins, lay up sorrows and lasting matter of lamentation for their children