19 1 The captivity of the kings of Judah signified by the lion’s whelps and by the lion. 10 The prosperity of the city of Jerusalem that is past, and the misery thereof that is present.

Thou also take up a lamentation for the [a]princes of Israel,

And say, Wherefore lay thy [b]mother as a lioness among the lions? she nourished her young ones among the lion’s whelps,

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

The [c]nations also heard of him, and he was taken in their nets, and they brought him in chains unto the land of Egypt.

Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, she took another of her [d]whelps, and made him a lion.

Which went among the lions, and became a lion, and learned to catch the prey, and he devoured [e]men.

And he knew their widows, and he destroyed their cities, and the land was wasted, and all that was therein by the noise of his roaring.

Then the [f]nations set against him on every side of the countries, and laid their nets for him: so he was taken in their pit.

And they put him in prison and in chains, and brought him to the king of Babel, and they put him in holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 Thy [g]mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she brought forth fruit and branches by the abundant waters,

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

12 But she was plucked up in wrath: she was cast down to the ground, and the [h]East wind dried up her fruit: her branches were broken and withered: as for the rod of her strength, the fire consumed it.

13 And now she is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty ground.

14 And fire is gone out [i]of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule: this is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 19:1 That is, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim Josiah’s sons, who for their pride and cruelty are compared unto lions.
  2. Ezekiel 19:2 To wit, Jehoahaz’s mother, or Jerusalem.
  3. Ezekiel 19:4 By Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, 2 Kings 23:33.
  4. Ezekiel 19:5 Which was Jehoiakim.
  5. Ezekiel 19:6 He slew of the prophets, and them that feared God, and ravished their wives.
  6. Ezekiel 19:8 Nebuchadnezzar with his great army which was gathered of divers nations.
  7. Ezekiel 19:10 He speaketh this in the reproach of this wicked king, in whose blood, that is, in the race of his predecessors, Jerusalem should have been blessed, according to God’s promise, and flourished as a fruitful vine.
  8. Ezekiel 19:12 Meaning, that the Chaldeans should destroy them as the East wind doth the fruit of the vine.
  9. Ezekiel 19:14 Destruction is come by Zedekiah, who was the occasion of this rebellion.

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