Dirge over the princes of Judah The elegy represents the princes of Judah as young lions, reared among lions by the mother lioness, but caught in pits by the nations and carried away. The mother lioness cannot of course be the natural mother of the princes, but rather the people, Judah itself. Two... [ Continue Reading ]
Captivity of Jehoahaz in Egypt 2. How was thy mother a lioness! among the lions; In the midst of young lions she couched she reared her whelps. 3. And she brought up one of her whelps he grew a young lion; And he learned to catch the prey he devoured men. 4. And the nations heard regarding h... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehoiachin carried captive to Babylon The second young lion is Jehoiachin. The intermediate prince Jehoiakim could not be included in an elegy, because he died in peace. It is the princes of Israel whom foreign nations captured that are lamented. What is touched upon is more the humiliation and sor... [ Continue Reading ]
_in chains_ See Ezekiel 19:4. The elegiac measure is not maintained in this verse. Possibly the original form of the verse has not been preserved. If the words "they brought him into holds" were omitted, an elegiac verse, though less regular, would be restored.... [ Continue Reading ]
_is like a vine_ WAS like, in contrast to "but now she is planted in the wilderness" (Ezekiel 19:13). The "prince" of Israel is addressed, not any individual prince, but the kingship or royalty by whomsoever represented. The mother, as before, is the people or nationality of Israel. _in thy blood_... [ Continue Reading ]
The fate of Zedekiah and his country, on which he has brought ruin Israel was once a spreading vine by great waters; her branches rose into the clouds, and her rods were rulers" sceptres a powerful race of kings rose out of her. Now she is torn up and thrown down, carried into the wilderness, and p... [ Continue Reading ]
_sceptres … bare rule_ Or, FOR RULERS" SCEPTRES, i.e. royal sceptres. Out of Israel this vine there rose powerful native kings. _among the thick branches_ Or, into the clouds, cf. Ezekiel 31:3; Ezekiel 31:10; Ezekiel 31:14. The phrase is designedly hyperbolical, to express the power of Israel in ea... [ Continue Reading ]
Destruction of the vine, the nationality of Israel. The figures employed are usual, ch. Ezekiel 17:9-10; Ezekiel 31:12; Amos 9:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
The deportation of the people from their own land into conditions where national life cannot thrive.... [ Continue Reading ]
The fire that consumed the vine went out from her own rods. The royal house brought destruction on the nation as well as on itself. Reference is to the rebellion of Zedekiah. _gone out of a rod_ Possibly collective: out of the rods. The reference to Zedekiah is expressed generally in terms of the r... [ Continue Reading ]