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 WENT UP AND DOWN AMONG THE LIONS - imitated the recklessness, oppression, injustice, covetousness, and tyranny of the surrounding kings (Jeremiah 22:13). AND LEARNED TO CATCH THE PREY - to do evil, gratifying his lusts by oppression ()....

Ezekiel confirms what I have already briefly touched on, that this second lion was no less savage and cruel than the former, of which he had spoken. As to the phrase, _he walked among lions_, it means that his government was tyrannical, since there was then such foul barbarity in those regions, that, kings were scarcely human in their conduct. Since, therefore, kings were then everywhere like lions, the Prophet says that Jehoiakim was not different from them, but in every sense their ally. _He walked_, therefore, _he says, in the midst of lions_, since he imitated their ferocity, which at length he expresses more clearly, _that he became a lion, and was taught to seize his prey_, so as to devour not only animals, but men, thus marking his extreme cruelty. He afterwards adds —...

1-9 Ezekiel is to compare the kingdom of Judah to a lioness. He must compare the kings of Judah to a lion's whelps; they were cruel and oppressive to their own subjects. The righteousness of God is to be acknowledged, when those who have terrified and enslaved others, are themselves terrified and enslaved. When professors of religion form connexions with ungodly persons, their children usually grow up following after the maxims and fashions of a wicked world. Advancement to authority discovers the ambition and selfishness of men's hearts; and those who spend their lives in mischief, generally end them by violence....

Verse Ezekiel 19:6. _AND HE WENT UP AND DOWN AMONG THE LIONS_] He became a perfect heathen, and made Judea as idolatrous as any of the surrounding nations. He reigned _eleven_ years, a monster of iniquity, 2 Kings 23:30, c....

CHAINS - See the marginal rendering to Ezekiel 19:9 and Isaiah 27:9, note. Ezekiel 19:5 ANOTHER - Jehoiachin who soon showed himself no less unworthy than Jehoahaz. The “waiting” of the people was during the absence of their rightful lord Jehoahaz, a captive in Egypt while Jehoiakim, whom they deemed an usurper, was on the throne. It was not until Jehoiachin succeeded, that they seemed to themselves to have a monarch of their own 2 Kings 24:6. Ezekiel 19:7...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 19:1 The two sections of this chapter—Ezekiel 19:1, Ezekiel 19:10 -are respectively two parables of the same type as that of Ezekiel 2:10. The former telling nearly the same story under a different imagery, the latter a reproduction of the same imagery, with a slightly different application. Lamentation. The same word as that used in Ezekiel 2:10. The whole chapter finds a parallel in Jeremiah's review of Josiah's successors ...

AND HE WENT UP AND DOWN AMONG THE LIONS,.... The kings, as the Targum; kings of neighbouring nations, as Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and sometimes he was subject to the one, and sometimes to the offer: and his going up and down among them may denote his continuance as a king; for whereas his brother reigned but three months, he reigned eleven years: HE BECAME A YOUNG LION; an oppressive prince, a cruel and tyrannical king: AND LEARNED TO CATCH THE PREY, [AND] DEVOURED MEN; he was notorious for his acts of injustice and arbitrary power; for the detaining the wages of workmen, and for his oppression, violence, and rapine, and shedding of innocent blood, Jeremiah 22:13....

EZEKIEL 19. DIRGE OVER THE KINGS. From a chapter which has the ring almost of dogmatic theology, we pass to one of pure elegiac poetry, in which Ezekiel deals a death-blow to the vain hopes reposed in the monarchy (_cf. Ezekiel 12:1_, Ezekiel 17). EZEKIEL 19:1. JUDAH THE LIONESS. Mother Judah is compared to a lioness, and the kings are her whelps. Ezekiel 19:1 celebrates the sorrowful fate of Jehoahaz (Ezekiel 19:2) and Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 19:5), each of whom was carried into exile after a reign of only three months Jehoahaz to E

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 sorrow of Israel, the mother lioness, in her young lions being captured, than the fate of the two _persons_. The elegy is a national one, cf. on Ezekiel 19:1. 5. And she saw that she had waited her hope was lost; And she took another of her whelps she made him a young lion. 6. And he walked among the lions he grew a young lion, And he learned to catch the prey he devoured men. 7. And he broke down their palaces he wasted their cities; And the land and its fulness was desolate at the noise of his roaring. 8. Then the natio

II. BITTER DIRGES 19:1-14 There is a time for a preacher to rebuke his audience; there is also a time for him to weep with them and for them. In chapter 19 Ezekiel becomes a sympathetic mourner. God is grieved over the impending fate of Jerusalem, and Ezekiel is told to give vent to his emotions as a means of illustrating the divine agony. The dirge falls into two sections. Ezekiel 19:1-9 lament the fate of Judah's last kings; Ezekiel 19:10-14 bewail the fall of Jerusalem. A. Dirge Over Judah's Kings 19:1-9 TRANSLATION (1) And as for you, take up a lamentation concerning the princes of Israel, (2) and say, How your mother was a lioness; among the lions she crouched, in the midst of the young lions she reared her whelps! (3) And she brought up one of her whelps, he bec