Ezekiel 19:1-14--A Lament for the Princes of Israel

Ezekiel 19
English Standard Version

A Lament for the Princes of Israel
19 And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:

What was your mother? A lioness!
    Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
    she reared her cubs.
3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men.
4 The nations heard about him;
    he was caught in their pit,
and they brought him with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
    that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
    and made him a young lion.
6 He prowled among the lions;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men,
7 and seized their widows.
    He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
    at the sound of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him
    from provinces on every side;
they spread their net over him;
    he was taken in their pit.
9 With hooks they put him in a cage
    and brought him to the king of Babylon;
    they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
    on the mountains of Israel.

10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard
    planted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches
    by reason of abundant water.
11 Its strong stems became
    rulers' scepters;
it towered aloft
    among the thick boughs;
it was seen in its height
    with the mass of its branches.
12 But the vine was plucked up in fury,
    cast down to the ground;
the east wind dried up its fruit;
    they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem,
    fire consumed it.
13 Now it is planted in the wilderness,
    in a dry and thirsty land.
14 And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
    has consumed its fruit,
so that there remains in it no strong stem,
    no scepter for ruling.

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The kings of Judah in these days were not seen as shepherds that defended and cared for the sheep, but they were seen as young lions who prowled, hunted, stalked, killed and devoured their prey.  Sometimes their prey were the other nations, but sometimes they were the very people they were supposed to protect.  The people of Israel feared the kings and the other nations feared them, but felt that if they gathered together, they could capture these menacing kings and remove the threat that they posed to their nation, the other nations around them, and even to the nation of Israel.

The first king alluded to here is King Jehoahaz (see 2 Kings 23:31-35).  He was taken captive by Pharaoh Necro and the land of Judah was made to pay tribute to the kingdom of Egypt.  The second "young lion" mentioned is Jehoiachin (Jehoiakim is not one of the young lions mentioned here though he did serve as king between these two "young lions" because he was not seized by the other nations, but that did happen to Jehoikim's son Jehoiachin).   See the account of Jehoiachin's capture in 2 Kings 24:10-17.  Eventually, Jehoiachin was treated with honor towards the end of his life, and treated as a member of the royal family of Babylon.  He would eat at the king's table and was given an allowance for all of his needs to be taken care of--food clothing, and and other needs were paid for out of the royal treasury as they would be for any prince.  He would never return to the land of Israel though.

The royal line of the kings of Israel seemed to be consumed and destroyed (it was not, as we see the future governors would be from the royal line and and Joseph, husband to Mary, mother to Jesus was from that line).  It looked as if the enemies of God had won that day it looked as if the promises that God had made to His people for Land, descendants, and possessions were all destroyed in an instant.  Furthermore, it looked like the promise of a Messiah would now be impossible.  Yet, God had already taken a small number of people and made them into a great number of people already multiple times in history.  Starting with Adam and Eve, the world grew to be very populated before the time of the Flood.  Then the LORD saved Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives (eight people) in His Ark, and the whole world was repopulated through them.  The LORD chose Abraham and Sarah to make a great nation out of (and Abraham fathered many other nations as well, living up to his name meaning "Great Father").  The LORD took Jacob and his sons and their families (70 in all) and after 400 years of living in Egypt, they became a great multitude and made them a nation in a day.  It was at that time that they began to know Him as their Redeemer and as their Savior.  Once again, the LORD will need to act to provide a new king of Exodus for them to lead them out of Exile.  Before, they had only been a family and never a nation.  Now they are a nation in Exile, and they will need to be made into a people and nation again and restored to their covenant with the LORD and restored to the Land.  It will be a multi-generational event.

The once strong vine of the kingdom of Israel is now hanging on for dear life--like it is in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty land.  It is drying up and will die and be good for nothing but to be consumed by fire.  Already, the fire has consumed it's outer branches and its fruit, but will it destroy the vine and its root?  Will the LORD completely destroy and/or abandon His covenant people?  There doesn't appear to be any life left in vine nor does there appear to be another branch from which a scepter (a king) will come, but we know that Jesus will be the Root of Jesse, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and the Righteous Branch whose scepter will never pass from between His feet (His kingdom will be without end).  This looks like the end, but the LORD is not finished with the story yet, and He loves surprise endings.