Ezekiel 19

1-14 A Lamentation

Your mother was a lioness who raised one of her cubs to catch prey and devour humans, but the nations came up against him and he was caught in their pit, brought with hooks into Egypt.

So she took another of her cubs and made him prowl among the lions; he learned to catch prey and devour people, laying waste their towns. The land was appalled by his roaring. Other nations caught them in their net and with hooks brought him to the king of Babylon, where his voice was heard no more.

Your mother was like a fruitful vine, towering above the other vines, but it was plucked up and cast down to the ground, dried up, withered, and burned. Nothing remains of its stem, “no scepter for ruling.”

From John Wesley’s explanatory notes:

The mother was Judea, who prostituted herself with the nations around; the prince was Jehoahaz, second son of Josiah, taken captive by Pharaoh-Neco (2 Kings 23:31-37).

The second lion cub was Jehoahaz’s brother Jehoiachim,, who was placed on the throne by Pharaoh, reigning for 11 years. Babylon enslaved him, and other nations – Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites – destroyed Judah (2 Kings 24:1-7). The first Babylonian captivity came during the reign of Jehoiachim’s son, Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:8-20)

The third prophecy is to be of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. The punishment comes not so much from Babylon as from God (2 Kings 24:20).

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