Ezekiel 19

Now sing a funeral song for the leaders of Israel,

1Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

NoteA "lamentation" (Hebrew *qinah*) was a formal funeral song, chanted over the dead with a distinctive limping rhythm, a long line answered by a short one. Ezekiel is told to sing one over rulers who are not yet dead. "Princes" renders a word Ezekiel uses throughout his book for the rulers of Judah in place of "king."

2and say: What was your mother? She was a lioness among lions. She lay down among the young lions and raised her cubs.

2And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

NoteThe whole chapter is a riddle-picture, and it never says who the mother is: she may stand for the royal family descended from David, or for the nation of Judah, or for Jerusalem itself. The lion was a standard emblem of royalty across the ancient Near East, and Judah in particular is called a lion's cub in Jacob's blessing (Genesis 49:9). The cubs are successive kings.

3She raised one of her cubs, and he grew into a young lion. He learned to tear apart the animals he hunted, and he ate people.

3And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

NoteA lion "learning to catch the prey" and "devouring men" is ordinary ancient language for a king who makes war and rules by force; it is not a comment on his diet.

4The nations heard about him. He was caught in their pit, and they dragged him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

4The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

NoteAssyrian and Babylonian carvings show prisoners led away by a ring or hook driven through the nose or lip; that is the practice behind KJV's "chains." The king taken to Egypt is not named here. Readers would likely have thought of Jehoahaz, who reigned three months in 609 BC before Pharaoh Neco deposed him and carried him to Egypt.

5When the lioness saw that she had waited for nothing and her hope was gone, she took another of her cubs and made him into a young lion.

5Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

6He prowled among the lions and became a young lion. He learned to tear apart the animals he hunted, and he ate people.

6And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

7He broke down their strongholds and left their cities in ruins. The land and everything in it was filled with horror at the noise of his roaring.

7And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

NoteThe Hebrew of this line is uncertain. One letter's difference separates "he knew their widows" (which KJV read as "he knew their desolate palaces") from "he broke down their strongholds," the reading most modern versions follow. "The fulness thereof" means everything the land contained.

8Then the nations came against him from the provinces on every side. They spread their net over him, and he was caught in their pit.

8Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

Note"Provinces" are the administrative districts an empire was divided into; the picture is of troops levied from every corner of a great kingdom and converging on one animal.

9With hooks they put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They locked him away, so his roar was heard no more on the mountains of Israel.

9And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

NoteKJV's "ward" means custody, and "holds" means a fortress or prison. As in verse 4, the "chains" are hooks. This second king is also unnamed: he may be Jehoiachin, deported to Babylon in 597 BC, or Zedekiah, taken in 587 BC after Jerusalem fell.

10Your mother was like a grapevine in your vineyard, planted beside the water. She was full of fruit and full of branches, because there was plenty of water.

10Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. The text as written says "in your blood," which is what KJV prints; many read it as a nearly identical word meaning "in your vineyard," and others as "in your likeness." The rendering picks one option, but the original is genuinely unclear.

11She had strong branches, good for making the staffs that rulers carry. She grew taller than the thick branches around her, and she stood out for her height and her many branches.

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

NoteA scepter was the decorated staff a ruler held as the visible sign of his authority. The same Hebrew word covers both a branch or rod and a ruler's staff, so the vine's strong shoots and the kings themselves are a single image rather than a comparison.

12But she was pulled up by the roots in anger and thrown down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong branches were torn off and withered, and fire burned them up.

12But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

NoteThe east wind is the sirocco off the desert, searing, dry, and capable of shrivelling vegetation in a single day. In the prophets it also regularly carries the sense of an invading army coming from the east.

13Now she is planted in the desert, in dry and thirsty ground.

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

NoteReplanting a vine in desert ground is the picture used for deportation: the nation moved out of its watered land and into Babylon.

14Fire has gone out from one of her branches and has burned up her fruit. She has no strong branch left that could be a ruler's staff. This is a funeral song, and it is to be used as a funeral song.

14And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

NoteFire breaking out of one of the plant's own branches and burning up the plant means ruin coming from inside the royal family rather than from a foreign army. A similar image is used in Jotham's fable about the trees choosing a king (Judges 9:15, 20). The closing line means the poem is not merely called a lament but is meant to be sung as one.