Ezekiel 19:1,2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel The expression alludes to the mournful songs sung at funerals. Such a lamentation the prophet is directed to apply to the mournful condition of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. And say, What is thy mother? What resemblance shall I use to express the nature, deportment, and state of the mother of these princes, namely, Judea, or the Jewish nation? The prophet proposes a question that may be applied to each prince distinctly. A lioness Here is an allusion, says Grotius, to Genesis 49:9, where Judah is represented under the emblem of a lion, and Judea was among the nations like a lioness among the beasts of the forest; she had strength and sovereignty. And the young lions which she produced are the princes, Josiah's successors, whose life and disgraces the prophet here points out. She lay down among the lions She remained in grandeur and security in the neighbourhood of many powerful kings. She nourished her whelps among lions She multiplied and increased in power, notwithstanding the envy of all the neighbouring nations.