Thy mother is like a vine Here another similitude is made use of, and the Jewish nation is compared, as it frequently is in other places, to a vine. In thy blood So the Hebrew and Vulgate; but the LXX. read, ως ανθος εν ροα, as a flower on a pomegranate-tree; and Bishop Newcome, who supposes the LXX. to have read כרמן, and not בדמךְ, renders the clause, like a pomegranate, planted by the waters, &c. “The Jewish nation, whence the royal family had their original, was like a fruitful vine in a very flourishing condition.” And she had strong rods, &c. From her sprung valiant princes, fit to sway the sceptre. A rod or sceptre is an emblem of authority. Her stature was exalted among the thick branches Among the neighbouring kings and princes: see 2 Chronicles 32:23. The increase of the nation's power is expressed by this. But she was plucked up in fury God, in his anger, removed her out of her own land. She was cast down to the ground She was reduced to a contemptible state. The east wind dried up her fruit The Chaldean forces ravaged and depopulated the country; her strong rods were broken Her kings and princes were subdued, and made captives. The fire consumed them The divine anger brought them to destruction, as fire consumes the branches of a tree when it is withered. And now she is planted in the wilderness A great part of her people are carried captive, where their condition is as much different from what it was formerly, as the condition of a tree is when it is removed out of a rich soil into a dry and barren ground. The Jews suffered several captivities before that final one which ended in the destruction of their temple and government. And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches This is spoken of Zedekiah's breaking his oath of fidelity to the king of Babylon, which was the occasion of the destruction of the royal family, and the entire ruin of the government. This is a lamentation, &c. This is matter of present lamentation, and shall be so to after ages.
Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 19:10
Ezekiel 19:10-14
10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And 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.
12 But 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.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And 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.