Ezekiel 19:1-9 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Ezekiel 19. Dirge Over the Kings. From a chapter which has the ring almost of dogmatic theology, we pass to one of pure elegiac poetry, in which Ezekiel deals a death-blow to the vain hopes reposed in the monarchy (cf. Ezekiel 12:1-15, Ezekiel 17).

Ezekiel 19:1-9. Judah the Lioness. Mother Judah is compared to a lioness, and the kings are her whelps. Ezekiel 19:1-9 celebrates the sorrowful fate of Jehoahaz (Ezekiel 19:2-4) and Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 19:5-9), each of whom was carried into exile after a reign of only three months Jehoahaz to Egypt in 608, Jehoiachin to Babylon in 597 B.C. The might of Judah and her kings is idealised in this lament, and the fate of the monarchs is described in terms appropriate to the capture of a lion (Ezekiel 19:4, Ezekiel 8 f.) dangerous beasts were sometimes trapped in pits. (In Ezekiel 19:4 heard of should be clamoured against, in Ezekiel 19:5 waited practically = waited in vain, but the word is quite uncertain. In Ezekiel 19:7 knew should perhaps be ravaged.) The melancholy cadence of the last sentence is very fine

That his voice should be heard no more

On the mountains of Israel.

Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 19:1

Ezekiel 19:1-9

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

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

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

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

5 Now 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.

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

7 And 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.

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

9 And they put him in ward in chains,a 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.