Ezekiel 19:10-14 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

Judah the Vine. The figure changes, as in Genesis 49:8-12, from lion to vine, and the king whose destiny is foreshadowed is this time Zedekiah. Judah is described as a fruitful vine, one of whose mighty branches (Zedekiah) became a royal sceptre (Ezekiel 19:11). But the vine was violently uprooted, hurled to the ground, withered by the fury of the scorching east wind a plain allusion to the destruction of Judah by Babylon. It is to be noted, however, that the fire which consumed her issued from one of her own branches a pointed allusion to the treachery of Zedekiah, at which Ezekiel has already expressed his horror (Ezekiel 17:19). Thus no more than his predecessors will Zedekiah save the state: he and it will perish.

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.