EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 19:10-14. The prophet laments for the destruction of the kingdom, and banishment of the people, under the parable of a wasted vine.
Ezekiel 19:10. “Like a vine in thy blood.” The royal vine of Judah was torn up when Jehoiachin was carried captive to Babylon. That vine was planted afresh in the person of Zedekiah, so that the life of the whole plant depended upon him. The very sap of that royal tree was his blood. Some render, “in thy likeness;” but this is forced, and gives no suitable meaning.
Ezekiel 19:11. “Strong rods.” “These represent princes of the royal house. In her prosperous state, the Jewish kingdom, so far from resembling one of those vines which creep upon the ground, was comparable to one trained up by the side of a wall, or supported by a tree. Some of these are carried to a great height, such as that mentioned by Schulz, the stem of which was a foot and a-half in diameter, and about thirty feet high, while its branches formed a tent of upwards of fifty feet square.”—(Henderson.) “Thick branches.” The branches of forest trees. The once lowly vine now appears towering above oaks and cedars, yet is still without fruit (Ezekiel 15:6).
Ezekiel 19:12. “But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground.” “Without the intervention of anything further, there follows its splendid growth, like a lightning flash from the clear heavens, the complete overthrow of the vine, i.e. of Jerusalem—Judah, the birth-place of kings, and therewith the Davidic kingdom. While Ezekiel 19:2-9 bewailed the existing kings, both as bearers of the Davidic royalty, and at the same time as suggestive, by their fate, to the actual king; now Zedekiah, as he with whom the Davidic kingdom is subverted, becomes the subject of the lament, just as if everything had already happened.”—(Lange).
Ezekiel 19:13. “And now she is planted in the wilderness.” Figuratively describes the captivity, when David’s stock was transplanted into the “wilderness” of Babylonia (Ezekiel 20:35).
Ezekiel 19:14. “And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit.” Zedekiah was the vain-glorious rod of this vine. The very rod itself supplied the fire which burned up the whole tree. “It was his revolt from Nebuchadnezzar which caused that monarch to march his army into Judea, take Jerusalem, and carry the Jews captive to Babylon. Thus an end was put to the vine and its branches—a consummation which every Jewish patriot must deeply have bewailed.”—(Henderson.) “This is for a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.” “The lamentation is (properly was, with prophetic anticipation of the future) for a lamentation: it is not the fancy of a gloomy seer, but the prediction of a lamentation, which will actually flow in a thousand voices from the mouth of the people. What Ezekiel here pronounces, the people will too soon be compelled to repeat after him. His lamentation is, as it were, the sowing, out of which a rich harvest of lamentation grows. At present the sky is full of joyous music to the people; but very soon it will be said: “My harp is turned to mourning, and my flute to the voice of weeping.”—(Hengstenberg.)
HOMILETICS
LAMENTATION FOR THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH
Two things concerning the fate of the kingdom of Judah, most of all, sorely touched the prophet’s mind and heart.
I. It was fallen from a high estate. Judah was once a goodly vine, and blest above all others. She was the planting of the Lord. Her elevation to the greatest privileges serves sadly to reveal the depth of her fall.
II. It was doomed to destruction. The destruction was sudden and overwhelming. For immediately before she was full of happiness and splendour, great among the nations, and wielding the rod of power. Their destruction was brought about by the wrath of God. “She was plucked up in fury” (Ezekiel 19:12). When nations cease to acknowledge God, He turns the glory and growth of centuries into a desert. National sins spread like fire, and wrap whole kingdoms in the flames of destruction. The end of sin is “lamentation”—for individuals, for nations. Judah’s kingdom fell, like others before and after it, because it failed to maintain righteousness. There is only one king who can deliver the nations and reign over them for ever and ever. “The Messianic hope was bound up with the Davidic kingdom, whose subversion is here illustrated, and its fulfilment is shown in this, that He who appeared in the world, declared, not without reference to this chapter,’ I am the true vine’ ” (Lange).
1. States and kingdoms, ruined in times of war and trouble, flourish again in times of quiet and silence. Tyranny, oppression, wars, pull down, root up, destroy; but when there is peace and rest, it is otherwise. “They built and prospered,” and why? they had “rest on every side.” When roaring lions are taken away, and men of peaceable and quiet spirits succeed, then the vine grows, then the land prospers, then breaches are repaired.
2. It is through the goodness and blessing of God that wasted kingdoms do become as vines, and flourish again. “Thy mother is like a vine, fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.” God watered the kingdom with blessings; He gave peace, He gave the poor strength to labour, He rained upon them, and gave sap to the vine, that she was fruitful. When God lays waste his vineyards, then He commands “the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” (Isaiah 5:6); but when He causes it to flourish, then He calls forth the rain, He moistens the spirits of men of all sorts, to contribute their help, thoughts and counsels for the good of the kingdom. He stirs up the spirits of men to be doing for the public; He gives people planted by Him many waters, many blessings.
3. When mercies are multiplied, men are apt to abuse them, and swell with the enjoyment of them. This metaphysical vine, the kingdom of Judah, had “strong rods her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.” She grew up again to a height, greatness. She had a multitude of branches, variety of mercies, and these swelled her so, that she became proud, insolent, and despised others. Prosperity is a dangerous thing, and hath hazarded many. The Babylonian kingdom was so rich, great, populous, and plentiful that it was called “the lady of kingdoms,” and she herself said, “I shall be a lady for ever.” She prided herself in her prosperity (Isaiah 47:5; Isaiah 47:7), so spiritual Babylon (Revelation 18:7). “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” After Hezekiah had received many mercies, “his heart was lifted up” (2 Chronicles 32:23-25). Rehoboam, when he was strengthend in the kingdom, “forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him; “here was a sad effect of prosperity (2 Chronicles 12:1). This people were seldom the better for mercies and blessings bestowed upon them; “I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyest not my voice” (Jeremiah 22:21). She had forgotten the caution the Lord gave her in the days of her infancy (Deuteronomy 8:11-14).—(Greenhill).
“And now she is planted in the wilderness.” This wilderness was Babylon, which was a fruitful, pleasant, and well-watered country; the city and land were the “glory of kingdoms (Isaiah 13:19). It had variety of rivers (Psalms 137:1). Now if this were the nature of the country, how is it here called a wilderness? It is so called, not in respect of itself, but in reference to the Jews, who being captives therein, were as in a wilderness. In a wilderness, a man is destitute of all comforts and exposed to many dangers; so were the Jews in Babylon.
1. They were destitute of comforts. They came naked into Babylon, where they were amongst a people of a barbarous and unknown tongue, that knew nothing of God; there they had no form of a Church or State; they had no life, but were as dry bones (Ezekiel 37:11). There they were captives; Babylon was a prison unto them, and prisons of what kind soever are not pleasing. Prisoners endure much hunger and thirst, and doubtless so did the Jews in Babylon. Though there were plenty, yet they had little enough, and therefore it was a “dry and thirsty land” to them.
2. They were exposed to many dangers. They were amongst those that mocked and hated them. The Babylonians were “bitter and hasty, terrible and dreadful” (Habakkuk 1:6-7). They were like wild beasts in the wilderness, and sought, upon all occasions, to make a prey of the poor captive Jews. They got the three children into the fiery furnace, Daniel into the lion’s den, and Haman attempted the total ruin of them. “She is planted.” Before (Ezekiel 19:12), it is said, “the fire consumed them.” What is consumed in the fire is burnt to ashes, and how can that be planted? He doth not say the whole vine was burnt, but her “strong rods” were broken off and burnt; some were burnt and consumed by famine, some by the plague, some by the sword (2 Chronicles 36:17). “The king of the Chaldees slew their young men with the sword;” but “they that escaped the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons” (2 Chronicles 36:20). If it should be granted that the whole vine was dried up, withered, and burnt to ashes, yet these words may bear a good and sound sense, viz., thus:—they may be understood of Jehoiachin and those that were with him in Babylon at that time when they were spoken; for the words run in the present tense, “she is planted,” not, she shall be planted, for Zedekiah and those that escaped the sword were carried alter this prophecy to Babylon.—(Greenhill.)