THE closing chapter of the section of Ezekiel’s prophies, which began with chapter 8, views the last years of the history of Israel (here Judah, the remnant of Israel) before the removal of the last of the people into captivity. The closing verse expresses the theme of the chapter, “This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.”
The mother, a lioness (verse 2) refers to Israel in the place which God had given. His people, when under David and Solon the kingdom rose to a pinnacle of glory,—shortly lost, it is true, because of idolatry; but for nearly four hundred years after Solomon’s death the house of David was permitted to reign at Jerusalem.
The young lion of verse 3 is unmistakably Jehoahaz, first of the godly Josiah’s sons to take the throne after their father’s death, in battle (2 Chronicles 35, 36). Short though his reign was (only 3 months) this young man did evil in the sight of Jehovah according to all that his fathers had dune (2 Kings 23). Pharaohnecho imprisoned him and afterward carried him to Egypt, and there he died.
The, history of Jehoiakim, second of Josiah’s sons to reign over Judah is omitted from chapter 19; his wickedness exceeded that of his brother (2 Kings 23:37-24:5; Jer. 22:13-19), and at his death he was not even given proper burial. If there were no other reason, this alone would explain the omission of Jehoiakim’s reign from our chapter.
Verse 5 introduces the son of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, whose three months’ reign was ended when the king of Babylon took him a prisoner to his city, to remain such for 37 years, until Nebuchadnezzar’s death (2 Kings 35:27-30). After Jehoiachin’s removal, his uncle Zedekiah was given the throne, becoming Judah’s last king of the royal line of David, until the birth of One in Bethlehem of Judea troubled the Edomite then sitting on the throne, and all Jerusalem with him (Matt. 2).
Zedekiah’s reign had yet a few years remaining when Ezekiel’s prophecy was uttered, and he is not distinctly referred to in our chapter, though his and his nephew’s records may be combined, being similar in character, in the reference to Jechoniah (verses 5 to 9).
Verse 10 returns to the nation of Israel as God had established it: like a fruitful vine planted by the waters and full of branches. There was fitness then for rule, but God will not allow His name to be linked with idolatry and the kindred evils practiced by the degraded worshipers of false gods, and verse 12 declares what had happened to that luxuriant vine.
Now the vine is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground, and a fire is gone out of a rod of its branches. What fruit there was for God had been destroyed by the wickedness of the king. His real power was little now, for he was a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar, who permitted him to reign over the few left in the land of Israel, spared from the captivity.
The cause of Israel’s decline is not named here; it has been fully shown on the pages of Old Testament history and prophecy. A single word is enough to explain the ruin of God’s earthly people: SIN.
ML-10/13/1935