Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 19:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezekiel 19:13. And now she is planted in the wilderness — In the land of Chaldea, whither the people have been carried captives; and which, compared with their own land, was to them a dreary wilderness.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Mourning for Judah’s kings (19:1-14)

Although the prophet realized that God’s judgment on the sinful people of Judah was fitting, he felt sorry for those Judean kings who fell victim to the foreign invaders (19:1). Judah was like a mother lion whose young lions became kings to rule over nations. However, when Egypt in 609 BC gained control of the region, Judah’s king Jehoahaz was captured, bound and taken to Egypt, where he later died (2-4; see 2 Kings 23:31-34).

The next ‘lion’ had all the fierce and aggressive characteristics of Judah’s next king, Jehoiakim (5-8; see 2 Kings 23:36-37; 2 Kings 24:1; Jeremiah 22:13-19). Unlike the kings before and after him, Jehoiakim died not in a foreign country but in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 22:19). His son and successor, Jehoiachin, was captured and taken prisoner to Babylon. Although Jehoiachin reigned only three months, he showed he had the same evil characteristics as his father (9; see 2 Kings 24:8-15).

Judah is pictured also as a strong healthy vine, and her kings as fruitful branches of that vine. But the ‘vine’ withered and was taken, along with its last rightful king, Jehoiachin, into the dry and thirsty land of Babylon (10-13). Back in Jerusalem the king appointed by Babylon proved to be a ‘fire’ who destroyed the little that remained of the vine. Through Zedekiah both the nation and the Davidic line of kings came to an end (14; see 2 Kings 24:20-21).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Thy mother was like a vine, in thy blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. And it had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches. but it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit: the strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them. And now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. And fire has gone out of the rods of the branches, it hath devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation."

Here is the second dirge; the imagery is changed. In the first, the likeness of Israel was that of a den of ferocious lion cubs; here the comparison is with a vine that is ripped up from its favorable place, transferred to a dry and thirsty land, and burned up through the fire that comes out of her own branches (the princes), one of whom, namely, Zedekiah, following the advice of the others, rebelled against his suzerain lord and precipitated the ruin of the whole nation.

"The mother in both lamentations is the same, that is, the nation of Israel."J. B. Thompson, p. 154,

"Strong rods (branches) for sceptres of them that bare rule" "This is a reference to the successive kings of Judah."F. F. Bruce in the New Layman's Bible Commentary. p. 879.

"Plucked up in fury… cast down to the ground… east wind dried up its fruit" All of these are references to the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon.

"Mother was like a vine, in thy blood, planted by the waters" Commentators have complained that the phrase, "in thy blood is meaningless,"J. R. Dummelow's Commentary, p. 504. or that, "This expression can hardly be right."J. B. Thompson, p. 155. However, Cook seemed to have no trouble with it. He stated that, "the mother, living in the life of her children" was planted favorably by the waters.Albert Barnes' Commentary, p.346.

The thought is correct, whether or not, this is an accurate rendition. "Ezekiel 19:12-14 describe the final destruction and captivity of Judah. Zedekiah's rebellion was the cause of the total rain of the nation."J. R. Dummelow's Commentary, p. 504.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

The Prophet seems here inconsistent with himself, since these two clauses are openly at variance, that the vine was not, only withered, but burnt up, and yet planted in a desert place; for if it was withered, it could not take root again; but the burning removed the slightest hope; for when the twigs were reduced to ashes, who ever saw a vine spring up and grow from its ashes? But when the Prophet says that the vine was withered and burnt up, he refers to the conclusion which men must arrive at by their own senses when the city was utterly ruined; for that was in truth a horrible spectacle, when the people were made tributary after their king was taken, the temple, plundered, the city ruined, and their safety dependent on the lust of their conqueror. Since, therefore, neither the royal name and dignity, nor freedom and security, remained, and especially when they were led to the slaughter-house, was not their ruin very like a burning? Now, therefore, we see why the Prophet said that the vine was torn and burnt up, for that most severe destruction took away all hope of restoration for a short time. Hence he spoke according to common sense: then he kept in view that form of horrible ruin, or rather deformity, which was like a burning and a final destruction of the people. But now, when he says that the vine was planted again, he commends the mercy of God, who wished some seed to remain for the production of young plants; as it is said in the first chapter of Isaiah, Lest you should be in like Sodom and Gomorrah, some small seed has been wonderfully preserved. Although, therefore, the people were burnt up after being violently plucked up, and all their lives subjected to the will of the proudest, of conquerors, yet God took some twigs or vine branches, which he planted, that he might propagate a new nation, which was done at the people’s return.

But he says that those vine branches were planted in the desert in the dry and thirsty land, since God preserves the religion of his people even in death. Hence he compares their exile to a desert and a wilderness. It may seem absurd at first sight that, Chaldaea should be likened to a desert, since that district we know to be remarkable for its fertility and other advantages; we know, too, that it was well watered, though called dry. But the Prophet here does not, consider the material character of the country, but the condition of the people in it. Although Chaldaea was most lovely, and full of all kinds of fruits, yet, since the people were cruelly oppressed and contemptuously treated, hence the land was called a desert. We say that no prison is beautiful, so that their exile could not be agreeable to the children of Israel; for they were ashamed of their life, and did not dare to raise their eyes upwards. Since, then, they were drowned in a deep abyss of evils, the land was to them a desert; hence there was no splendor, dignity, or opulence; and liberty, the most precious of all boons, was wrested from them. Now we see the sense of the words. It follows at length —

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 19

Moreover, take thou up a lamentation ( Ezekiel 19:1 )

So this is a lamentation. Notice at the beginning he says a lamentation and then at the end he said, "This is a lamentation and shall be a lamentation." Now if I were a Bible critic, I would tell you why this wasn't a lamentation. If I were in the school of higher criticism, one of those biblical scholars.

Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, and say, What is thy mother? She's a lioness: she laid down among the lions, and she nourished her whelps among the lions ( Ezekiel 19:1-2 ).

These are the princes now. Your mother is a lioness. She laid down among the lions.

And she brought up one of her whelps: and it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; and it devoured men. And the nations also heard of him; and he was taken in their pit [caught in their trap], and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt ( Ezekiel 19:3-4 ).

That would be the prince, or the king Jehoahaz.

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 ( Ezekiel 19:5 ).

This would be Jehoiachin.

And he went up and down among the lions, and he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. And they put him in a ward in chains, and they brought him to the king of Babylon: and they brought him unto [the prisons] the holds, and his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel ( Ezekiel 19:6-9 ).

Jehoiachin was carried away captive to Babylon.

And 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. 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. 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. And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 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 a lamentation ( Ezekiel 19:10-14 ).

It, of course, speaks of the end of the kings of Israel because of their being conquered. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The vine and its branch 19:10-14

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

However, others uprooted this vine in their fury, trod it underfoot, and cut off its fruitfulness as with a hot east wind (from Babylon; cf. Ezekiel 17:6-10; Ezekiel 17:15; Psalms 89:30-37). Its strong branch, King Zedekiah, was cut off so it withered and burned up. This was a prediction of Zedekiah’s future. Assuming the chronological order of the prophecies in this book, Ezekiel evidently gave this one between 592 and 591 B.C., which was after the reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin and during the reign of Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.). Zedekiah went into captivity in 586 B.C. He had been responsible for much of the destruction that had overtaken Judah. Perhaps one reason for the change in the figures describing Israel’s kings, from lions to a vine, was that Zedekiah, the branch (Ezekiel 19:12), was not a king approved by the Judeans but a puppet of the Babylonians, though he was in the Davidic line. Scripture gives us little information about Zedekiah’s domestic policies. The vine was now in the wilderness, a place of limited resources. It had burned up so there were no more strong shoots or fruit left in it. No scepter was in it now; there was no Davidic king who could rule over Israel. The vine was not completely destroyed, but it languished having been transplanted to a hostile environment. Another view sees Zedekiah as the fire that consumed the shoots and fruit of the Davidic line. [Note: E.g., Stuart, p. 170.]

The writer identified this piece again as a lamentation, a funeral dirge or elegy that the Jews used to describe their sorrow over the fate of the Davidic rulers of their nation.

It is appropriate that this last section in the part of the book that consists of Yahweh’s reply to the invalid hopes of the Israelites (chs. 12-19) should be a lament. Judah’s doom was certain, so a funeral dirge was fitting. All the exiles could do was mourn the divine judgment on their nation that was to reach its climax very soon.

"Jerusalem’s fall was so certain that Ezekiel considered it inevitable. . . . The dirge was not over one individual; it was being sung for the Davidic dynasty and the ’death’ of its rule." [Note: Dyer, "Ezekiel," p. 1262.]

Not until Jesus Christ returns to the earth to reign will a strong branch and the ruler’s scepter arise in the line of David again (cf. Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And now she [is] planted in the wilderness,.... In the land of Babylon, which though a very fruitful country, yet, because of the hardships and miseries which the Jews were exposed unto in it, was a wilderness to them:

in a dry and thirsty ground; which is a periphrasis or description of a wilderness, Psalms 63:1; and designs the same place as before; where the Jews were deprived of their liberties, and had not the opportunities of divine worship, the word and ordinances; and were destitute of the comforts both of civil and religious life. Unless this is to be understood of the land of Judea, which by the devastation made in it by the king of Babylon, and the multitudes that were carried captive by him out of it, it became like a desert, a dry and thirsty land; and so the vine planted in it signifies the remainder of the people left in it, alter this great destruction; when it looked like a vine plucked up, and thrown down, and left on the ground, dried up with the east wind, and burnt with fire; and thus it fared with the remnant in a little time after, as the next words show.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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.

      Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here represented by another similitude; she is a vine, and the princes are her branches. This comparison we had before, Ezekiel 15:1; Ezekiel 15:1. Jerusalem is as a vine; the Jewish nation is so: Like a vine in they blood (Ezekiel 19:10; Ezekiel 19:10), the blood-royal, like a vine set in blood and watered with blood, which contributes very much to the flourishing and fruitfulness of vines, as if the blood which had been shed had been designed for the fattening and improving of the soil, in such plenty was it shed; and for a time it seemed to have that effect, for she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of the waters, the many waters near which she was planted. Places of great wickedness may prosper for a while; and a vine set in blood may be full of branches. Jerusalem was full of able magistrates, men of sense, men of learning and experience, that were strong rods, branches of this vine of uncommon bulk and strength, or poles for the support of this vine, for such magistrates are. The boughs of this vine had grown to such maturity that they were fit to make white staves of for the sceptres of those that bore rule,Ezekiel 19:11; Ezekiel 19:11. And those are strong rods that are fit for sceptres, men of strong judgments and strong resolutions that are fit for magistrates. When the royal family of Judah was numerous, and the courts of justice were filled with men of sense and probity, then Jerusalem's stature was exalted among thick branches; when the government is in good able hands a nation is thereby made considerable Then she was not taken for a weak and lowly vine, but she appeared in her height, a distinguished city, with the multitude of her branches. Tanquam lenta solent inter viburna cupressi--Midst humble withies thus the cypress soars. "In thy quietness" (so some read that, Ezekiel 19:10; Ezekiel 19:10, which we translate in thy blood) "thou wast such a vine as this." When Zedekiah was quiet and easy under the king of Babylon's yoke his kingdom flourished thus. See how slow God is to anger, how he defers his judgments, and waits to be gracious. 2. This vine is now quite destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar, being highly provoked by Zedekiah's treachery, plucked it up in fury (Ezekiel 19:12; Ezekiel 19:12), ruined the city and kingdom, and cut off all the branches of the royal family that fell in his way. The vine was cut off close to the ground, though not plucked up by the roots. The east wind dried up the fruit that was blasted. The young people fell by the sword, or were carried into captivity. The aspect of it had nothing that was pleasing, the prospect nothing that was promising. Her strong rods were broken and withered; her great men were cut off, judges and magistrates deposed. The vine itself is planted in the wilderness,Ezekiel 19:13; Ezekiel 19:13. Babylon was as a wilderness to those of the people that were carried captives thither; the land of Judah was as a wilderness to Jerusalem, now that the whole country was ravaged and laid waste by the Chaldean army--a fruitful land turned into barrenness. "It is burnt with fire (Psalms 80:16) and that fire has gone out of a rod of her branches (Ezekiel 19:14; Ezekiel 19:14); the king himself, by rebelling against the king of Babylon, has given occasion to all this mischief. She may thank herself for the fire that consumes her; she has by her wickedness made herself like tinder to the sparks of God's wrath, so that her own branches serve as fuel for her own consumption; in them the fire is kindled which devoured the fruit, the sins of the elder being the judgments which destroy the younger; her fruit is burned with her own branches, so that she has no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule, none to be found now that are fit for the government or dare take this ruin under their hand, as the complaint is (Isaiah 3:6; Isaiah 3:7), none of the house of David left that have a right to rule, no wise men, or men of sense, that are able to rule." It goes ill with any state, and is likely to go worse, when it is thus deprived of the blessings of government and has no strong rods for sceptres. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is a child, for it is as well to have no rod as not a strong rod. Those strong rods, we have reason to fear, had been instruments of oppression, assistant to the king in catching the prey and devouring men, and now they are destroyed with him. Tyranny is the inlet to anarchy; and, when the rod of government is turned into the serpent of oppression, it is just with God to say, "There shall be no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule; but let men be as are the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less." Note, This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation. The prophet was bidden (Ezekiel 19:1; Ezekiel 19:1) to take up a lamentation; and, having done so, he leaves it to be made use of by others. "It is a lamentation to us of this age, and, the desolations continuing long, it shall be for a lamentation to those that shall come after us; the child unborn will rue the destruction made of Judah and Jerusalem by the present judgments. They were a great while in coming; the bow was long in the drawing; but now that they have come they will continue, and the sad effects of them will be entailed upon posterity." Note, Those who fill up the measure of their fathers' sins are laying up in store for their children's sorrows and furnishing them with matter for lamentation; and nothing is more so than the overthrow of government.