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19. Lament for Israel's Princes

¹ “Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel ² and say:

   “‘What a lioness was your mother
   among the lions!
She lay down among them
   and reared her cubs.
³ She brought up one of her cubs,
   and he became a strong lion.
He learned to tear the prey
   and he became a man-eater.
⁴ The nations heard about him,
   and he was trapped in their pit.
They led him with hooks
   to the land of Egypt.

    ⁵ “‘When she saw her hope unfulfilled,
   her expectation gone,
she took another of her cubs
   and made him a strong lion.
⁶ He prowled among the lions,
   for he was now a strong lion.
He learned to tear the prey
   and he became a man-eater.
⁷ He broke down Targum (see Septuagint); Hebrew He knew their strongholds
   and devastated their towns.
The land and all who were in it
   were terrified by his roaring.
⁸ Then the nations came against him,
   those from regions round about.
They spread their net for him,
   and he was trapped in their pit.
⁹ With hooks they pulled him into a cage
   and brought him to the king of Babylon.
They put him in prison,
   so his roar was heard no longer
   on the mountains of Israel.

    ¹⁰ “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard Two Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts your blood
   planted by the water;
it was fruitful and full of branches
   because of abundant water.
¹¹ Its branches were strong,
   fit for a ruler’s scepter.
It towered high
   above the thick foliage,
conspicuous for its height
   and for its many branches.
¹² But it was uprooted in fury
   and thrown to the ground.
The east wind made it shrivel,
   it was stripped of its fruit;
its strong branches withered
   and fire consumed them.
¹³ Now it is planted in the desert,
   in a dry and thirsty land.
¹⁴ Fire spread from one of its main Or from under its branches
   and consumed its fruit.
No strong branch is left on it
   fit for a ruler’s scepter.’

“This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”

Here the Prophet, under the image of a lion, informs us that whatever evils happened to the Israelites could not be imputed to others. We must understand then his intention: it is not surprising that the Spirit of God insists on a matter not very obscure, since nothing is more obstinate than the pride of men, especially when God chastises them, although they pretend to humility and modesty, yet they swell with pride and are full of bitterness, and, lastly, they can scarcely be induced to confess God to be just, and that they deserve chastisement at his hand. For this reason, therefore, Ezekiel confirms what we formerly saw, that the Jews were not afflicted without deserving it. But he uses, as I have said, a simile taken from lions. He calls the nation itself a lioness: for when he treats of the mother of the people, we know that the offspring is considered. He says, therefore, that the people was full of insolence. The comparison to a lion is sometimes taken in a good sense, as when Moses uses it of the tribe of Judea, as a lion’s whelp shall he lie down, (Genesis 49:9,) a, phrase used in a good sense. But here Ezekiel denotes cruelty, as if he had said that all the Jews were fierce and savage beasts. For under the name of mother, as I said, he embraces the whole nation. At the beginning he orders his Prophet to take up a mournful wailing: for thus I interpret the word קינה, kineh, but there is in my judgment an indirect opposition between this lamentation which God dictated to them by his Prophet, and the common complaints which sounded constantly from their tongues. For when their condition was not only ruinous, but utterly deplorable, they made many groanings and bewailings. But at the same time no one extended his thoughts beyond the pressure of present evils they all exclaimed that they were wretched, but no one was anxious to inquire why they were so or whence their miseries arose; nay, they avoided this contemplation. The Prophet then indirectly reproves them, by stating that this mournful complaint was suggested by God, but yet was very different from that ordinary lamentation and howling in which the Jews stopped at blind grief, and never inquired why God was so hostile to them. Take up, therefore, a lamentation, says he, regarding or against the princes of Israel. In this way God does not excuse the people from blame, he only means that not only the common people were lost, but the very flower of the nation and all who were held in honor.

He says next, that their mother lay down among lions, alluding to the people’s origin from lions, as we said before, when the Prophet calls Judea the descendant of Canaan, and the sister of Sodom and Samaria. When he now says, their mother lay down among lions, he means that they were shamefully mixed with the corruption of the Gentiles, so that they did not differ from them. But God had chosen them as his peculiar people on the very condition of being separate from all the filth of the Gentiles. There was, therefore, a certain withdrawing of God’s favor when the mother of the people lay down among the lions, that is, when they all promiscuously gave themselves up to the perverse morals and superstitions of the Gentiles. He says, that she brought up whelps, or young lions, which she produced to these lions; since their origin was impure, being all Abraham’s children, but, as I have said, a degenerate race. He afterwards adds, that the lion’s whelp, or young lion, grew up till it became a lion: then it learnt to seize prey, says he, and to devour men. He refers to King Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, (2 Kings 23:30-32:) but he had before asserted that the whole people had a lion’s disposition, and that the princes, who were more exalted, were like whelps. As only one lion is here brought forward, it ought to be referred to the violence by which that wicked king manifested his real disposition. But if it be asked whence the lion went forth, the reply is, from amidst his brethren, for they were all lions’ whelps, or young lions. They could not administer the government either together or singly, but each devoured his brother, and was devoted to robbery and rapine. The king only, because freed from all fear, could surpass the rest in rapine and robbery with impunity. We see, then, that not only the king was here condemned, but that he becomes the type of the whole nation; because, since no one could restrain his passions, he could rob and devour mankind with unbridled freedom.