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 Ezekiel 19

¹ As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, ² and say:

What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs.
³ She raised up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured humans.
⁴ The nations sounded an alarm against him; he was caught in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
⁵ When she saw that she was thwarted, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.
⁶ He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured people.
⁷ And he ravaged their strongholds, and laid waste their towns; the land was appalled, and all in it, at the sound of his roaring.
⁸ The nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.
⁹ With hooks they put him in a cage, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into custody, so that his voice should be heard no more on the mountains of Israel.
¹⁰ Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water.
¹¹ Its strongest stem became a ruler’s scepter; it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches.
¹² But it was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried it up; its fruit was stripped off, its strong stem was withered; the fire consumed it.
¹³ Now it is transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land.
¹⁴ And fire has gone out from its stem, has consumed its branches and fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling.

This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation.

This lamentation, or dirge, utilizes well known imagery for Judah is a manner that may be both mournful and satirical. The tragic situation of the kings of Judah are portrayed metaphorically through the imagery of captured lions and uprooted vines. The difference between what could have been for these rulers if they had lived within the limits assigned to them is great. Instead, their rapacious actions and attempts to rise above the vine resulted both in their own destruction but also the destruction of the land and the people. The violent lions of this chapter are judged on their own actions, like the violent son of the previous chapter. Yet, the actions of these rulers who have been raised up have implications for the entirety of the people of Israel.

Ezekiel is commanded to raise up a qina (lamentation, NRSV) the word that brackets this pair of metaphors. A qina is a lamentation or dirge sung for the death of an individual[1]  or the people.[2] Ten of the eighteen occurrences of this word occur in Ezekiel (three in this chapter). The lamentation is for the princes (nasi) of Israel. Throughout the book of Ezekiel, the prophet does not refer to the final kings in Jerusalem by the traditional term for king (melek) but instead uses this term from the tribal past of Israel. (Block, 1997, p. 598) The two images used in this lamentation share the common goal of mourning the ignoble end of the Davidic monarchy, particularly in the actions of two kings whose identity is hinted at in the imagery.

The source for the imagery and the vocabulary used in these metaphors comes from Jacob’s blessing of Judah in Genesis 49:8-12 (particularly 9-11 common vocabulary underlined although some are obscured in English).

Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness — who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes; his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

 The lioness may be a woman (see below) but more likely she is Israel personified who lifts up one of her cubs. The young lion does what a young lion is expected to do until he devours humans. Once this lion transgresses this boundary the nations rise up against him and catch him in a pit, a traditional method of catching a lion, and bring him in ‘hooks’[3] to Egypt. The taking of the first lion to Egypt makes Jehohaz the king that the first lion represents since he is the only one of the last kings of Judah to be taken to Egypt. (2 Kings 23: 31-35). This son of Josiah only reigns three months but is viewed negatively by 2 Kings. His short but disastrous reign ends with his imprisonment and put Judah under a heavy tribute to Egypt.

The second cub raised up by the lioness follows a path identical to the first lion and then goes even farther. The Hebrew[4] indicates that he consorted with his widows (instead of ravaged their strongholds, NRSV) and extending the lion imagery this occurs in nature when a new male takes over a pride. Yet, the critical piece of the imagery is when the lion laid waste to the towns and even the land becomes appalled at this roaring and unrestrained lion. Now the nations once again lay a trap for the lion as these nations become the liberators of the mountains of Israel. This second lion is taken away to Babylon and not heard from again.

Ezekiel never decodes this parable for us and although most readers are confident in the identity of the first lion, there is disagreement whether the second lion represents Jehoiachin or Zedekiah. Both have elements that make them intriguing candidates. Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon after a brief reign. Zedekiah and Jehohaz were brothers of the same mother (Hamutal)[5] and after his rebellion Zedekiah is also taken to Babylon. My personal opinion is that Ezekiel refers to Zedekiah as the second lion who is currently ruling in Jerusalem, and who Ezekiel views negatively. Yet, there are compelling arguments for both rulers being the second lion and there is no way to determine with certainty the object of this image. The exact historical reference is not as critical as the violent actions the metaphor communicates that these princes of Israel commit which lead to the collapse of the Davidic line of kings for a modern reader. From Ezekiel’s metaphor these princes of Israel were raised up to be lions, but the problem emerges when they become violent and do damage to their own land. The nations become the means of trapping and imprisoning these beasts and freeing the land of their terror.

The vine has already been used multiple times in Ezekiel to refer to Israel[6] and this imagery is used throughout the scriptures. Here a vine is planted in a place of abundant waters and produces strong branches which become the scepters of rulers. Yet, these branches do something very out of place for a vine, it becomes conspicuous for its height and towers high above the clouds.[7] These branches with their heads in the clouds provoke the fury of a passerby and it is cast out of its fertile place, dried up by the sirocco wind (east wind), stripped of its fruit, burned by fire, and transplanted into a desert. Both images point to the princes of Israel, and here these princes who have their heads in the clouds have risen beyond what was expected for the vine they were a part of.

Ezekiel was told to lift up a lamentation and concludes by telling us what we have read is a lamentation and is used as a lamentation. Although there may be a satirical or parody element to the imagery used, it is also a tragedy in Ezekiel’s usage. Ezekiel cares deeply about both the religious and the political institutions of Judah and their impact on the people, yet in this image he is critical of their violence and the way they have kept their head in the clouds. The behavior of these princes has imperiled not only their own reigns, but the city, the temple, the people, and the land. I am reminded of Richard Lischer’s words about the characteristic emotion of the prophet:

In rereading them, one is reminded that the emotion most characteristic of the prophet is not anger but sorrow. He tells the truth but rarely in bitterness of spirit and never with contempt for the Other. His truth-telling is pervaded by a sense of tragedy. (Lischer, 2005, p. 161)

The failure of these princes is a tragedy for the people, for Ezekiel, and for God. Their own actions brought about the punishment of the nations on these kings. Yet, the sorrow is shared by the people and the prophet who also bear the consequences of the arrogance and the violence of the princes of Israel.

[1] For example, David’s mourning of Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:26) or the mourning over the man of God from Judah (1 Kings 13:30)

[2] As in the book of Lamentations.

[3] There are different suggestions for the exact meaning of ‘hooks’ (hahim). It may be manacles, or some type of barb or piercing object, or a hook in the jaws or nose. (Block, 1997, p. 601) The exact meaning is not critical to the parable since the hooks perform the functional role in the imagery of bringing this lion to Egypt.

[4] The MT (Hebrew text), most English translations follow the Targum in parallel with the following line, but I agree with Block that using the lion imagery there the Hebrew wording makes sense and there is no reason to change it. (Block, 1997, pp. 596-597)

[5] If the lioness refers to a person it could refer to Hamutal who is mother to both Jehohaz and Zedekiah. I still believe the lioness is Israel, but it is a possible reading of the metaphor.

[6] Ezekiel 15 and 17.

[7] The term ‘abotim is translated in Ezekiel 31 as clouds, but here the NRSV renders it thick boughs. The NRSV translators are probably attempting to follow the vine imagery where vines do not reach to the clouds like the tree (in Ezekiel 31) would, but that is precisely the point of the metaphor. The vine branches are doing what vine branches should not do.