Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

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E Z E K I E L.

CHAP. XIX.

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The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of the 17th, to

foretel and lament the ruin of the house of David, the royal family of

Judah, in the calamitous exit of the four sons and grandsons of

Josiah–Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, in whom that

illustrious line of kings was cut off, which the prophet is here

ordered to lament,

ver. 1.

And he does it by similitudes.

I. The kingdom of Judah and house of David are here compared to a

lioness, and those princes to lions, that were fierce and ravenous, but

were hunted down and taken in nets,

ver. 2-9.

II. That kingdom and that house are here compared to a vine, and these

princes to branches, which had been strong and flourishing, but were

now broken off and burnt,

ver. 10-14.

This ruin of that monarchy was now in the doing, and this lamentation

of it was intended to affect the people with it, that they might not

flatter themselves with vain hopes of the lengthening out of their

tranquility.

The Fall of the Royal Family; Fall of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.	B. C. 593.

     

1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of

Israel,

  2 And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among

lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

  3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion,

and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

  4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and

they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

  5 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.

  6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young

lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

  7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their

cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by

the noise of his roaring.

  8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the

provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their

pit.

  9 And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the

king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice

should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

     

Here are,

I. Orders given to the prophet to bewail the fall of the royal family,

which had long made so great a figure by virtue of a covenant of

royalty made with David and his seed, so that the eclipsing and

extinguishing of it are justly lamented by all who know what value to

put upon the covenant of our God, as we find, after a very large

account of that covenant with David

(

Ps. lxxxix. 3, 20,

&c.), a sad lamentation for the decays and desolations of his family

(v. 38, 39):

But thou hast cast off and abhorred, hast made void the covenant of

thy servant and profaned his crown, &c. The kings of Judah are here

called princes of Israel; for their glory was diminished and

they had become but as princes, and their purity was lost; they had

become corrupt and idolatrous as the kings of Israel, whose ways

they had learned. The prophet must take up a lamentation for

them; that is, he must describe their lamentable fall as one that did

himself lay it to heart, and desired that those he preached and wrote

to might do so to. And how can we expect that others should be affected

with that which we ourselves are not affected with? Ministers, when

they boldly foretel, must yet bitterly lament the destruction of

sinners, as those that have not desired the woeful day. He is

not directed to give advice to the princes of Israel (that had been

long and often done in vain), but, the decree having gone forth, he

must take up a lamentation for them.

     

II. Instructions given him what to say.

1. He must compare the kingdom of Judah to a lioness, so

wretchedly degenerated was it from what it had been formerly, when it

sat as a queen among the nations,

v. 2.

What is thy mother? thine, O king? (we read of Solomon’s crown

wherewith his mother crowned him, that is, his people,

Cant. iii. 11),

thine, O Judah? The royal family is as a mother to the kingdom, a

nursing mother. She is a lioness, fierce, and cruel, and

ravenous. When they had left their divinity they soon lost their

humanity too; and, when they feared not God, neither did they

regard man. She lay down among lions. God had said,

The people shall dwell alone, but they mingled with the

nations and learned their works. She nourished her whelps

among young lions, taught the young princes the way of tyrants,

which was then used by the arbitrary kings of the east, filled their

heads betimes with notions of their absolute despotic power, and

possessed them with a belief that they had a right to enslave their

subjects, that their liberty and property lay at their mercy: thus

she nourished her whelps among young lions.

2. He must compare the kings of Judah to lions’ whelps,
v. 3.

Jacob had compared Judah, and especially the house of David, to a

lion’s whelp, for its being strong and formidable to its enemies

abroad

(Gen. xlix. 9,

He is an old lion; who shall stir him up?) and, if they had

adhered to the divine law and promise, God would have preserved to them

the might, and majesty, and dominion of a lion, and does it in Christ,

the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But these lions’ whelps

were so to their own subjects, were cruel and oppressive to them,

preyed upon their estates and liberties; and, when they thus by their

tyranny made themselves a terror to those whom they ought to have

protected, it was just with God to make those a terror to them whom

otherwise they might have subdued. Here is lamented,

(1.) The sin and fall of Jehoahaz, one of the whelps of this lioness.

He became a young lion

(v. 3);

he was made king, and thought he was made so that he might do what he

pleased, and gratify his own ambition, covetousness, and revenge, as he

had a mind; and so he was soon master of all the arts of tyranny; he

learned to catch the prey and devoured men. When he got power

into his hand, all that had before in any thing disobliged him were

made to feel his resentments and become a sacrifice to his rage. But

what came of it? He did not prosper long in his tyranny: The nations

heard of him

(v. 4),

heard how furiously he drove at his first coming to the crown, how he

trampled upon all that is just and sacred, and violated all his

engagements, so that they looked upon him as a dangerous neighbour, and

prosecuted him accordingly, as a multitude of shepherds is called

forth against a lion roaring on his prey,
Isa. xxxi. 4.

And he was taken, as a beast of prey, in their pit. His

own subjects durst not stand up in defence of their liberties, but God

raised up a foreign power that soon put an end to his tyranny, and

brought him in chains to the land of Egypt. Thither Jehoahaz was

carried captive, and never heard of more.

(2.) The like sin and fall of his successor Jehoiakim. The kingdom

of Judah for some time expected the return of Jehoahaz out of

Egypt, but at length despaired of it, and then took another of

the lion’s whelps, and made him a young lion,
v. 5.

And he, instead of taking warning by his brother’s fate to use his

power with equity and moderation, and to seek the good of his people,

trod in his brother’s steps: He went up and down among the

lions,
v. 6.

He consulted and conversed with those that were fierce and furious like

himself, and took his measures from them, as Rehoboam took the advice

of the rash and hot-headed young men. And he soon learned to catch

the prey, and he devoured men

(v. 6);

he seized his subjects’ estates, fined and imprisoned them, filled his

treasury by rapine and injustice, sequestrations and confiscations,

fines and forfeitures, and swallowed up all that stood in his way. He

had got the art of discovering what effects men had that lay concealed,

and where the treasures were which they had hoarded up; he knew

their desolate places

(v. 7),

where they his their money and sometimes hid themselves;

he knew where to find both out; and by his oppression he laid waste

their cities, depopulated them by forcing the inhabitants to remove

their families to some place of safety. The land was desolate,

and the country villages were deserted; and though there was great

plenty, and a fulness of all good things, yet people quitted it all for

fear of the noise of his roaring. He took a pride in making all

his subjects afraid of him, as the lion makes all the beasts of the

forest to tremble

(Amos iii. 8),

and by his terrible roaring so astonished them that they fell down for

fear, and, having not spirit to make their escape, became an easy prey

to him, as they say the lions do. He hectored, and threatened, and

talked big, and bullied people out of what they had. Thus he thought to

establish his own power, but it had a contrary effect, it did but

hasten his own ruin

(v. 8):

The nations set against him on every side, to restrain and

reduce his exorbitant power, which they joined in confederacy to do for

their common safety; and they spread their net over him, formed

designs against him. God brought against Jehoiakim bands of the

Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, with the Chaldees

(2 Kings xxiv. 2),

and he was taken in their pit. Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters

to carry him to Babylon,
2 Chron. xxxvi. 6.

They put this lion within grates, bound him in chains, and

brought him to the king of Babylon,
v. 9.

What became of him we know not; but his voice was nowhere heard

roaring upon the mountains of Israel. There was an end of his

tyranny: he was buried with the burial of an ass

(Jer. xxii. 19),

though he had been as a lion, the terror of the mighty in the land

of the living. Note, The righteousness of God is to be acknowledged

when those who have terrified and enslaved others are themselves

terrified and enslaved, when those who by the abuse of their power to

destruction which was given them for edification make themselves as

wild beasts, as roaring lions and ranging bears (for such,

Solomon says, wicked rulers are over the poor people,
Prov. xxviii. 15),

are treated as such–when those who, like Ishmael, have their hand

against every man, come at last to have every man’s hand against

them. It was long since observed that bloody tyrants seldom die in

peace, but have blood given them to drink, for they are worthy.

Ad generum Cereris sine cæde et sanguine pauci Descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni– How few of all the boastful men that reign Descend in peace to Pluto’s dark domain!

JUVENAL.

The Fall of the Royal Family.	B. C. 593.

     

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,

ch. xv. 1.

Jerusalem is as a vine; the Jewish nation is so: Like a vine

in they blood

(v. 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,
v. 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,

v. 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

(v. 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,
v. 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

(Ps. lxxx. 16)

and that fire has gone out of a rod of her branches

(v. 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

(Isa. iii. 6, 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

(v. 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.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

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