Commentary - Ezekiel 19:1-9

Bird's-eye view

In Ezekiel 19, the prophet is commanded to take up a lament, a funeral dirge, for the princes of Israel. This is not a sentimental poem but a Spirit-inspired indictment delivered in the form of an allegory. The passage uses the powerful imagery of a lioness and her two cubs to describe the downfall of the Davidic dynasty in Judah. The mother lioness represents the nation of Judah, or perhaps more specifically, the royal house itself. Her two cubs are two of the last kings of Judah, Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin. The lament traces how these kings, who were meant to be shepherds of God's people, instead became predatory lions, adopting the ways of the pagan nations. Their subsequent capture and exile, first to Egypt and then to Babylon, are presented as the inevitable consequence of their violent and godless rule. This is a story of covenant failure, where leadership turns predatory and divine judgment follows swiftly.

The core message is a judgment against a royal line that had abandoned its divine calling. Instead of ruling with justice and righteousness according to God's law, they ruled by the law of the jungle. They "learned to tear prey" and "devoured men." Consequently, God used the pagan nations, themselves depicted as hunters, to trap and remove these feral kings. The lament concludes with the silencing of the last king's roar, a poignant symbol of the end of Judah's sovereignty and the finality of God's judgment upon this corrupt dynasty. It serves as a stark warning about the consequences of wicked leadership and points implicitly to the need for a true and righteous King.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

This lament in chapter 19 follows a series of prophecies concerning the judgment upon the leaders of Judah. In chapter 17, Ezekiel used the parable of two eagles and a vine to describe the political intrigues and covenant disloyalty of King Zedekiah. In chapter 18, God defended the justice of His ways, declaring that each individual is responsible for his own sin; the son will not die for the father's sin. Now, in chapter 19, Ezekiel provides a poetic summary of the disastrous end of the royal line, focusing on the character of the kings themselves. This chapter functions as a funeral song for the monarchy, illustrating the principles of divine justice laid out in the previous chapter. The glory is departing, the judgment is righteous, and the leadership of the nation is fundamentally corrupt. This sets the stage for the prophecies of Jerusalem's destruction that will follow.

Key Issues

Commentary

A Lament for the Princes of Israel

1 As for you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel

The Lord commands Ezekiel to perform the role of a professional mourner. A lamentation is a dirge, a song for the dead. But this is not a lament over a tragic accident. This is a lament over a self-inflicted spiritual suicide. The subjects are the princes of Israel, the royal heirs of the Davidic line. God Himself is pronouncing His own monarchy dead, and He wants a song written about it. This is a holy grief, a sorrow over the wreckage that sin always brings. We are to learn to grieve what God grieves, and He grieves the corruption of what He established to be good, in this case, the monarchy.

2 and say, 'What was your mother? A lioness among lions! She lay down among young lions; She reared her cubs.

The allegory begins. The question, What was your mother? is rhetorical and dripping with irony. The mother is the royal house of Judah, the covenant community in its political expression. She was supposed to be unique, set apart by God. But where did she make her bed? Among lions. She adopted the political philosophy and predatory practices of the pagan nations surrounding her. She did not raise her cubs in the fear of the Lord and the law of Moses; she raised them according to the customs of the godless Gentiles. The result is predictable. If you raise your children among wolves, you should not be surprised when they learn to howl.

3 So she brought up one of her cubs; He became a lion, And he learned to tear his prey; He devoured men.

The first cub is brought to the stage. This is Jehoahaz, who reigned for a miserable three months before being deposed (2 Kings 23:31-33). He graduated, as it were. He became a lion. And what was his education? He learned to tear his prey. This is the curriculum of tyranny. A God-fearing king learns to shepherd the flock; a godless king learns to fleece it and then eat it. He devoured men. This is what all statist overreach amounts to. It is not about public service; it is about public consumption. The state becomes a beast, and the citizens become its prey.

4 Then nations heard about him; He was captured in their pit, And they brought him with hooks To the land of Egypt.

A predator's reputation gets around. The nations heard about him, and not in a good way. God, in His sovereignty, uses one set of predators to discipline another. Pharaoh Neco of Egypt came up and put an end to Jehoahaz's short and bloody career. He was trapped like a wild animal, captured in their pit. The imagery is one of utter humiliation. This king, this lion, was led away with hooks to Egypt, where he died. This is the ignominious end of a man who rejected the wisdom of God for the violence of the beast.

5 Then she saw, as she waited, That her hope was lost, So she took another of her cubs And made him a young lion.

Here we see the mother's response. Does she repent? Does she recognize her folly in raising such a son? Not at all. She simply sees that her political hope was lost. Her hope was invested in her own strength, in her royal line, not in Yahweh. So her solution is to double down on the error. She finds another of her cubs and starts the whole sorry process over again. This second cub is Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah or Coniah), who also reigned for a mere three months (2 Kings 24:8-12). She is determined to have a lion on the throne, regardless of what God thinks about it.

6 And he walked about among the lions; He became a young lion; He learned to tear his prey; He devoured men.

The second verse is a tragic echo of the first. The new king follows the exact same path. He graduates from the same school of tyranny. He learns the same lessons in predation. He eats the same kind of meat: men. The sin is not just repeated; it is ingrained. This is dynastic corruption. The evil is systemic, passed down from one generation of rulers to the next. When a nation's leadership defines itself by its power to devour, its end is near.

7 He knew how to destroy their fortified towers And laid waste their cities; And the land was in desolation, as well as its fullness Because of the sound of his roaring.

This second lion appears to be even more ferocious than the first. His violence is directed inward, against his own people. He destroys their defenses and ruins their cities. The roaring of a king should be a terror to evildoers and a comfort to the righteous. His roaring brought desolation. He was a terror to everyone. This is the nature of unchecked power. It consumes and destroys until the whole land is wasted. The king who was meant to be the source of the nation's stability had become the source of its ruin.

8 Then nations put themselves against him All around from their provinces, And they spread their net over him; He was captured in their pit.

And so, the end comes for the second lion just as it did for the first. This time, it is not just one nation, but nations all around. The agent of God's judgment is now Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire. The trap is set, the net is spread, and the beast is caught. God's tolerance for this kind of predatory rule has reached its limit. No matter how powerful a tyrant may seem, God has a pit prepared for him.

9 They put him in a cage with hooks And brought him to the king of Babylon; They brought him in hunting nets So that his voice would be heard no more On the mountains of Israel.

The humiliation is complete. He is put in a cage with hooks, treated not as royalty but as a captured beast for display. He is brought before the king of Babylon, the chief lion of that age. And the lament ends with this final, stark reality: his voice, his roaring, was silenced. It would be heard no more on the mountains of Israel. This judgment, as severe as it is, contains a note of grace. The silencing of a tyrant's roar is a mercy to the land and its people. God is clearing the stage. He is silencing the voices of these false kings in preparation for the day when the true King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, will speak.

Application

The lesson of the lion cubs is a perennial one. Leadership that is not submitted to the law of God will inevitably become predatory. When rulers, whether they are called kings, princes, or presidents, forget that they are ministers of God for good (Romans 13:4), they begin to see the people as a resource to be consumed. They learn to tear their prey through unjust taxation, oppressive regulations, and ruinous wars. They devour men.

This passage calls us to two things. First, it calls us to lament rightly. We should be grieved when we see our leaders behaving like beasts. We should mourn the degradation of justice and the rise of tyranny. This is not partisan whining; it is righteous sorrow. Second, it must drive us to place our hope not in any son of Judah's failed line, and not in any modern political savior, but only in the Son of David who is also the Son of God.

Jesus Christ is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). His roar is the gospel that brings terror to the demonic realm and life to His people. He did not come to devour men, but to be devoured for them on the cross. His rule is not one of predation but of pastoral care. The silence of Jehoiachin on the mountains of Israel makes way for the Sermon on the Mount, where the true King teaches the laws of His kingdom. Our only hope in a world full of roaring lions is to take refuge in the one Lion who is also the Lamb.