What does Ezechiel Chapter 19 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Two royal whelps are captured. Edition identities remain separate. A transplanted vine loses its strong sceptre rod.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 19 commands a lament for Israel's princes. A mother lioness raises a whelp who catches prey and devours men. Nations hear of him; he is taken, not without receiving wounds, and led in chains to Egypt. The edition identifies the lioness with Jerusalem and the whelp with Joachaz, also called Sellum. Pits and bronze chains are not the admitted wording.

With weakness and lost hope the mother raises another whelp, who moves among lions, devours men, makes widows and desolates cities through roaring. Nations from provinces spread a net and take him in their wounds. A cage and chains carry him to Babylon's king and prison so his voice is no longer heard on Israel's mountains. The edition identifies this whelp as Joakim; no historical harmonization is substituted.

The mother is also a vine in the addressee's blood, planted beside waters, fruitful with strong branches as rulers' sceptres and elevated among branches. Wrath uproots it to the ground. A burning wind dries fruit; strong rods wither and fire consumes them. Transplanted to an impassable, dry desert, it suffers fire from a rod of its own branches that consumes its fruit, leaving no strong rod for a ruler's sceptre. The chapter calls this a lament; it does not specify an east wind, a death of Josias or an absolute chronology of every later throne.

The story inside

Opening: Two royal whelps are captured. Development: Edition identities remain separate. Conclusion: A transplanted vine loses its strong sceptre rod.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Two royal whelps are captured.
2
Edition identities remain separate.
3
A transplanted vine loses its strong sceptre rod.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 93132–93144
19:2. And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions? Thy mother the lioness.... Jerusalem. 19:3. And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men. One of her whelps.... Viz., Joachaz, alias Sellum. 19:4. And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt.
Lines 93146–93156
19:5. But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion. One of her young lions.... Joakim. 19:6. And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men. 19:7. He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.
Lines 93158–93164
19:8. And the nations came together against him on every side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was taken. 19:9. And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
Lines 93166–93175
19:10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters. 19:11. And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her branches. 19:12. But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured her.
Lines 93177–93182
19:13. And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry. 19:14. And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.