Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel. And
say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she
nourished her whelps among young lions. And she brought up one of
her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the
prey; it devoured men. The nations also heard of him; he was taken
in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of
Egypt. 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. And
he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and
learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. 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. Then
the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and
spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. 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 (verses 1-9).
The lamentation is not the lamentation of Ezekiel, as so many expositors
state, but it is the lamentation of Jehovah, the same who later wept
over the same city and lamented over her coming fate. The words of
divine lament were put into the mouth of the Prophet.
The Princes are Jehoahaz and Jehoachin. King Jehoahaz and his fate,
being carried away captive into Egypt (2 Kings xxiii:33) is lamented in
verses 1-4. King Jehoiachin who was taken as a captive to Babylon is
lamented in verses 5-9. In Ezekiel, however, the word King is not used;
the Kings are always called princes. The second verse may be rendered as
follows:
"Thy mother was like a lioness, among lions.
She couched amid the young lions, she reared the whelps."
The mother is Judah. Of this Jacob had spoken in his prophecy. "Judah is
a lion's whelp" (Gen. xlix:9). And Balaam in his prophetic utterances
speaks in the same tones of the nation. "Behold, the people shall rise
up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion" (Num. xxiv:14).
This prophecy will be fulfilled in the future when He appears in power
and glory to receive the Kingdom, for He is called "the lion of the
tribe of Judah" (Rev. v:5). And the people will then be as a converted
and restored people the same, what the lion is among the animals, the
Kingly nation. In Isaiah xxix:1 Jerusalem is called "Ariel," which means
"Lion of God." The whelps, the nations heard of, are the sons of the
House of David. And Jehoahaz "devoured men" and did evil in the sight of
the Lord and was carried away by Pharaoh Necho as a captive into Egypt.
Some expositors think that the lioness is the wife of Josiah the mother
of Jehoahaz, because she was a woman of much importance and great
influence (Jer. xiii:18; 2 Kings ii:9; xxiv:12).
The other one of her whelps mentioned in verse 5, whom the lioness,
Judah, made a young lion, that is a King, was Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin was
made King, when all hope of a return of Jehoahaz was lost, and the new
King also "devoured men," did evil in the sight of the Lord. "And he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his
fathers had done" (2 Kings xxiv:90). In verse 7 the word "palaces" should
be changed to "widows." The verse describes the cruelties and wicked
deeds of the King. Then judgment overtook him. Under him the first
deportation to Babylon took place, in which the Prophet Ezekiel was
included. "And he (Nebuchadnezzar) carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon,
and the King's mother, and the King's wife, and his officers, and the
mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to
Babylon" (2 Kings xxiv:14). The correct rendering of the next part of
verse 9 is: "And they put him in a cage with hooks and brought him to
the King of Babylon." Both Kings deserved their fate. God had warned,
and as they continued in wickedness judgment fell upon them. And it was
a warning to Zedekiah who was soon to share the same fate. In view of
the violence which is on the earth now, the wickedness which is seen on
all sides, these judgments of the past may well be remembered. God is
the same to-day as He was of old. He must deal in judgment with sin; in
many parts of the holy Scriptures we read of the time when God will keep
not silence, but deal with conditions on the earth according to His
righteousness.