Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 19:12-14

Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 19:12-14

"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.

And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

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."

This is a allegory of the destruction of Judah and Israel, how there is no blood royals left to hold a scepter and rule.

"The allegory in Ezekiel 19:10–14 deals with the conditions in Israel at the time of Ezekiel: “Israel resembled a vine planted by the water. … This vine sent out strong shoots for rulers’ sceptres; that is to say, it brought forth powerful kings, and grew up to a great height, … It was torn up in fury by the wrath of God, cast down to the ground, so that its fruit withered. … The uprooting ends in the transplanting of the vine into a waste, dry, unwatered land,—in other words, in the transplanting of the people, Israel, into exile. The dry land is Babylon, so described as being a barren soil in which the kingdom of God could not flourish.” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary 9:1:261-2)

With the destruction of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and the killing of Zedekiah’s sons, “she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule” (Ezekiel 19:14). Clarke summarized: “None of the blood-royal of Judah [was] left. And from that time not one of her own royal race ever sat upon the throne of Israel.” (Commentary, 4:474.)

(Old Testament Manual, "Ezekiel: Watchman of Israel", (26-50) Ezekiel 19:10-14, The Allegory of the Vine and Its Branches)

Day 2980