" . . . a lamentation for the princes of Israel, . . . What/[Who] is thy mother? . . . " Ezekiel 19:1-2

In the ninteenth chapter of Ezekiel the prophet is told by the Lord to 'take up a lamentation of the princes of Israel.' This 'Lamentation' alone could be used as evidence witness that Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph are but the same Messiah, both being considered as being the sons of Rachel, the Mother of Israel. And the lamentation could also be viewed as a riddle with the leading question to that riddle lamentation being "What [Who] is thy Mother?" As so noted, this ought to be better translated as 'WHO' rather than 'WHAT' for it is in reference to a person and not a thing. And thus the prophet asks the leading question of Israel, its princes, of 'Who is thy mother?'

Already in this text it has been discussed as one of the more significant 'cords' of evidence how it is that Rachel is the mother of Israel (see Item 35), that it is she who laments the loss of her children who are the both scattered and as also the babes in Ramah where slaguthered by the edict of Herod during the enfancy of Christ. And in other such things such as Rachel's revelation of her descendant being the Messiah those cords of evidence were began to be spun into the foundational cloth of the tapestry of Messiah ben Joseph. So here now is some of those finer treads of detail which on their own may be passed by, but as the added detail of truth of the overall tapestry, they do begin to highlight the detail of it.

Whereas in verse 2 of Ezekiel 19 it asks, 'Who thy mother?' of Israel. And then immediately in verses three and four it most pointedly sets forth the first prominant child of Israel's Mother in Israelite history who is her own firstborn son Joseph, the only one she herself personally raised or 'brought up'.

"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." ~ Ezekiel 19:3-4

This could reference and mean none other that Joseph the son of Jacob and the firstborn son of mother Rachel. Only Joseph was thrown into the pit and only Joseph was taken to Egypt in the chains of slavery and there sold as a slave. The rest of Israel's or Jacob's household were invited guests by that same Joseph as he acted in the name of Pharoah and delivered his family from famine into the plenty of Egypt.

This alone would mark the Mother of Israel as Rachel for she was Joseph's mother. But what about such as verse five and six when it speaks of another such person or son of this mother of Israel? Does it not point to David and his house as also being legally and lawfully as son(s) of Israel's mother Rachel when of him/them it is stated:

"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." Ezekiel 19:5-6

And certainly the house of David, his descendants are envoled when verse 9 speaks of such as was taken and brought to the king of Babylon:

"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." ~ Ezekiel 19:9

Who but one of the sons of Josiah could this have been? These were they who would have been captured, placed in chains and brought before the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezar; and afterwards placed in the 'holds' or prisons of Babylon never to walk or be heard upon the mountains of Ramah, of Israel, again. The very last King of Jerusalem was just such a one who does fulfill this lament. Zedekiah was captured and taken in-ward before the king of Babylon. And before his very eyes were his sons killed before his eyes were put out so that the last thing he beheld was the effect of his breaking of that covenant he had made with Babylon, the death of all of his sons but one. And that one we know as Mulek of the Book of Mormon and his people as the Mulekites.

Now how is one of the 'Jewish Kings' of Judah a son of Rachel? This also has been discussed and presented as one of the cords of the tapestry in that Obed was but the surrogate son of Boaz and the true son of Mahlon the son of Elimelech, Ephrathites or Ephraimites. Thus King David and all of his descendants were heirs of the covanant of Israel which was bestowed upon Ephraim by the hand of Jacob. This also has been so previously presented. So what we have here is a nonfailing continuous finer thread of scripture which also ties the tapestry together that such kings of Judah as Zedekiah was, was also legally according to the Law of Moses the descendant of mother Rachel.

And then finally to add to this thread, is the fact also presented that Mulek, Zedekiah's son was brought by the hand of the Lord to that land of Joseph, that promised land unto which the 'remnant of Joseph' was brought. It of course being that orignial land of Adam and covenant land of the Lord of where the New Jerusalem would be built by the hand of the remnant of Joseph in the latter days as recorded in the Book of Mormon. And thus though Lehi called himself a Jew, for he did live in and come from the land of Judah, and though the kings of Judah by the fact that they were of the blood of Boaz a Jew and the kings of Jerusalem; they also were legally and rightfully of the covenant seed of Joseph and Ephraim, of Nun and Jehoshua, and of Elimelech and Mahlon, all Ephraimites after the heir-ship of the covenant of Israel. And Rachel was their mother, the mother of the princes of Israel.

An irony of quandry as a negative proof here is suppose that the 'Mother of Israel' in question here is not as determined, Rachel. Who or What then is she? Is she Leah, but then who is Joseph of Egypt's mother as it was he who was taken to Egypt in chains and not all of Israel. Or could it be that the 'Mother of Israel' is only symbolically, figuratively and metaphroically referenced here by the question 'What/Who is the mother?' Since the logic of the reference to Rachel is supported and Leah or the figure anomoly mother of Israel is not, this ironically becomes a negative proof in that the other such arguments are but ill supported and non-conclusive in and of themselves as they but inegmatically give rise to unanswerable questions which the positive proofs of Rachel being her do give.

"Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: . . . the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: . . . Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah." ~ Ezekiel 23 2 & 4

The Lord presents Ezekiel with there being two sisters, the mothers of Samaria and Jerusalem. It seems clear that the Lord is speaking relatively to the Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim as Samaria and Jerusalem as the Kingdom of Judah. And barring a complete allegorical symbolic metaphor with no relationship to the implied true circumstances of parenthood, it would also seem that the two sisters, the 'mothers' of Ephraim/Samaria and Judah/Jerusalem would be Rachel and Leah though their personal virtue is not the issue in the allegory, as it but represents the conditions of the two kingdoms in turning from the Lord.

Now the question is, in that we know Leah to be the older sister of the same mother and Rachel the younger, why does this allegorical metaphor state that 'Samaria is the elder'. Certainly not in the reality of the ancestral mothers, for Leah was elder. So now in what why is 'Samaria' 'elder'? In respect to this present text, one possiblility presents itself in that as heir of the 'covenant' the one has been selected as being the 'elder' or 'firstborn' over the other. Ephraim was selected as heir of Jacob and given the name of Israel by Jacob as presented in the JST Genesis 48, that is Ephraim/Joseph was the firstborn in the stead of Rueben and Judah was not, being therefore left as the 'younger' in respect to that 'covenant'.

If one accepts this premise of Ephraim/Samaria being the 'elder' by virtue of their 'covenant' position as the Lord via Ezekiel seems to be presenting in chapter 23, then this could be another 'finer thread' of the tapestry of the picture of Messiah ben Joseph being woven together.