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CHAPTER 19
Exekiel laments for Israel because she has been taken captive by other nations and planted in dry and thirsty ground. |
ISRAEL, |
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1 MOREOVER take thou up a
alamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say, What is thy mother?a A alioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. 3 And she brought up one of her awhelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with achains unto the land of bEgypta.
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2a What is thy mother?
Perhaps this speaks of collective Israel, yet first who are the princes of
Israel? They are the judging rulers of the people the councils of seventy
as first selected by Moses is, such as the Sanhedrin is one answer. The
twelve such princes, one each of the 12 twelve tribes of Israel as also in
the days of Moses is another. Now of them there were 4 mothers, Leah and her
handmaid and Rachel and her handmaid. Yet is one is to stand as 'Mother of
Israel', WHO ought it to be? Leah the first married by desception? Or
Rachel the first wife by choice? Are is this just a 'figurative 'What mother
of the princes of Israel'? 4a he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt Only one was taken out of a pit and brought in the chains of slavery into Egypt, and that was Joseph the first born son of Rachel. The others of Israel were invited and for some hundreds of years they were not 'slaves' there. Thus in this first case the particular mother of this particular Israelite prince is but Rachel and can be none other. |
Rachel was buried by the road, near the town of Bethlehem and nigh unto Ephratha. Jeremiah prophetically invisions Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, for they are gone, taken away into captivity and being scattered both the kingdom of Israel and of Judah. And thus God says to Rachel, 'Refrain you voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your labor. There is hope for your future, God says, and your children will return to their borders. (Jeremiah 31:15-17) It is this same chapter of Jeremiah where in the Lord declares, '... I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.' (Jeremiah 31:9). Further in the prophetic writings of the Apostle Matthew, Matthew records that when Herod searched the hill country of Ramah from Bethlehem and on up into Ramah of Ephraim, that is was also likewise as Jeremiah so proclaimed of Rachel/Rahel, that 'In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.' (Matthew 2:18). Though such as Sarah, Rebeckah, Leah, Rachel, and even in the Christian tradition such as Mary are all named as 'Mothers of Israel', it quite seems that both in traditional celebration and in scriptural prophetic reference, it is Rachel who sits predominantly to be considered as the Mother of Israel. And as the lamentation and riddle so implies, it is but Rachel who is counted first as the mother of Israel who raise up Joseph who is sold into Egypt, and then also is counted as the mother of the kings of Israel, from even Saul then David and thence on down through the house of David until the Babylonian captivity. And just how is Rachel a mother of both the house of Joseph/Ephraim and also the house of David, see: Messiah ben David ~ Messian ben Joseph. |
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5 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.
6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and adevoured men. 7 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. |
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8 Then the nations set
aagainst him on every side from the provinces, and spread
their net over him: he was btaken in their
cpit.
9 And they put him in ward in achains, and brought him to the king of Babylona: they brought him into bholds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. |
9a They put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon Now if a particular person and not just a figurative representation of all of Israel, it would needs be one of the sons of Josiah, perhaps Zedekiah himself. For these were the son kings of Josiah including Zedekiah the last, who were taken to the King of Babylon. And as Zedekiah stood before the king of Babylon, they did kill each of his sons born to the throne, all except one who did escape, Mulek by name. Then is the question, if the particular mother of Israel is Rachel as before of the one prince who was taken in chains to Egypt was Joseph, how then are the sons and particularly Zedekiah and even his son Mulek one of those whose mother is also to be considered Rachel? (See: Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph) | |
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10 ¶ Thy mother is like a
avine bin thy blood, planted by the
waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. |
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12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was
cast down to the ground, and the aeast
bwind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and
withered; the fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the awilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 14 And afire is gone out of a brod 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. |
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