The Bible for beginners for 7 July 2021

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Ezekiel, Chapter 19

¹ A lamentation for the princes of Israel, under the parable of lions' whelps taken in a pit, ¹⁰ and for Jerusalem, under the parable of a wasted vine

¹Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

²And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

³And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

⁴The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

⁵Now 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.

⁶And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

⁷And 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.

⁸Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹And 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.

¹²But 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.

¹³And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

¹⁴And 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.

Read more:Ezekiel, Chapter 20

NOTES

Today's reading offers us a song written by the prophet in the genre of a funeral lament. One might think that a person who perfectly understands the spiritual causes of what is happening should bear the misfortune that has befallen his people and country more easily than...

Today's reading offers us a song written by the prophet in the genre of a funeral lament. One might think that a person who perfectly understands the spiritual causes of what is happening should bear the misfortune that has befallen his people and country more easily than others, especially since Ezekiel, unlike many of his contemporaries, knew that the history of the Jewish people was not yet over, that they had a future and that the Babylonian exiles had hope. But, of course, although such knowledge eases the pain, it does not completely save one from it.

On the human level, the prophet's lament for Jerusalem and the people is quite understandable. Yet this is not merely an outpouring of Ezekiel's own feelings: it is God Himself who prompts him to lament for the people (v. 1). And here a question arises: why does God need Ezekiel's lament? God is not human, and He certainly knows perfectly well everything concerning the historical destiny of His people, especially since that destiny is entirely in His hands. And yet God weeps for His people; He weeps in Ezekiel. The time will come when, having become Man, He will weep for Jerusalem with literally human tears.

But now, while that time has not yet come, He weeps in Ezekiel. No future spiritual heights or achievements, not even the Coming of Christ itself, lessen the pain of those who suffer here and now, just as the future fullness of the Kingdom does not lessen the pain of those who suffer from the evil and sin in which the world lies, a world that has not yet come into contact with the Kingdom. These tears and this pain do not devalue the Kingdom, but they do devalue every theodicy, every assertion that “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” The Kingdom becomes possible only because all pain subsides there. But pain in itself has no meaning, and theologians should hardly seek what is not there. Even God sees no meaning in pain itself. But He knows how to comfort everyone and wipe away every tear. And in the Kingdom He will do so. For now, He weeps as He looks upon human pain. For now, through the eyes of His prophet. But the day will come when He will weep through the eyes of His Son.

The lament over the chosen people, which the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 19 casts in the form of a kind of parable, is very important, if one may put it this way, in the emotional context of his book. Through almost the entire first half of it, the prophet gives the words...

The figurative parable about the princes and kings of Israel and Judah, like the parable about the vine - Jerusalem, speaks of the ruinous nature...

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