Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 19:12
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.
12. Destruction of the vine, the nationality of Israel. The figures employed are usual, ch. Eze 17:9-10, Eze 31:12; Amo 9:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is a dirge; and therefore that which is foreseen by the prophet, the capture and burning of Jerusalem, is described as already accomplished.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 19:12
Her strong rods were broken and withered.
Gods judgment in breaking the strong rods of a community
I. What qualifications of those who are in public authority may properly give them the denomination of strong rods.
1. Great ability for the management of public affairs. This is the case when they are men of largeness of understanding, especially when they have a natural genius for government.
2. Largeness of heart and a greatness and nobleness of disposition. It is peculiarly unbecoming them to be capable of little intrigues.
3. The spirit of government. They must have a peculiar aptitude for using their knowledge, and a spirit of resolution and activity.
4. Stability. A strong rod must be immovable in the execution of justice and judgment.
5. It contributes to the strength of a rod when he is in such circumstances as give him advantage for the exercise of his strength.
II. When such strong rods are broken and withered by death, it is a judgment of God upon the people who are deprived of them.
1. By reason of the many positive benefits and blessings to a people that such men are the instruments of (Psa 82:5; Psa 11:3). Their influence has a tendency to promote wealth and virtue (Ecc 10:17). Solomon was a remarkable illustration of this truth. (See 1Ki 4:25; 1Ki 10:27).
2. On account of the great calamities they are a defence from. Government is necessary to defend communities from miseries from within themselves; they are the heads of union without which nothing is to be expected but remediless and endless broils. We see the need of government in societies, by what is visible in families,–those lesser societies of which all public societies are constituted,–and as government is absolutely necessary, so there is a necessity of strong rods in order to it: the business being such as requires persons so qualified.
3. They are no less necessary to defend the community from foreign enemies. As they are like the pillars of a building, so they are like the bulwarks of a city; they are under God a peoples main strength in time of war (Lam 4:20; Neh 9:27). On these accounts, when a nation is strong, rods are broken; it is a judgment worthy of such lamentation as that which followed the death of King Josiah, who is one of those doubtless referred to in the text (2Ch 35:24-25). (Jonathan Edwards.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. But she was plucked up in fury] Jerusalem; taken after a violent and most destructive siege; Nebuchadnezzar being violently enraged against Zedekiah for breaking his oath to him.
She was cast down to the ground] Jerusalem was totally ruined, by being burned to the ground.
Her strong rods were broken] The children of Zedekiah were slain before his eyes, and after that his own eyes pulled out; and he was laden with chains, and carried into Babylon.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This flourishing vine first degenerated, brought forth fruit to itself, not to God, and grew proud, abused Gods mercies to all manner of sin.
She was plucked up in fury; was violently, suddenly, and totally rooted out, tore up by the roots; so was the once flourishing kingdom of the Jews overthrown.
She was cast down to the ground; had she been again set, there might have been some hope, but plucked up root and branch together it is perished for ever. To hasten the utter destruction hereof, an east wind, that blasting, piercing wind, blows upon her; the king of Babylon with all his power, raised of God to pull up this sinful kingdom.
Dried up her fruit; blasted all her fruit; deposed her king, captivated him, his family, and the whole kingdom.
Her strong rods, all the choice men, the counsellors, warriors, artificers, all that were like to be the strength of the kingdom, were broken; by Nebuchadnezzars hand plucked away, and removed into Babylon, where they lay as withered branches.
The fire consumed them; called fury in the former part of the verse. Gods displeasure for their sins, their adversaries rage, and their own animosities, burnt them up; their houses and palaces, their city and temple, all burnt, yea, and some persons with this fire were consumed also, beside some that the conqueror roasted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. plucked upnot graduallywithered. The sudden upturning of the state was designed toawaken the Jews out of their torpor to see the hand of God in thenational judgment.
east wind(See on Eze17:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But she was plucked up in fury,…. This vine being turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine; or the people of the Jews becoming wicked, disobedient to God, and disregarding his laws and ordinances, the wrath of God came upon them, and let in the Assyrians among them, who carried off ten tribes at once; and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin not taking warning hereby, but continuing and increasing in sinful courses, great part of them were carried captive into Babylon, with their king Jeconiah, who succeeded Jehoiakim before mentioned; when the kingdom seemed to be utterly ruined and destroyed, and is what is here referred to:
she was cast down to the ground; a phrase expressive of, he entire overthrow of the nation; for a vine, though plucked up, yet, if immediately planted again, might grow; but being plucked up, and left on the ground, and there lie, there is no hope of it; so that this denotes the desperate case of this people at this time, being in captivity. So the Targum paraphrases both clauses,
“and it was rooted up with strength out of the land of the house of the Shechinah, and translated into another land;”
and the east wind dried up her fruit; Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and the Chaldean army, compared to an east wind, because hurtful and pernicious, as that is to trees and fruit, and because Babylon lay northeast of Judea; the people of, he land are meant by the fruit of the vine, with their wealth and riches, which were seized upon and wasted, or carried into Babylon. So the Targum,
“and a king strong as the east wind slew her people;”
her strong rods were broken and withered; or, “strong rod”; the singular for the plural; which may design King Jeconiah particularly, who with his mother, wives, princes, and officers, and the mighty of the land, even all the mighty men of valour, with the craftsmen and smiths, were taken and carried captive, 2Ki 24:14;
the fire consumed them; the wrath of God, which is often compared to fire, the same with fury in the beginning of the verse; which shows that it was for sin, which had provoked the Lord to wrath and anger, that all this ruin came upon the Jewish nation. The Targum is,
“her strong governors removed, and were carried captive; and the people which are strong, as fire consumed them.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Let us come now to the second clause. He says that the vine was torn away in wrath, thrown on the ground, and dried by the east wind, and that its boughs were broken off and withered, and consumed by fire. I have now briefly explained the Prophet’s meaning. As the Jews had grown stupid in their calamity, and were not humbled so as suppliantly to fly to God’s mercy, the Prophet corrects their torpor when he shows them their origin. He now says that they were reduced to extreme wretchedness by a sudden assault; for a change which took place in a short space of time ought to affect them to the quick; but if they had been slowly diminished, the change had not been so remarkable: but when the vine was struck by lightning, torn up, withered, and burnt, that instantaneous slaughter, as I have said, showed that it was not by chance, but by the evident wrath of God. For this reason he says that the vine was violently torn up, and cast upon the ground. If the vine had been dried up by degrees, it, would not have been so wonderful; but its sudden tearing up ought to have made them sensible of the wrath of God, towards which they had grown callous. This is the reason why the Prophet adds one simile to another. The plucking up would have been sufficient; but he adds, it was cast upon the ground, that it should wither away completely. He adds, the east wind, which destroys both fruits and trees, as is sufficiently evident from many passages; and not only so, but he says that the boughs were broken, or plucked off, and withered: lastly, they were consumed with fire In fine, the hand of God appeared visibly in that horrible slaughter of the people, when they were torn up, cut off, withered, and burnt. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) She was plucked up.With the captivity of Jehoiachin and a part of the people the desolation had begun. Much still remained to be accomplished, but it was now close at hand; and the prophet speaks of it in the past tense, as if he saw it already fulfilled.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“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 off and withered,
The fire consumed them.
And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land,
And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, it has devoured her fruit,
So that there is in her no strong rod, to be a sceptre to rule.”
Here is the depiction of the failure of the kingship, and of the people. The glory of Israel-Judah was plucked up and cast down, and her rulers (‘strong rods’) were broken off and withered, and consumed by fire. Israel-Judah was transplanted to an unfruitful desert place, and her misfortunes will have resulted from her king who had brought about her misery (fire has gone out from him), leaving her with no one to rule her. And the whole finally resulted from the failure of Zedekiah to obey God and remain in submission to Babylon (Jer 27:12-13).
The whole lament is a stark recognition of failure, both of their kings and of the people. What God had made prosperous had languished, and finally withered, through their disobedience to His covenant.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 19:12. But she was plucked up in fury Nebuchadrezzar, irritated at the infidelity of Zedekiah, who, without any regard to his covenant, had entered into a league with the king of Egypt, came and besieged Jerusalem, took it, and put to death the sons of Zedekiah in the presence of their father. See 2Ki 25:6-7. Thus the vine was torn up, cast to the ground, withered, and consumed in the fire. Fire in the Scripture most commonly denotes war.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 19:12 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.
Ver. 12. But she was plucked up in fury. ] And so thrown with a force to the ground, as a man doth a dry or barren plant.
The east wind dried up her fruit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
she was: The kingdom was entirely ruined, and her princes cut off. Eze 15:6-8, Psa 52:5, Psa 80:12, Psa 80:13, Psa 80:16, Psa 89:40-45, Isa 5:5, Isa 5:6, Jer 31:28
the east: Eze 17:10, Jer 4:11, Jer 4:12, Hos 13:15
strong: Eze 19:11, 2Ki 23:29, 2Ki 23:34, 2Ki 24:6, 2Ki 24:14-16, 2Ki 25:6, 2Ki 25:7, Jer 22:10, Jer 22:11, Jer 22:18, Jer 22:19, Jer 22:25-27, Jer 22:30
the fire: Eze 15:4, Eze 20:47, Eze 20:48, Deu 32:22, Isa 27:11, Mat 3:10, Joh 15:6
Reciprocal: Gen 41:6 – blasted Num 17:8 – budded Isa 27:8 – his rough Jer 12:17 – pluck Jer 51:1 – a destroying wind Eze 17:5 – he placed Jon 4:8 – that God Hab 1:9 – their faces shall sup up as the east
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 19:12. The closing verses of the chapter pertain to the final overthrow of Jerusalem which was the capital of the kingdom of Judah, which event was to complete the 3rd stage of the great 70-year captivity. Plucked up in fury refers directly to the heat of the Babylonian attack. East wind suggests the blast of the Babylonian army since that force came from the east. Fire consumed is a literal prediction and its fulfillment is recorded in 2Ki 25:9.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
19:12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the {h} east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.
(h) Meaning, that the Chaldeans would destroy them as the east wind does the fruit of the vine.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
However, others uprooted this vine in their fury, trod it underfoot, and cut off its fruitfulness as with a hot east wind (from Babylon; cf. Eze 17:6-10; Eze 17:15; Psa 89:30-37). Its strong branch, King Zedekiah, was cut off so it withered and burned up. This was a prediction of Zedekiah’s future. Assuming the chronological order of the prophecies in this book, Ezekiel evidently gave this one between 592 and 591 B.C., which was after the reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin and during the reign of Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.). Zedekiah went into captivity in 586 B.C. He had been responsible for much of the destruction that had overtaken Judah. Perhaps one reason for the change in the figures describing Israel’s kings, from lions to a vine, was that Zedekiah, the branch (Eze 19:12), was not a king approved by the Judeans but a puppet of the Babylonians, though he was in the Davidic line. Scripture gives us little information about Zedekiah’s domestic policies. The vine was now in the wilderness, a place of limited resources. It had burned up so there were no more strong shoots or fruit left in it. No scepter was in it now; there was no Davidic king who could rule over Israel. The vine was not completely destroyed, but it languished having been transplanted to a hostile environment. Another view sees Zedekiah as the fire that consumed the shoots and fruit of the Davidic line. [Note: E.g., Stuart, p. 170.]
The writer identified this piece again as a lamentation, a funeral dirge or elegy that the Jews used to describe their sorrow over the fate of the Davidic rulers of their nation.
It is appropriate that this last section in the part of the book that consists of Yahweh’s reply to the invalid hopes of the Israelites (chs. 12-19) should be a lament. Judah’s doom was certain, so a funeral dirge was fitting. All the exiles could do was mourn the divine judgment on their nation that was to reach its climax very soon.
"Jerusalem’s fall was so certain that Ezekiel considered it inevitable. . . . The dirge was not over one individual; it was being sung for the Davidic dynasty and the ’death’ of its rule." [Note: Dyer, "Ezekiel," p. 1262.]
Not until Jesus Christ returns to the earth to reign will a strong branch and the ruler’s scepter arise in the line of David again (cf. Gen 49:10; Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15).