Text -- Ezekiel 19:8-14 (NET)

19:8 The nations– the surrounding regions– attacked him. They threw their net over him; he was caught in their pit. 19:9 They put him in a collar with hooks; they brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him to prison so that his voice would not be heard any longer on the mountains of Israel. 19:10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by water. It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered. 19:11 Its boughs were strong, fit for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds. It stood out because of its height and its many branches. 19:12 But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered– a fire consumed them. 19:13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. 19:14 A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’ This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eze 19:9

¹ tn Or “They put him in a neck stock with hooks.” The noun סּוּגַר (sugar), translated “collar,” occurs only here in the Bible. L. C. Allen and D. I. Block point out a Babylonian cognate that refers to a device for transporting prisoners of war that held them by their necks (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:597, n. 35; L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284). Based on the Hebrew root, the traditional rendering had been “cage” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

² tc The term in the MT occurs only here and in Eccl 9:12 where it refers to a net for catching fish. The LXX translates this as “prison,” which assumes a confusion of dalet and resh took place in the MT.

NET Notes: Eze 19:10

¹ tc The Hebrew text reads “in your blood,” but most emend to “in your vineyard,” assuming a ב-כ (beth-kaph) confusion. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. Another attractive emendation assumes a faulty word division and yields the reading “like a vine full of tendrils, which/because…”; see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:607, n. 68.

NET Notes: Eze 19:11

¹ tn The word “fit” does not occur in the Hebrew text.

² tn Heb “and it was seen by its height and by the abundance of its branches.”

NET Notes: Eze 19:12

¹ sn The east wind symbolizes the Babylonians.

NET Notes: Eze 19:13

¹ sn This metaphor depicts the Babylonian exile of the Davidic dynasty.

NET Notes: Eze 19:14

¹ tn The verse describes the similar situation recorded in Judg 9:20.