Ezekiel 19:2

19:2 and say:

“‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions!

She lay among young lions; ¹  she reared her cubs.

Ezekiel 19:10

19:10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, ²  planted by water.

It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered.

Ezekiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ³  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ⁴  within you.

¹ sn Lions probably refer to Judahite royalty and/or nobility. The lioness appears to symbolize the Davidic dynasty, though some see the referent as Hamutal, the wife of Josiah and mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah. Gen 49:9 seems to be the background for Judah being compared to lions.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

⁴ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.