Ezekiel 19:9-14

19:9 They put him in a collar with hooks; ¹ 

they brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him to prison ² 

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, ³  planted by water.

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

19:11 Its boughs were strong, fit ⁴  for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds.

It stood out because of its height and its many branches. ⁵ 

19:12 But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground.

The east wind ⁶  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. ⁷ 

19:14 A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. ⁸ 

No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’

This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”

[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).

[19:9]  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.

[19:10]  ³ 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.

[19:11]  ⁴ tn The word “fit” does not occur in the Hebrew text.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it was seen by its height and by the abundance of its branches.”

[19:12]  ⁶ sn The east wind symbolizes the Babylonians.

[19:13]  ⁷ sn This metaphor depicts the Babylonian exile of the Davidic dynasty.

[19:14]  ⁸ tn The verse describes the similar situation recorded in Judg 9:20.