Lament, it’s something we can all do when life doesn’t go the way we hoped it would. But this lament is for judgment, not just a bad day. So let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, thank You for being Holy. Thank You for warning us in all these texts what we should not do. Thank You for leading us through this lament or in these words, dirge. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
Please read Ezekiel 19: 1-2
Dirge for the Princes of Israel
1 “As for you, take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for the princes of Israel 2 and say,
‘What was your mother [Jerusalem and Judah]?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
She reared her cubs.
The kings were considered lions. Who’d have imagined that? For Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The King of kings and Lord of Lords. God’s words, so He imagined it that way. But it’s a good metaphor. Keep reading.
Please read Ezekiel 19:3-4
3 ‘When she [the royal mother-city] brought up [Jehoahaz] one of her cubs,
He became a [young] lion,
And he learned to catch and tear the prey;
He devoured men.
4 ‘The nations heard about him;
He was captured in their pit,
And they brought him with hooks
To the land of Egypt.
2 Kings 23:31
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned for [only] three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2 Chronicles 36:1-4 {Jehoahaz = Joahaz}
Then the people of the land took Joahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father. 2 Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned [only] three months in Jerusalem. 3 Then the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and imposed a fine on the land of a hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. 4 The king of Egypt made Eliakim, the brother of Joahaz, king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Joahaz his brother, and brought him to Egypt.
Please read Ezekiel 19:5-7
5 ‘When she saw, as she waited,
That her hope was lost,
She took [a]another of her cubs
And made him a young lion.
6 ‘And he moved among the lions;
He became a young lion,
He learned to tear the prey;
He devoured men.
7 ‘He destroyed their palaces
And he flattened their cities;
And the land and all who were in it were appalled
By the sound of his roaring.
While she waited, Babylon made Jehoiachin King. He was evil as well, and soon deposed, his end was in surrender.
2 Kings 24:8
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned [only] three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
2 Kings24:17-20 – the other cub –
Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that Jehoiakim had done. 20 Because of the anger of the Lord these things happened in Jerusalem and Judah, and it [finally] came to the point that He cast them from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Lament all the evil of all these kings. God is Holy and Just and He will judge them. Yet, sometimes the hard part of bible study is all the name changes. But Both Jehoahaz and Zedekiah have the same mother. So they must be brothers despite the fact that his original name was probably Mattaniah. Both he and Jehoiachin were sent to Babylon.
Please read Ezekiel 19:8-9
8 ‘Then the nations set against him (the king)
On every side from the provinces,
And they spread their net over him;
He was captured in their pit.
9 ‘They put him in a cage with hooks and chains
And brought him to the king of Babylon;
They brought him in hunting nets
So that his voice would be heard no more
On the mountains of Israel.
Lament
Jeremiah 44:30 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.’
Please read Ezekiel 19:10-14
10 ‘Your mother [Jerusalem] was like a vine in your [b]vineyard,
Planted by the waters;
It was fruitful and full of branches
Because of abundant water.
11 ‘And it had strong branches for the scepters of rulers,
And its height was raised above the thick branches and into the clouds
So that it was seen [easily] in its height with the mass of its branches.
12 ‘But the vine was uprooted in [godly] wrath [by His representative]
And it was thrown down to the ground;
The east wind dried up its fruit.
Its strong branch was broken off
So that it withered;
The fire [of God’s judgment] consumed it.
13 ‘And now it is transplanted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land [of Babylon].
14‘And the fire [of Zedekiah’s rebellion] has gone out from its branch;
It has consumed the vine’s shoots and fruit,
So that it has in it no [longer a] strong branch
As a scepter to rule.’”
This is a dirge (funeral poem to be sung), and has become a dirge.
Jerusalem was beautiful. But God judged the people. Lament the judgment. This is a dirge. A dirge is a song or hymn of grief or lamentation, a slow, solemn and mournful piece of music or a poem with qualities of a dirge like this because grief or lamentation is what the faithful should feel over the awful judgment coming on their land and their kings.
Footnotes
[a] Ezekiel 19:5 – She took [a]another of her cubs – Either a timely reference to Jehoiachin who reigned only three months, or a prediction regarding Zedekiah. Both rulers were exiled to Babylon.
[b] Ezekiel 19:10 – like a vine in your [b]vineyard – So with some ancient mss; MT blood.