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Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters, etc. This paragraph completes the lamentation for the princes of Israel. The figure is changed from the lioness and the young lions to the vine and its branches and fruit. This similitude is frequently used in the sacred Scriptures to represent the people of Israel (ch. Ezekiel 15; 17:5-10; Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21). The parable before us presents two pictures.

I. A PICTURE OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. (Vers. 10, 11.)

1. Some features of national prosperity.

(1) Favourable circumstances. "A vine planted by the waters." Palestine, the land of the chosen people, was very favourably situated in many respects. It was almost completely surrounded by natural fortifications. On their northern frontier were the ranges of Lebanon; from their southern frontier "stretched that 'great and terrible wilderness,' which roiled like a sea between the valley of the Nile and the valley of the Jordan." On the east they were guarded by the eastern desert and by "the vast fissure of the Jordan valley;" and on the west by the Mediterranean, which, "when Israel first settled in Palestine, was not yet the thoroughfare - it was rather the boundary and the terror of the Eastern nations." And to the Western world the coast of Palestine opposed an inhospitable front, Moreover, the land in which this vine was planted was remarkable for its fertility (cf. Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 8:7-9). Palestine, says Dean Stanley, "not merely by its situation, but by its comparative fertility, might well be considered the prize of the Eastern world, the possession of which was the mark of God's peculiar favour; the spot for which the nations would contend; as on a smaller scale the Bedouin tribes for some 'diamond of the desert,' some 'palm-grove islanded amid the waste.' And a land of which the blessings were so evidently the gift of God, not as in Egypt of man's Inborn'; which also, by reason of its narrow extent, was so constantly within reach and sight of the neighbouring desert, was eminently calculated to raise the thoughts of the nation to the Supreme Giver of all these blessings, and to bind it by the dearest ties to the land which he had so manifestly favoured."

(2) Efficient rulers. "She had strong rods for the sceptre of them that bare rule." "There grew up in Jerusalem-Judah strong shoots of David, able to rule (Genesis 49:10)." All her kings were not eminent either for capability or character; but some of them certainly were; e.g. David, Solomon, Asa. Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah.

(3) Manifest progress. "She was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters Her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude el her branches." In the time of David and Solomon great was the prosperity of the nation (cf. 1 Chronicles 14:17; 1 Chronicles 29:26-28; 2 Chronicles 9.). Even under Zedekiah (as we pointed out on Ezekiel 17:5, 6) an encouraging measure of progress and prosperity might have been attained if he had remained faithful to his engagements with the King of Babylon.

2. The great source of national prosperity. "She was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters." "The many waters," says Hengstenberg, "signify the Divine blessing which ruled over Israel, the rich influx of grace." The Israelites in a special sense owed their national existence and power and prosperity to Jehovah their God. And in all times and places true and lasting national prosperity can only be attained by compliance with the Law of God and realization of his blessing. "Righteousness exalteth a nation," etc.; "The throne is established by righteousness;" "The God of Israel, he giveth strength and power unto his people." He also "bringeth princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity."

II. A PICTURE OF NATIONAL RUIN. (Vers. 12-14.) Schroder calls attention to the sudden transition from the description of the prosperity of this vine to the declaration of its destruction. "Without the intervention of anything further, there follows its splendid growth, like a lightning-flash from the clear heavens, the complete overthrow of the vine, i.e. of Jerusalem-Judah, the birthplace of kings, and therewith the Davidic kingdom."

1. Some features of this ruin.

(1) Favourable circumstances are exchanged for adverse ones. Formerly she was" planted by the waters;" and now she is "planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land." The expression is figurative, setting forth their exile as a condition opposed to their growth and prosperity. "Such a wilderness may even be in the midst of a cultivated land." In some respects, "Babylon was as a wilderness to those of the people that were carried captive thither." They had lost their national life, their ancestral estates, many of their religious privileges, etc.

(2) Efficient rulers are no more. "Her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them She hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule." The words, perhaps, refer to Zedekiah and his miserable overthrow (2 Kings 25:4-7). And there was no one to retrieve their fallen fortunes, or to reign efficiently over the remnant of them that was left in the land (cf. Isaiah 3:6-8).

(3) Manifest progress is exchanged for desolation and ruin. "She was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit." The commentary on these clauses we have in 2 Kings 25:8-26; 2 Chronicles 36:17-20; Jeremiah lit. 12-30; and in Lamentations.

2. The instrument of this ruin. "The east wind dried up her fruit" (cf. Ezekiel 17:10; Hosea 13:15). The east wind points to the Chaldeans as the instrument of the Divine judgment. The figure is appropriate, both because the Chaldeans dwelt in the east, and because the east wind is often injurious to vegetable life.

3. The cause of this ruin. "Fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit." "The fire goes out from the chief stem of the branches: it does not take its rise from the Chaldees, but proceeds from the royal family itself, which by its crimes called down the Divine vengeance." It was Zedekiah, by his base treachery towards Nebuchadnezzar, that at last brought on the ruin (Ezekiel 17:15-21). "The desolation of kingdoms," says Greenhill, "usually have been by their own kings and rulers, by those they have brought forth and set up; their follies, cruelties, treacheries, have fired and consumed their kingdoms."

CONCLUSION.

1. Prosperity, both individual and national, is of God.

2. Ruin, both individual and national, is self-caused. "The fire of one's own unrighteousness kindles the wrathful judgment of God." "Men first become parched, then the rite consumes them." "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!"

3. Sin invariably leads to sorrow. It first causes lamentation to the good, and then leads to general lamentation. Sin may be committed amidst mirth and music, but it will speedily had to mourning and woe. "This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation." - W.J.

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KJV: Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

WEB: Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.