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<p>Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here represented by another similitude; she is a vine, and the princes are her branches. This comparison we had before, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.15.1" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.15.1">Ezek. 15:1</a>. Jerusalem is as <i>a vine</i>; the Jewish nation is so: <i>Like a vine in they blood</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.10" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.10">Ezek. 19:10</a>), the blood-royal, like a vine set in blood and watered with blood, which contributes very much to the flourishing and fruitfulness of vines, as if the blood which had been shed had been designed for the fattening and improving of the soil, in such plenty was it shed; and for a time it seemed to have that effect, for she was <i>fruitful and full of branches</i> by reason of the waters, the <i>many waters</i> near which she was <i>planted</i>. Places of great wickedness may prosper for a while; and a vine set in blood may be full of branches. Jerusalem was full of able magistrates, men of sense, men of learning and experience, that were <i>strong rods</i>, branches of this vine of uncommon bulk and strength, or poles for the support of this vine, for such magistrates are. The boughs of this vine had grown to such maturity that they were fit to make white staves of for <i>the sceptres of those that bore rule</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.11" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.11">Ezek. 19:11</a>. And those are <i>strong rods</i> that are fit for <i>sceptres</i>, men of strong judgments and strong resolutions that are fit for magistrates. When the royal family of Judah was numerous, and the courts of justice were filled with men of sense and probity, then <i>Jerusalem’s stature was exalted among thick branches</i>; when the government is in good able hands a nation is thereby made considerable Then she was not taken for a weak and lowly vine, but <i>she appeared in her height</i>, a distinguished city, <i>with the multitude of her branches. Tanquam lenta solent inter viburna cupressi—Midst humble withies thus the cypress soars. “In thy quietness</i>” (so some read that, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.10" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.10">Ezek. 19:10</a>; which we translate <i>in thy blood</i>) “thou wast such a vine as this.” When Zedekiah was quiet and easy under the king of Babylon’s yoke his kingdom flourished thus. See how slow God is to anger, how he defers his judgments, and waits to be gracious. 2. This vine is now quite destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar, being highly provoked by Zedekiah’s treachery, <i>plucked it up in fury</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.12" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.12">Ezek. 19:12</a>), ruined the city and kingdom, and cut off all the branches of the royal family that fell in his way. The vine was <i>cut off close to the ground</i>, though not plucked up by the roots. The <i>east wind dried up the fruit</i> that was blasted. The young people fell by the sword, or were carried into captivity. The aspect of it had nothing that was pleasing, the prospect nothing that was promising. Her <i>strong rods were broken and withered</i>; her great men were cut off, judges and magistrates deposed. <i>The vine itself is planted in the wilderness</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.13" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.13">Ezek. 19:13</a>. Babylon was as a wilderness to those of the people that were carried captives thither; the land of Judah was as a wilderness to Jerusalem, now that the whole country was ravaged and laid waste by the Chaldean army—a <i>fruitful land turned into barrenness</i>. “It is <i>burnt with fire</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.80.16" href="/passage/?search=Ps.80.16">Ps. 80:16</a>) and that fire has <i>gone out of a rod of her branches</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.19.14" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.19.14">Ezek. 19:14</a>); the king himself, by rebelling against the king of Babylon, has given occasion to all this mischief. She may thank herself for the fire that consumes her; she has by her wickedness made herself like tind
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