What is the context?
Ezekiel is told to take up a lament for Israel’s princes. The royal family is pictured as a lioness raising cubs. One grows into a lion that devours people, until the nations trap it and take it to Egypt.
The lioness raises another cub after her hope for the first is lost. This one also becomes destructive, terrifying the land and its cities. The nations trap it and bring it to Babylon, where its roar will no longer be heard on Israel’s mountains.
The first removal corresponds to Jehoahaz’s fate in Second Kings 23:31–37: Pharaoh Neco deposes him and takes him to Egypt. The later kings’ removals by Babylon are recorded in Second Chronicles 36:1–10.
The poem turns the image of royal strength into a song of loss. The rulers who seemed able to dominate others cannot prevent their own capture.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry understands the lions as Judah’s kings, emphasizing their cruelty and oppression. Wesley identifies the first cub as Jehoahaz and the next as Jehoiakim.
The second cub’s identity is read differently. The USCCB notes report a reading that identifies the two as Jehoahaz and Zedekiah, sons of the same mother. The Cambridge commentary on verse 5 identifies him as Jehoiachin, whose removal to Babylon is recorded in Second Chronicles 36:9–10.
The poem does not supply the second king’s name. Its main force is the downfall of destructive royal power: the nation cannot assume that another ruler of the same kind will rescue it from the judgment being announced.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.