Ezekiel 19:2 - Exposition

What is thy mother? etc.; better, with the Vulgate, LXX ; and Keil, Why did thy mother, a lioness, lie down among lionesses? The image may have been suggested by Genesis 49:9 and Numbers 23:24 , or perhaps also by Nahum 2:11 , Nahum 2:12 . The lioness is Israel, the kingdom idealized and personified. The lionesses among whom she had lain down are the heathen kingdoms. The question asks why she had become as one of them and adopted their cruelty and ferocity.