Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of the abundant waters.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- 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.
- NKJV ‘Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline, Planted by the waters, Fruitful and full of branches Because of many waters.
- NASB ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, Planted by the waters; It was fruitful and thick with branches Because of abundant waters.
- NLT “Your mother was like a vine planted by the water’s edge. It had lush, green foliage because of the abundant water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The lament shifts to a second image: the mother as a fruitful vine planted by abundant waters. This recalls Judah's God-given prosperity and royal vigor.
Overview
The vine is a frequent biblical picture of Israel and its kingship (Psalm 80; Isaiah 5). Once planted by life-giving waters, the nation flourished with strength and fruitfulness under God's blessing. This bright picture of former glory makes the coming judgment all the more sorrowful, and it anticipates Christ, the true vine, in whom God's people finally bear lasting fruit (John 15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 80:8–11You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.
- Deut 8:7For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;
- Num 24:6–7They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.
- Matt 21:33–41Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- Ezek 17:6It sprouted and became a spreading vine, low in height, with branches turned toward him; yet its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine and yielded branches and sent out shoots.
- Ezek 15:2–8“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?
- Hos 2:2Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
- Ps 89:25–29I will set his hand over the sea, and his right hand upon the rivers.
- Isa 5:1–4I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
- Deut 8:9a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.
- Ezek 19:2and say: ‘What was your mother? A lioness among the lions! She lay down among the young lions; she reared her cubs.
- Hos 2:5For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 19:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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