‘Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline, Planted by the waters, Fruitful and full of branches Because of many 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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.
- Deut 8:7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;
- Num 24:6–7As valleys they are spread out, as gardens by the riverside, as aloes which Yahweh has planted, as cedar trees beside the waters.
- Matt 21:33–41“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
- Ezek 17:6It grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine, produced branches, and shot out sprigs.
- Ezek 15:2–8“Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine-branch which is among the trees of the forest?
- Hos 2:2Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
- Ps 89:25–29I will set his hand also on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers.
- Isa 5:1–4Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
- Deut 8:9a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.
- Ezek 19:2and say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness. She couched among lions, in the middle of the young lions she nourished her cubs.
- Hos 2:5For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.