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Ezekiel 19:6

6. And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured. men.

6. Et incessit in medio leonum, leo fuit, et didicit praedari praedam, 1 homines voravit.

 

Ezekiel confirms what I have already briefly touched on, that this second lion was no less savage and cruel than the former, of which he had spoken. As to the phrase, he walked among lions, it means that his government was tyrannical, since there was then such foul barbarity in those regions, that, kings were scarcely human in their conduct. Since, therefore, kings were then everywhere like lions, the Prophet says that Jehoiakim was not different from them, but in every sense their ally. He walked, therefore, he says, in the midst of lions, since he imitated their ferocity, which at length he expresses more clearly, that he became a lion, and was taught to seize his prey, so as to devour not only animals, but men, thus marking his extreme cruelty. He afterwards adds --


1 Or, "to seize booty" -- an expression more in agreement with the Latin idiom. -- Calvin.

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