NOTES for Eze 19:1-14
In this parable the vine is called a sturdy tree whose branches are fit for royal scepters. Such a comparison contradicts the recent words about the vine’s fragility and uselessness, but let us not be literalists. This is not only because parables necessarily involve conventions (after all, in this very parable the vine is also a lioness), but even more because the Lord is able to endow the weak with strength. Yet the vine is torn from the fertile soil, and it is torn out because of its children, the lion cubs, who act wickedly.
Does what is said in this parable contradict what was said the day before—that no one should be punished for other people’s sins, but only for one’s own? No, for that passage concerned the deeds each person commits independently. But the lioness, inseparably bound to her cubs and unable to guide them onto the right path, cannot distance herself from her share of responsibility for their sins and lawlessness.