Ezekiel 19:11-12

And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule.

The renewal of ruined nations

1. States and kingdoms broken to pieces, ruined in times of war and trouble, do flourish again in times of quiet and silence. Peace after war is like spring after a sharp winter, which revives, causeth growth and greenness; yet know that states ruined by tyranny of princes, by wars, do not suddenly recover themselves, or attain to their former greatness and splendour: though Jerusalem became a vine after the roaring and spoil of Jehoiakim, yet she was a “vine of a low stature.”

2. It is through the mercy, goodness, and blessing of God that wasted kingdoms do become as vines, and flourish again.

3. When mercies are multiplied, men are apt to abuse them, and swell with the enjoyment of them. Prosperity is a dangerous thing, and hath hazarded many (Isaiah 47:5; Isaiah 47:7). After Hezekiah had received many mercies, “his heart was lifted up” (2 Chronicles 32:23). Rehoboam, when he was strengthened in the kingdom, “forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him”; here was a sad effect of prosperity (2 Chronicles 12:1). (W. Greenhill, M. A.)