And it grew
King Zedekiah reigned and prospered, and the kingdom flourished
under him: and became a spreading vine of low
stature;
not so flourishing as it had been heretofore, in former reigns;
it did not rise up to a cedar, as it had been, but was like a
vine, which, though flourishing, does not rise up high, but runs
upon the ground, and is dependent on something else; so the king
and kingdom of Judah, though in tolerable circumstances, yet were
humble and dependent on the king of Babylon: whose branches
turned towards him;
the eagle, Nebuchadnezzar, to whom the people of the Jews were
tributary: and the roots thereof were under
him;
they were rooted and settled in their own land, yet under the
power, and at the dispose, of the Babylonish monarch: so it
became a vine;
a flourishing kingdom in some measure, though attended with some
degree of weakness and dependence as a vine: and brought
forth branches, and shot forth sprigs;
increased in people and in riches; particularly the king had many
children, so that there was a prospect of a succession, and of a
more flourishing estate, and a continuance of it, ( Jeremiah
52:10 ) .