Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 19:2

"and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps." — Ezekiel 19:2 (ASV)

Your mother. —Mother stands for the whole national community—the theocracy, as is plain from Ezekiel 19:10. This was represented, since the captivity of the ten tribes, by Judah; and her “princes,” of the line of David, were the legitimate kings of the whole nation. The figure of the lion is a common one in Scripture (Numbers 23:24; Numbers 24:9), and was also familiar in Babylonia.