Ezekiel 19

¹ Moreover take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

² and say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness. She couched among lions; in the middle of young lions she nourished her cubs.

³ She brought up one of her cubs. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men.

⁴ The nations also heard of him. He was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁵ “Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion.

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

⁷ He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities. The land was desolate, and all that was therein, because of the noise of his roaring.

⁸ Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces. They spread their net over him. He was taken in their pit.

⁹ They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ “Your mother was like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters. She was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹ She had strong rods for the scepters of those who ruled. Her stature was exalted among the thick branches. She was seen in her height with the multitude of her branches.

¹² But she was plucked up in fury. She was cast down to the ground. The east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong rods were broken off and withered. The fire consumed them.

¹³ Now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴ Fire has gone out of the rod of her branches. It has devoured her fruit, so that there is in her no strong rod to be a scepter to rule.” This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.