Ezekiel 19

A Lament Over Israel’s Princes

¹“Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel ²and say:

“ ‘What a lioness was your mother

among the lions!

She lay down among them

and reared her cubs.

³She brought up one of her cubs,

and he became a strong lion.

He learned to tear the prey

and he became a man-eater.

⁴The nations heard about him,

and he was trapped in their pit.

They led him with hooks

to the land of Egypt.

⁵“ ‘When she saw her hope unfulfilled,

her expectation gone,

she took another of her cubs

and made him a strong lion.

⁶He prowled among the lions,

for he was now a strong lion.

He learned to tear the prey

and he became a man-eater.

⁷He broke down their strongholds

and devastated their towns.

The land and all who were in it

were terrified by his roaring.

⁸Then the nations came against him,

those from regions round about.

They spread their net for him,

and he was trapped in their pit.

⁹With hooks they pulled him into a cage

and brought him to the king of Babylon.

They put him in prison,

so his roar was heard no longer

on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰“ ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard

planted by the water;

it was fruitful and full of branches

because of abundant water.

¹¹Its branches were strong,

fit for a ruler’s scepter.

It towered high

above the thick foliage,

conspicuous for its height

and for its many branches.

¹²But it was uprooted in fury

and thrown to the ground.

The east wind made it shrivel,

it was stripped of its fruit;

its strong branches withered

and fire consumed them.

¹³Now it is planted in the desert,

in a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴Fire spread from one of its main branches

and consumed its fruit.

No strong branch is left on it

fit for a ruler’s scepter.’

This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”