Ezekiel 19
A Lament for the Princes of Israel
[1] And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, [2] and say:
What was your mother? A lioness!
Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
she reared her cubs.
[3] And she brought up one of her cubs;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
[4] The nations heard about him;
he was caught in their pit,
and they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
[5] When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
[6] He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men,
[7] and seized their widows.
He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring.
[8] Then the nations set against him
from provinces on every side;
they spread their net over him;
he was taken in their pit.
[9] With hooks they put him in a cage
and brought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
on the mountains of Israel.
[10] Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard
planted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches
by reason of abundant water.
[11] Its strong stems became
rulers’ scepters;
it towered aloft
among the thick boughs;
it was seen in its height
with the mass of its branches.
[12] But the vine was plucked up in fury,
cast down to the ground;
the east wind dried up its fruit;
they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem,
fire consumed it.
[13] Now it is planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty land.
[14] And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
has consumed its fruit,
so that there remains in it no strong stem,
no scepter for ruling.
This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation. (ESV)
