Ezekiel 19:1–9

A LAMENT FOR ISRAEL’S PRINCES

19“As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel,^{c 2}and say:

What was your mother? A lioness!

She lay down among the lions;

she reared her cubs among the young lions.

³She brought up one of her cubs,

and he became a young lion.^d

After he learned to tear prey,

he devoured people.

⁴When the nations heard about him,

he was caught in their pit.

Then they led him away with hooks

to the land of Egypt.^e

⁵When she saw that she waited in vain,

that her hope was lost,

she took another of her cubs

and made him a young lion.

⁶He prowled among the lions,^f

and he became a young lion.

After he learned to tear prey,

he devoured people.

⁷He devastated their strongholds^A

and destroyed their cities.

The land and everything in it shuddered

at the sound of his roaring.

⁸Then the nations from the surrounding provinces

set out against him.^g

They spread their net over him;

he was caught in their pit.

⁹They put a wooden yoke on him^A with hooks^h

and led him away to the king of Babylon.

They brought him into the fortresses

so his roar could no longer be heard

on the mountains of Israel.ⁱ