Ezekiel 19

A Song of Sorrow

19The Lord told me to sing this song of sorrow for two princes of Israel:

²What a lioness your mother was!

She reared her cubs among the fierce male lions.

³She reared a cub and taught him to hunt;

he learnt to eat people.

⁴The nations heard about him

and trapped him in a pit.

With hooks they dragged him off to Egypt.

⁵She waited until she saw all hope was gone.

Then she reared another of her cubs,

and he grew into a fierce lion.

⁶When he was full-grown,

he prowled with the other lions.

He too learnt to hunt and eat people.

⁷He wrecked forts,^l he ruined towns.

The people of the land were terrified

every time he roared.

⁸The nations gathered to fight him;

people came from everywhere.

They spread their hunting nets

and caught him in their trap.

⁹They put him in a cage

and took him to the king of Babylonia.

They kept him under guard,

so that his roar would never be heard again

on the hills of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a grapevine^m planted near a stream.

Because there was plenty of water,

the vine was covered with leaves and fruit.

¹¹Its branches were strong,

and grew to be royal sceptres.

The vine grew tall enough to reach the clouds;

everyone saw how leafy and tall it was.

¹²But angry hands pulled it up by the roots

and threw it to the ground.

The east wind dried up its fruit.

Its branches were broken off;

they dried up and were burnt.

¹³Now it is planted in the desert,

in a dry and waterless land.

¹⁴The stem of the vine caught fire;

fire burnt up its branches and fruit.

The branches will never again be strong,

will never be royal sceptres.

This is a song of sorrow; it has been sung again and again.