Ezekiel 19

Lament for the Leaders of Israel

19“And you, raise a lament about^a the leaders of Israel, ²and you must say,

‘What a lioness was your mother

among the lions.

She lay down in the midst of young lions,

and she reared her lion cubs.

³And she raised up one from her cubs;

he became a fierce lion,

and he learned to tear prey;

he ate^b humans.^c

⁴And nations heard about him;

in their pit he was caught,

and they brought him with hooks

to the land of Egypt.

⁵And she saw^d that she was waiting in vain;

her hope was destroyed,

and she took one from her cubs,

and she made him a fierce lion.

⁶And he walked about in the midst of lions;

he became a fierce lion,

and he learned to tear prey;

he ate^e humans.^f

⁷And he knew their widows,^g

and he devastated their cities,

and the land was appalled, and everyone in it^h

at the sound of his roar.

⁸And nations set out against him

from the surrounding provinces,ⁱ

and they spread their net over him,

and he was caught in their pit.

⁹And they put him in a collar with hooks,

and they brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him into^j a prison,

so that his voice would not be heard any longer^k

on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like the vine in your vineyard;^l

planted fruitfully^m beside water,

and it was full of branches

from many waters.ⁿ

¹¹And she produced branches of strength^o

to^p scepters of rulers;

its height became tall

between^q thick foliage,

and it was seen^r because of its tallness

among the abundance of its branches.

¹²But it was uprooted in rage;

it was thrown to the earth,

and the east wind dried up its fruit;

they were stripped off,

and its strong branch dried up;

fire consumed it.

¹³And now it is planted in the desert,

in a dry and thirsty land.^s

¹⁴And so fire has gone out from the stem of its branches;

its fruit it has consumed,

and there was not in it a strong branch,^t

a scepter for ruling.’ ”

This is a lament, and it will be used as a lament.^u