Ezekiel 19

Israel Degraded

¹⁹As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,^{* 2}and say:

What a lioness was your mother

among lions!

She lay down among young lions,

rearing her cubs.^*

³She raised up one of her cubs;

he became a young lion,

and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured humans.^*

⁴The nations heard about him;

he was caught in their pit,

and they brought him with hooks

to the land of Egypt.^*

⁵When she saw that she was thwarted,

that her hope was lost,

she took another of her cubs

and made him a young lion.^*

⁶He prowled among the lions;

he became a young lion,

and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured people.^*

⁷And he ravaged their strongholds^g

and laid waste their towns;

the land was appalled, and all in it,

at the sound of his roaring.^*

⁸The nations set upon him

from the provinces all around;

they spread their net over him;

he was caught in their pit.^*

⁹With hooks they put him in a neck collar

and brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him into custody,

so that his voice should be heard no more

on the mountains of Israel.^*

¹⁰Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard^h

transplanted by the water,

fruitful and full of branches

from abundant water.^*

¹¹Its strongest stem became

a ruler’s scepter;ⁱ

it towered aloft

among the clouds;

it stood out in its height

with its mass of branches.^*

¹²But it was plucked up in fury,

cast down to the ground;

the east wind dried it up;

its fruit was stripped off;

its strong stem was withered;

the fire consumed it.^*

¹³Now it is transplanted into the wilderness,

into a dry and thirsty land.^*

¹⁴And fire has gone out from its stem,

has consumed its branches and fruit,

so that there remains in it no strong stem,

no scepter for ruling.

This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation.^*