Ezekiel 19

¹ ‘As for you, raise a dirge for the princes of Israel.

² Say: “What was your mother? A lioness surrounded by lions; lying among the cubs she nursed her whelps.

³ She reared one of her whelps and it grew into a young lion; he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.

⁴ The nations combined against him; he was caught in their pit; they dragged him off with hooks to the land of Egypt.[*a]

⁵ Her expectation thwarted, her hope dashed, she took another of her whelps and made a young lion of him.

⁶ He grew to prowl with other lions, and grew into a young lion; he learned to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.

⁷ He stormed their palaces, and sacked their cities; the country and its inhabitants were alarmed by the sound of his roars.

⁸ The nations marched out against him from the surrounding provinces; they spread their net for him; he was caught in their pit.

⁹ They caged him with hooks (they took him to the king of Babylon); they took him into a fortress, so that his voice could never again be heard on the mountains of Israel.[*b]

¹⁰ “Your mother was like a vine planted beside the water, fruitful and leafy, because the water flowed so full.

¹¹ It put out strong branches that turned to royal sceptres; they reached up, reached so high they touched the clouds; men admired them for their height and their thick foliage.

¹² But it was rooted up and thrown on the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; it was broken up; its strong branch withered away; fire consumed it all.

¹³ Now it has been transplanted into the desert, the waterless country of drought;

¹⁴ fire has come out of its stem, consumed its branches and fruit. No more strong branch for her, no more kingly sceptre.” This is a dirge; it was used as such.