Ezekiel 19
1 Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,
Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones.
And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?
3 And one of her little ones came to growth under her care, and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.
And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
4 And the nations had news of him; he was taken in the hole they had made: and, pulling him with hooks, they took him into the land of Egypt.
And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a young lion.
But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.
And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
7 And he sent destruction on their widows and made waste their towns; and the land and everything in it became waste because of the loud sound of his voice.
He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations came against him from the kingdoms round about: their net was stretched over him and he was taken in the hole they had made.
And the nations Game together against him on every side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was taken.
9 They made him a prisoner with hooks, and took him to the king of Babylon; they put him in the strong place so that his voice might be sounding no longer on the mountains of Israel.
And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the great waters.
Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.
11 And she had a strong rod for a rod of authority for the rulers, and it became tall among the clouds and it was seen lifted up among the number of its branches.
And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her branches.
12 But she was uprooted in burning wrath, and made low on the earth; the east wind came, drying her up, and her branches were broken off; her strong rod became dry, the fire made a meal of it.
But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured her.
13 And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and unwatered country.
And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.
14 And fire has gone out from her rod, causing the destruction of her branches, so that there is no strong rod in her to be the ruler's rod of authority. This is a song of grief, and it was for a song of grief.
And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.
