Ezekiel 19

1 “And you, lift up a lamentation to princes of Israel,

Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,

2 and you have said: What [is] your mother? A lioness, She has crouched down among lions, She has multiplied her whelps in the midst of young lions.

What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones.

3 And she brings up one of her whelps, He has been a young lion, And he learns to tear prey, He has devoured man.

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.

4 And nations hear of him, He has been caught in their pit, And they bring him to the land of Egypt in chains.

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.

5 And as she waited she sees that her hope has perished, And she takes one of her whelps, She has made him a young lion.

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.

6 And he goes up and down in the midst of lions, He has been a young lion, And he learns to tear prey, He has devoured man.

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.

7 And he knows his forsaken habitations, And he has laid waste [to] their cities, And the land and its fullness is desolate, Because of the voice of his roaring.

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.

8 And surrounding nations set against him from the provinces. And they spread out their net for him, He has been caught in their pit.

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.

9 And they put him in prison—in chains, And they bring him to the king of Babylon, They bring him into bulwarks, So that his voice is not heard On mountains of Israel anymore.

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.

10 Your mother, like the vine in your blood, Is being planted by waters, She was bearing fruit and full of boughs, Because of many waters.

Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the great waters.

11 And she has strong rods for scepters of rulers, And she is high in stature above—between thick branches, And it appears in its height In the multitude of its thin shoots.

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.

12 And she is plucked up in fury, She has been cast to the earth, And the east wind has dried up her fruit, [The] rod of her strength has been broken and withered, Fire has consumed it.

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.

13 And now she is planted in a wilderness, In a dry and thirsty land.

And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and unwatered country.

14 And fire goes forth from a rod of her boughs, It has devoured her fruit, And she has no rod of strength—a scepter to rule, A lamentation—and she has become for a lamentation!”

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.