Ezekiel 19

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

Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

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.

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

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 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 heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains 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.

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 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 lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

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.

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

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 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.

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, like the vine in your blood, Is being planted by waters, She was bearing fruit and full of boughs, Because of many 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 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 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 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 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 a wilderness, In a dry and thirsty land.

And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.

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 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.