Ezekiel 19

1 [Yahweh said to me, “Ezekiel], sing a sad funeral [a which will be a parable] [two of the] kings of Israel.

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

2 Say [to the Israeli people], ‘[It is as though] [MET] your mother was a brave female lion who raised her cubs among [other] lions.

and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps in the midst of the young lions.

3 She taught one of them to [for other animals to kill], and he [even] learned [kill and] eat people.

And she brought up one of her whelps; it became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

4 [When people from other] nations heard about him, they trapped him in a pit. Then they used hooks to drag him to Egypt.

And the nations heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with nose-rings into the land of Egypt.

5 His mother waited for him [to return], but [soon] she stopped hoping/expecting [that he would return]. So she raised another cub who [also] became very fierce.

And when she saw that she had waited [and] her hope was lost, she took another of her whelps, [and] made him a young lion.

6 He hunted along with [other] [for animals to kill], and he even learned [kill and] eat people.

And he went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

7 He destroyed forts, and he ruined cities. When he roared [loudly], everyone was terrified.

And he knew their [desolate] palaces, and he laid waste their cities, so that the land was desolate, and all it contained, by the noise of his roaring.

8 So [people of other] nations planned to kill him, and men came from many places to spread out a net for him, and they caught him in a trap.

Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

9 They tied him with chains and took him to Babylonia. And [there] he was locked in a prison, with the result that [no one on] the hills of Israel ever heard him roar again.’ [Also, say to the Israeli people, ]

And they put him in a cage with nose-rings, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 ‘[It is as though] [SIM] your mother was a grapevine that was planted along a stream. There was plenty of water, so it had lots of branches and produced [a lot of] grapes.

Thy mother was as a vine, in thy rest, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

11 That grapevine grew and became taller than all the nearby trees; [everyone could] see that it was very strong and healthy. And those branches were good for making scepters that symbolize the power/ [of a king].

And it had strong rods for sceptres of them that bear rule, and its stature was exalted between the thick boughs; and it was conspicuous by its height with the multitude of its branches.

12 [Yahweh] became very angry, so he pulled up the vine by its roots and threw it on the ground, where the [very hot] winds from the desert dried up all its fruit. The strong branches wilted and were burned in a fire.

But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit; its strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

13 Now that vine has been planted in a hot, dry desert.

And now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground:

14 A fire started to burn its stem, and then started to burn the branches and burned all the grapes. [Now] not [even] one strong branch remains; they will never become scepters for a king.’ That funeral song must be sung very sadly.”

and a fire is gone out of a rod of its branches, [which] hath devoured its fruit; so that it hath no strong rod to be a sceptre for ruling. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.