Ezekiel 19

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

Moreover 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: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of 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 out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour 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, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains 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.

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

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

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 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.

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 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 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 ‘[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 is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out 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 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 [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 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 Now that vine has been planted in a hot, dry desert.

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

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 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.