Ezekiel 19

Ezekiel 19

Israel Degraded

1As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,[#Ezek 26.17; 27.2]

2and say:[#Isa 5.29; Nah 2.11, 12; Zech 11.3]

What a lioness was your mother

among lions!

She lay down among young lions,

rearing her cubs.

3She raised up one of her cubs;[#v 6 ; 2 Kings 23.31, 32]

he became a young lion,

and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured humans.

4The nations heard about him;[#2 Kings 23.33; 2 Chr 36.4]

he was caught in their pit,

and they brought him with hooks

to the land of Egypt.

5When she saw that she was thwarted,[#2 Kings 23.34]

that her hope was lost,

she took another of her cubs

and made him a young lion.

6He prowled among the lions;[#v 3 ; 2 Kings 24.9]

he became a young lion,

and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured people.

7And he ravaged their strongholds[#Ezek 12.19; 30.12; #19.7 Tg: Heb his widows]

and laid waste their towns;

the land was appalled, and all in it,

at the sound of his roaring.

8The nations set upon him[#v 4 ; 2 Kings 24.2]

from the provinces all around;

they spread their net over him;

he was caught in their pit.

9With hooks they put him in a neck collar[#2 Chr 36.6; Jer 22.18; Ezek 6.2]

and brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him into custody,

so that his voice should be heard no more

on the mountains of Israel.

10Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard[#Ps 80.8–11; #19.10 Cn: Heb in your blood]

transplanted by the water,

fruitful and full of branches

from abundant water.

11Its strongest stem became[#Ezek 31.3; Dan 4.11]

a ruler’s scepter;

it towered aloft

among the clouds;

it stood out in its height

with its mass of branches.

12But it was plucked up in fury,[#Jer 31.28; Ezek 17.10; 28.17; Hos 13.15]

cast down to the ground;

the east wind dried it up;

its fruit was stripped off;

its strong stem was withered;

the fire consumed it.

13Now it is transplanted into the wilderness,[#Hos 2.3]

into a dry and thirsty land.

14And fire has gone out from its stem,[#Lam 4.20; Ezek 15.4]

has consumed its branches and fruit,

so that there remains in it no strong stem,

no scepter for ruling.

This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ