A Song of Sorrow

¹“Now Ezekiel, sing this funeral song to mourn the rulers of Israel,[#19:1 Or “princes,” the term Ezekiel uses throughout his book for kings.]

²saying,

“ ‘What a lioness was your mother among lions!

She lay down among the young lions

and reared her cubs.

³One of the cubs she raised

grew into a young and powerful man-eating lion

who learned to hunt and devour his prey.

⁴The nations heard about him,

and they trapped him in their pit.

With hooks they dragged him off to Egypt.

⁵When she realized that he was not coming back ,

she despaired and her hopes were dashed.

She chose another of her cubs to take his place

and made a powerful lion of him too.

⁶He prowled among the pride

and grew into a powerful man-eating lion,

who learned to hunt and devour his prey.

⁷He demolished their strongholds[#19:7 As translated from ancient versions, Theodotion, and the Targum. The Hebrew is “He knew [had sex with] their widows,” which was the custom of kings in the ancient world when they had defeated a rival. Similarly, when a new lion becomes the dominant male of the pride, he mates with all the females to establish his status. Thus, this clause suggests that the mother’s second son became Judah’s king.]

and destroyed their cities.

Whenever the lion released his roar,

the land and all the people were terrified!

⁸The nations marched out against him

from all around.

They threw their net over him,

and he was trapped in their pit.

⁹With their hooks they captured him,[#19:9 Or “put him in a cage.”]

led him with bands around his neck to the king of Babylon.

They threw him into a dungeon

so that his roar could never be heard again

on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰“ ‘Your mother was like a grapevine

planted beside a stream,

with luscious fruit and full of branches,

because the water flowed so abundantly.

¹¹She grew strong branches, and some grew very high,

which became royal scepters.

The vine grew higher and higher,

up into the clouds.

Everyone could see her towering height

and the vast number of her branches.

¹²But disaster struck the vine .

Angry, mighty hands pulled it up by its roots

and threw it to the ground.

The hot east wind dried it up,

and her fruit shriveled and fell to the ground .

Her strong stem was withered

and was consumed by the fire.

¹³Now what remains of her has been transplanted to the desert,

to a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴Fire spread from her stem

and devoured its fruit.

There is not a strong branch left

that could become a scepter for a king.’ ”

This is a funeral song of lament, and it should be used as such.