Ezekiel 19

¹As for you, raise a lamentation over the princes of Israel,

²and say:

What a lioness was your mother,

a lion among lions!

She made her lair among young lions,

to raise her cubs;

³One cub she raised up,

a young lion he became;

He learned to tear apart prey,

he devoured people.

⁴Nations heard about him;

in their pit he was caught;

They took him away with hooks

to the land of Egypt.

⁵When she realized she had waited in vain,

she lost hope.

She took another of her cubs,

and made him a young lion.

⁶He prowled among the lions,

became a young lion;

He learned to tear apart prey,

he devoured people.

⁷He ravaged their strongholds,

laid waste their cities.

The earth and everything in it were terrified

at the sound of his roar.

⁸Nations laid out against him

snares all around;

They spread their net for him,

in their pit he was caught.

⁹They put him in fetters and took him away

to the king of Babylon,

So his roar would no longer be heard

on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a leafy vine[#: Judah. : the Davidic king. This allegory describes the deportation of the Davidic dynasty to Babylon and laments the destruction of the house of David. From Ezekiel’s perspective, the arrogance of Judah’s kings leads to this tragedy (vv. 12–14).]

planted by water,

Fruitful and full of branches

because of abundant water.

¹¹One strong branch grew

into a royal scepter.

So tall it towered among the clouds,

conspicuous in height,

with dense foliage.

¹²But she was torn out in fury

and flung to the ground;

The east wind withered her up,

her fruit was plucked away;

Her strongest branch dried up,

fire devoured it.

¹³Now she is planted in a wilderness,

in a dry, parched land.

¹⁴Fire flashed from her branch,

and devoured her shoots;

Now she does not have a strong branch,

a royal scepter!

This is a lamentation and serves as a lamentation.