Ezekiel 19

1And you, raise a lamentation over the princes of Israel.

2and say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness. Among lions she lay down; in the midst of young lions she reared her cubs.’

3She brought up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to tear prey; he devoured people.

4The nations heard of him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

5When she saw that she had waited in vain, that her hope was lost, she took one of her cubs and made him a young lion.

6He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion. He learned to tear prey; he devoured men.

7He knew their widows, and he laid waste their cities; the land and its fullness was desolated by the sound of his roaring.

8Then nations from the provinces set themselves against him all around, and they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

9They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, so that his voice might no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.

10Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by waters; she was fruitful and full of branches because of abundant waters.

11And she had strong branches for rulers’ scepters, and its stature rose high among the thick boughs; it was seen in its height, in the abundance of its branches.

12But she was uprooted in wrath; she was thrown down to the ground. And the east wind dried up her fruit; her strong branch was torn off and withered; fire consumed it.

13And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

14And fire went out from a branch of its limbs; it consumed its fruit, and there was not in it a strong branch, a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and it has become a lamentation.