As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs. 3 She raised up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured humans. 4 The nations sounded an alarm against him; he was caught in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. 5 When she saw that she was thwarted, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion. 6 He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured people. 7 And he ravaged their strongholds,[a] and laid waste their towns; the land was appalled, and all in it, at the sound of his roaring. 8 The nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit. 9 With hooks they put him in a cage, 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. 10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard[b] transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water. 11 Its strongest stem became a ruler’s scepter;[c] it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches. 12 But it was plucked up in fury, 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. 13 Now it is transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land. 14 And fire has gone out from its stem, 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.
Footnotes
a. Ezekiel 19:7 Heb his widows
b. Ezekiel 19:10 Cn: Heb in your blood
c. Ezekiel 19:11 Heb Its strongest stems became rulers’ scepters
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.