Israel Degraded
19 And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
What a lioness was your mother
among lions!
She couched in the midst of young lions,
rearing her whelps.
3 And she brought up one of her whelps;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations sounded an alarm against him;
he was taken in their pit;
and they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she was baffled,[a]
that her hope was lost,
she took another of her whelps
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 men.
7 And he ravaged their strongholds,[b]
and laid waste their cities;
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him
snares[c] on every side;
they spread their net over him;
he was taken 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,
that his voice should no more be heard
upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard[d]
transplanted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches
by reason of abundant water.
11 Its strongest stem became
a ruler’s scepter;
it towered aloft
among the thick boughs;
it was seen in its height
with the mass of its branches.
12 But the vine 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 in the wilderness,
in 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 a ruler.
This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 19:5 Heb had waited
- Ezekiel 19:7 Tg Compare Theodotion: Heb knew his widows
- Ezekiel 19:8 Cn: Heb from the provinces
- Ezekiel 19:10 Cn: Heb in your blood