NRSV Ezekiel 19 Chapter
19:1
As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
19:2
and say: What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs.
19:3
She raised up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured humans.
19:4
The nations sounded an alarm against him; he was caught in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
19:5
When she saw that she was thwarted, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.
19:6
He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured people.
19:7
And he ravaged their strongholds, and laid waste their towns; the land was appalled, and all in it, at the sound of his roaring.
19:8
The nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.
19:9
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.
19:10
Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water.
19:11
Its strongest stem became a ruler's scepter; it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches.
19:12
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.
19:13
Now it is transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land.
19:14
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.