Ezekiel

Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

1God said, "Now sing a funeral song for the rulers of Israel."

NoteA lamentation is a funeral song, sung to mourn someone who has died.

2And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

2Say this: "What was your mother? She was a lioness. She lay down among the lions and raised her cubs there."

3And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

3She raised one of her cubs, and he grew into a strong young lion. He learned to hunt, and he ate people.

4The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

4The nations heard about him. They caught him in their trap and dragged him away to Egypt with hooks.

NoteThe KJV says "with chains," but the word means hooks or rings put through the nose or lip of a captured animal. That is how they led him away.

5Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

5The lioness waited for him, but he never came back. When her hope was gone, she took another cub and raised him to be a strong lion.

6And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

6He walked among the lions and grew strong. He learned to hunt, and he ate people.

7And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

7He broke down their strong buildings and wrecked their cities. The land and everyone in it shook at the sound of his roar.

8Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

8Then the nations came at him from every side, from all their regions. They threw their net over him and caught him in their trap.

9And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

9They put hooks on him, locked him in a cage, and took him to the king of Babylon. They shut him away so his roar was never heard again on the hills of Israel.

10Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

10Your mother was like a grapevine in your vineyard, planted beside the water. It grew lots of fruit and many branches, because the water was plenty.

11And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

11Its branches were strong enough to make a ruler's staff. The vine stood tall above the thick branches, easy to see for its height and its many leaves.

NoteA scepter is the special rod or staff a king holds to show he rules.

12But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

12But it was ripped out of the ground in anger and thrown down. The east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were torn off, and they dried out, and fire burned them up.

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

13Now it is planted in the desert, in dry, thirsty ground.

14And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

14Fire spread out from its main branch and burned up its fruit. No strong branch is left to make a ruler's staff. This is a funeral song, and it will be sung as one.