Ezekiel 19

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

1God said, "Sing a sad song about the princes of Israel, the men who ruled."

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 young lions. There she raised her cubs.

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. He grew into a strong young lion. He learned to catch animals. He also 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 trapped him in a pit they had dug. They put hooks on him and led him away to Egypt.

NoteThe old wording says "chains." Hunters used hooks and ropes to drag away a trapped animal, and armies did the same with prisoners.

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 mother lion waited, but he did not come back. Her hope was gone. So she took another cub and made him a young 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 back and forth among the lions. He grew strong. He learned to catch animals. He also 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. He ruined their towns. His loud roar made the land and everything in it shake.

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. They came from all their lands. They threw a net over him and caught him in their pit.

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 and shut him in a cage. They took him to the king of Babylon. They locked him away, so no one heard his roar 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 also like a grapevine planted beside the water. She had plenty of water, so she grew lots of fruit and many branches.

NoteThe old English here says "in thy blood," which is hard to understand. It most likely means "in your vineyard," the place where grapevines grow.

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.

11Her branches were strong. One was good for a king's rod, which shows that he rules. She grew taller than the thick branches. Everyone could see how tall and full she was.

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 she was pulled up by angry hands and thrown down on the ground. The hot east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong branches broke off and dried out. Fire burned them up.

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

13Now she is planted out in the desert. The ground there is dry and thirsty.

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 came out of one of her branches and burned up her fruit. Now she has no strong branch left for a king's rod. This is a sad song, and people will sing it as one.