Ezekiel 19

1As for you, lift up a lamentation for Israel's princes.

2Say, "What [about] your mother? A lioness: she lay among lions, reared her cubs in the midst of young lions."

3She reared one of her cubs; he became a young lion. He learned to tear human prey; he devoured men.

4The nations heard of him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

5When she saw that she had waited in vain and her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

6He prowled among lions, became a young lion, learned to tear prey, and devoured men.

7He knew their desolate houses and devastated their cities; the land and all it contained were desolate because of the sound of his roaring.

8Nations from the provinces beset him on every side and stretched their net upon him; he was captured in their pit.

9They put him in a cage with hooks and brought him to Babylon's king, taking him into strongholds so his voice would no longer be heard on Israel's mountains.

10Your mother was like a vine in your blood, planted by waters, fruitful and full of branches from many waters.

11It had rods of might for scepters of rulers, and its stature rose high among the thick branches, conspicuous in its loftiness amid the abundance of its branches.

12Yet it was uprooted in wrath, flung down to the earth, and an east wind withered its fruit; its rods of strength broke apart and dried up—a fire devoured them.

13Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a land of drought and thirst.

14Fire came out from a rod of its branches and devoured its fruit, so that no strong rod remained in it—a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and it became a lamentation.