Ezekiel 19
1 Moreover do thou take up a
lamentation for the prince of Israel,
2 and say, Why is thy mother become a
whelp in the midst of lions? in the midst of lions she has multiplied her
whelps. 3 And one of her whelps sprang
forth; he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.
4 And the nations heard a report of
him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him into the land of Egypt
in chains.
5 And she saw that he was driven away
from her, and her hope
of him perished, and she took another of her whelps;
she made him a lion. 6 And he went up
and down in the midst of lions, he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he
devoured men. 7 And he prowled in his
boldness and laid waste their cities, and made the land desolate, and the
fulness of it, by the voice of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set upon him from
the countries round about, and they spread their nets upon him: he was taken
in their pit. 9 And they put him in
chains and in a cage, and he came to the king of
Babylon; and he cast him into prison, that his voice should not be heard on
the mountains of Israel.
10 Thy mother was as a vine and as a
blossom on a pomegranate tree, planted by water: her fruit and her shoots
abounded by reason of much water.
11 And she became a rod for a tribe
of princes, and was elevated in her bulk in the midst of
other trees, and she saw her bulk in the multitude of
her branches.
12 But she was broken down in wrath,
she was cast upon the ground, and the east wind dried up her choice
branches: vengeance came upon them, and the rod of
her strength was withered; fire consumed it.
13 And now they have planted her in
the wilderness, in a dry land. 14 And
fire is gone out of a rod of her choice boughs, and
has devoured her; and there was no rod of strength in her. Her race is become
a parable of lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.