EZEKIEL 19 [†]And you,  x take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2and say:

What was your mother?  y A lioness!

Among lions she crouched;

in the midst of young lions

she reared her cubs.

3 And she brought up one of her cubs;

 z he became a young lion,

 a and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured men.

4 The nations heard about him;

 b he was caught in their pit,

 c and they brought him with hooks

to the land of Egypt.

5 When she saw that she waited in vain,

that her hope was lost,

 d she took another of her cubs

and made him a young lion.

6 He prowled among the lions;

he became a young lion,

and he learned to catch prey;

he devoured men,

7 and seized [1] their widows.

He laid waste their cities,

and the land was appalled and all who were in it

at the sound of his roaring.

8  e Then the nations set against him

from provinces on every side;

 f they spread their net over him;

 b he was taken in their pit.

9[^] With hooks  e they put him in a cage [2]

and  g brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him into custody,

that his voice should no more be heard

on  h the mountains of Israel.

10[†] Your mother was  i like a vine in a vineyard [3]

planted by the water,

 j fruitful and full of branches

 k by reason of abundant water.

11 Its strong stems became

rulers’ scepters;

it towered aloft

among the thick boughs; [4]

it was seen in its height

with the mass of its branches.

12 But the vine was plucked up in fury,

cast down to the ground;

 l the east wind dried up its fruit;

they were stripped off and withered.

As for its strong stem,

fire consumed it.

13  m Now it is planted in the wilderness,

in a dry and thirsty land.

14  n And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,

has consumed its fruit,

 o so that there remains in it no strong stem,

no scepter for ruling.

This is  p a lamentation and has become a lamentation.