Ezekiel 19

Good News Translation

A Song of Sorrow

19 The Lord told me to sing this song of sorrow for two princes of Israel:

²What a lioness your mother was!
She raised her cubs among the fierce male lions.
³She raised a cub and taught him to hunt;
    he learned to eat people.
⁴The nations heard about him
    and trapped him in a pit.
With hooks they dragged him off to Egypt.
⁵She waited until she saw all hope was gone.
Then she raised another of her cubs,
    and he grew into a fierce lion.
⁶When he was full-grown,
    he prowled with the other lions.
He too learned to hunt and eat people.
⁷He wrecked forts,^[a] he ruined towns.
The people of the land were terrified
    every time he roared.
⁸The nations gathered to fight him;
    people came from everywhere.
They spread their hunting nets
    and caught him in their trap.
⁹They put him in a cage
    and took him to the king of Babylonia.
They kept him under guard,
    so that his roar would never be heard again
    on the hills of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a grapevine^[b]
    planted near a stream.
Because there was plenty of water,
    the vine was covered with leaves and fruit.
¹¹Its branches were strong
    and grew to be royal scepters.
The vine grew tall enough to reach the clouds;
    everyone saw how leafy and tall it was.
¹²But angry hands pulled it up by the roots
    and threw it to the ground.
The east wind dried up its fruit.
Its branches were broken off;
    they dried up and were burned.
¹³Now it is planted in the desert,
    in a dry and waterless land.
¹⁴The stem of the vine caught fire;
    fire burned up its branches and fruit.
The branches will never again be strong,
    will never be royal scepters.