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19 “Sing this death dirge for the leaders of Israel: What a woman your mother was—like a lioness! Her children were like lion’s cubs! One of her cubs, King Jehoahaz,[a] grew into a strong young lion and learned to catch prey and became a man-eater. Then the nations called out their hunters; they trapped him in a pit and brought him in chains to Egypt.

“When Israel, the mother lion, saw that all her hopes for him were gone, she took another of her cubs, King Jehoiachin,[b] and taught him to be ‘king of the beasts.’ He became a leader among the lions and learned to catch prey, and he too became a man-eater. He demolished the palaces of the surrounding nations and ruined their cities; their farms were desolated, their crops destroyed; everyone in the land shook with terror when they heard him roar. Then the armies of the nations surrounded him, coming from every side, and trapped him in a pit and captured him. They prodded him into a cage and brought him before the king of Babylon. He was held in captivity so that his voice could never again be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 “Your mother was like a vine beside an irrigation ditch, with lush, green foliage because of all the water. 11 Its strongest branch became a ruler’s scepter, and it was very great, towering above the others and noticed from far away. 12 But the vine was uprooted in fury and thrown down to the ground. Its branches were broken and withered by a strong wind from the east; the fruit was destroyed by fire. 13 Now the vine is planted in the wilderness where the ground is hard and dry. 14 It is decaying from within;[c] no strong branch remains. The fulfillment of this sad prophecy has already begun, and there is more ahead.”

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 19:3 King Jehoahaz, implied.
  2. Ezekiel 19:5 King Jehoiachin, implied.
  3. Ezekiel 19:14 It is decaying from within, literally, “A fire is gone out of its branches and devoured its fruit.”

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