Ezekiel 19

1 [Yahweh said to me, “Ezekiel], sing a sad funeral [a which will be a parable] [two of the] kings of Israel.

Moreover take you up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

2 Say [to the Israeli people], ‘[It is as though] [MET] your mother was a brave female lion who raised her cubs among [other] lions.

And say, What is your mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

3 She taught one of them to [for other animals to kill], and he [even] learned [kill and] eat people.

And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

4 [When people from other] nations heard about him, they trapped him in a pit. Then they used hooks to drag him to Egypt.

The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

5 His mother waited for him [to return], but [soon] she stopped hoping/expecting [that he would return]. So she raised another cub who [also] became very fierce.

Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

6 He hunted along with [other] [for animals to kill], and he even learned [kill and] eat people.

And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

7 He destroyed forts, and he ruined cities. When he roared [loudly], everyone was terrified.

And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

8 So [people of other] nations planned to kill him, and men came from many places to spread out a net for him, and they caught him in a trap.

Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

9 They tied him with chains and took him to Babylonia. And [there] he was locked in a prison, with the result that [no one on] the hills of Israel ever heard him roar again.’ [Also, say to the Israeli people, ]

And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 ‘[It is as though] [SIM] your mother was a grapevine that was planted along a stream. There was plenty of water, so it had lots of branches and produced [a lot of] grapes.

Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

11 That grapevine grew and became taller than all the nearby trees; [everyone could] see that it was very strong and healthy. And those branches were good for making scepters that symbolize the power/ [of a king].

And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

12 [Yahweh] became very angry, so he pulled up the vine by its roots and threw it on the ground, where the [very hot] winds from the desert dried up all its fruit. The strong branches wilted and were burned in a fire.

But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

13 Now that vine has been planted in a hot, dry desert.

And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

14 A fire started to burn its stem, and then started to burn the branches and burned all the grapes. [Now] not [even] one strong branch remains; they will never become scepters for a king.’ That funeral song must be sung very sadly.”

And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.