Ezekiel 19

Dirge for the Princes of Israel

1 "As for you, take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for the princes of Israel 2 and say,

‘What was your mother [Jerusalem and Judah]?

A lioness among lions!

She lay down among young lions,

She reared her cubs.

3 ‘When she [the royal mother-city] brought up [Jehoahaz] one of her cubs,

He became a [young] lion,

And he learned to catch and tear the prey;

He devoured men. [2 Kin 23:30, 32]

4 ‘The nations heard about him;

He was captured in their pit,

And they brought him with hooks

To the land of Egypt. [2 Chr 36:1, 4]

5 ‘When she saw, as she waited,

That her hope was lost,

She took *19:5 Either a timely reference to Jehoiachin who reigned only three months, or a prediction regarding Zedekiah. Both rulers were exiled to Babylon.another of her cubs

And made him a young lion. [2 Kin 23:34; 24:1, 6]

6 ‘And he moved among the lions;

He became a young lion,

He learned to tear the prey;

He devoured men.

7 ‘He destroyed their palaces

And he flattened their cities;

And the land and all who were in it were appalled

By the sound of his roaring.

8 ‘Then the nations set against him (the king)

On every side from the provinces,

And they spread their net over him;

He was captured in their pit. [2 Kin 24:8-15]

9 ‘They put him in a cage with hooks and chains

And brought him to the king of Babylon;

They brought him in hunting nets

So that his voice would be heard no more

On the mountains of Israel.

10 ‘Your mother [Jerusalem] was like a vine in your *19:10 So with some ancient mss; MT blood.vineyard,

Planted by the waters;

It was fruitful and full of branches

Because of abundant water. [2 Kin 24:17; Ezek 17:7]

11 ‘And it had strong branches for the scepters of rulers,

And its height was raised above the thick branches and into the clouds

So that it was seen [easily] in its height with the mass of its branches.

12 ‘But the vine was uprooted in [godly] wrath [by His representative]

And it was thrown down to the ground;

The east wind dried up its fruit.

Its strong branch was broken off

So that it withered;

The fire [of God’s judgment] consumed it.

13 ‘And now it is transplanted in the wilderness,

In a dry and thirsty land [of Babylon].

14 ‘And the fire [of Zedekiah’s rebellion] has gone out from its branch;

It has consumed the vine’s shoots and fruit,

So that it has in it no [longer a] strong branch

As a scepter to rule.’ "

This is a dirge (funeral poem to be sung), and has become a dirge.