Ezekiel

And you are to intone a dirge over the princesathe princes I.e., the kings who reigned after Josiah. of Israel,

and say:What a lioness was your motherAmong the lions!Crouching among the great beasts,She reared her cubs.

She raised up one of her cubs,He became a great beast;He learned to hunt prey—He devoured people.

Nations heeded [the call] against him;He was caught in their snare.They dragged him off with hooksTo the land of Egypt.

When she saw herself frustrated,Her hope defeated,She took another of her cubsAnd set him up as a great beast.

He stalked among the lions,He was a great beast;He learned to hunt prey—He devoured people.

He raped their widows,braped their widows Emendation yields “ravaged their castles.” Laid waste their cities;The land and all in it were appalledAt the sound of his roaring.

Nations from the countries round aboutArrayed themselves against him.They spread their net over him,He was caught in their snare.

With hooks he was put in a cage,They carried him off to the king of BabylonAnd confined him in a fortress,So that never again should his roar be heardOn the hills of Israel.

Your mother was like a vine in your blood,cin your blood Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “in a vineyard.” Planted beside streams,With luxuriant boughs and branchesThanks to abundant waters.

And she had a mighty roddrod Heb. plural. Fit for a ruler’s scepter.escepter Heb. plural. It towered highest among the leafy trees,famong the leafy trees Meaning of Heb. uncertain. It was conspicuous by its height,By the abundance of its boughs.

But plucked up in a fury,She was hurled to the ground.The east wind withered her branches,They broke apart and dried up;And her mighty rod was consumed by fire.

Now she is planted in the desert,In ground that is arid and parched.

Fire has issued from her twig-laden branchAnd has consumed her boughs,She is left without a mighty rod,A scepter to rule with.This is a dirge, and it has become a [familiar] dirge.