Ezequiel 19

¹ Moreover take thou up a lamentation for theThat is, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, Josiah's sons, who for their pride and cruelty are compared to lions.princes of Israel,

² And say, What [is] thyThat is Jehoahaz's mother, or Jerusalem.mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

³ And she brought vp one of her whelps, and it became a lyon, and it learned to catch the praye, and it deuoured men.

⁴ TheBy Pharaoh Nebo king of Egypt, (2Ki_23:33).nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.

⁵ Now when she saw that she had waited, [and] her hope was lost, then she took another of herWhich was Jehoiakim.whelps, [and] made him a young lion.

⁶ And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, [and] devouredHe slew the prophets and them that feared God and ravished their wives.men.

⁷ And he knew their widowes, & he destroyed their cities, and the land was wasted, and all that was therein by the noyse of his roaring.

⁸ Then theNebuchadnezzar with his great army which was gathered from various nations.nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

⁹ And they put him in prison and in chaines, and brought him to the King of Babel, and they put him in holdes, that his voyce should no more be heard vpon the mountaines of Israel.

¹⁰ ThyHe speaks this in the reproach of this wicked king, in whose blood, that is in the race of his predecessors, Jerusalem would have been blessed according to God's promise and flourished as a fruitful vine.mother [is] like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹ And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that beare rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

¹² But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and theMeaning, that the Chaldeans would destroy them as the east wind does the fruit of the vine.east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

¹³ And now she is planted in the wildernes in a drie and thirstie ground.

¹⁴ And fire hath gone outDestruction is come by Zedekiah, who was the opportunity for this rebellion.of a rod of her branches, [which] hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod [to be] a sceptre to rule. This [is] a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.