Ezekiel 19:1-9

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

2and say, ‘What was your mother [Jerusalem and Judah]? A lioness among lions! She lay down among young lions, She reared her cubs.

3When 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.

4The nations heard about him; He was captured in their pit, And they brought him with hooks To the land of Egypt.

5When she saw, as she waited, That her hope was lost, She took another of her cubs And made him a young lion.

6And he moved among the lions; He became a young lion, He learned to tear the prey; He devoured men.

7He 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.

8Then 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.

9They 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.