| 19 | Ezekiel | Passage |
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| 1 |
'Now, raise a lament for the princes of Israel. |
A song of sorrow. Eze.19.1-14
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| 2 |
Say: What was your mother?
A lioness among lions;
lying among the cubs
she nursed her whelps.
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| 3 |
She reared one of her whelps:
he grew into a young lion;
he learnt to tear his prey;
he became a man-eater.
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| 4 |
The nations came to hear of him;
he was caught in their pit;
they dragged him away with hooks
to Egypt.
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| 5 |
Her expectation thwarted,
and seeing her hope dashed,
she took another of her whelps
and made a young lion of him.
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| 6 |
He prowled among the lions,
he grew into a young lion,
he learnt to tear his prey;
he became a man-eater.
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| 7 |
He tore down their palaces,
he destroyed their cities;
the land and all its inhabitants were appalled
by the sound of his roars.
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| 8 |
The nations marched out against him
from the surrounding provinces;
they spread their net over him;
he was caught in their pit.
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| 9 |
They shackled him with hooks,
they took him to the king of Babylon
and threw him into a fortress,
so that his voice could never again be heard
on the mountains of Israel. |
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| 10 |
Your mother was like a vine
planted beside the water,
fruitful and leafy,
because the water flowed so full.
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| 11 |
She had stout stems
which became kingly sceptres;
she grew higher and higher,
up into the clouds;
she was admired for her height
and the number of her branches.
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| 12 |
But she was furiously uprooted
and thrown on the ground;
the east wind dried up her fruit,
she was broken to pieces;
her stout stem dried up,
the fire devoured it.
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| 13 |
Now she has been transplanted to the desert,
to a dry and thirsty land.
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| 14 |
Fire burst out of her stem
devouring her branches and fruit.
No more stout stem for her,
no more kingly sceptre.' This is a lament; it was used as such. |
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