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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