A Lament for the Princes of Israel
1 “Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness. She couched among lions, in the middle of the young lions she nourished her cubs. 3 She brought up one of her cubs. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men. 4 The nations also heard of him. He was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. 5 “‘Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion. 6 He went up and down among the lions. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men. 7 He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities. The land was desolate with its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring. 8 Then the nations attacked him on every side from the provinces. They spread their net over him. He was taken in their pit. 9 They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into strongholds, so that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel. 10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters. It was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 11 It had strong branches for the scepters of those who ruled. Their stature was exalted among the thick boughs. They were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches. 12 But it was plucked up in fury. It was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were broken off and withered. The fire consumed them. 13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. 14 Fire has gone out of its branches. It has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong branch to be a scepter to rule.’ This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.”
The dynasty is mourned in a funeral song sung before it is dead, and both cubs end the same way — caged and carried off.
The form is announced in the first line. This is a lamentation, the measured song sung over a body, and it is being sung over a royal house that still has a king on the throne. Ezekiel is told to hold a funeral in advance.
The mother is a lioness who couched among lions and raised her cubs there. She brings up the first, he learns to catch prey and devours men, and the nations take him in a pit and bring him with hooks to Egypt. That is Jehoahaz, deposed after three months and carried to Egypt, where he died 2 Kings 23:34. Then she waits, and her hope was lost, and she takes another. The second learns the same trade, lays waste cities, and is taken in the same way — net, pit, cage, hooks — and brought to the king of Babylon.
The repetition is the argument. Two cubs, two identical careers, two identical endings, and a mother who tried again after the first was lost. Nothing was learned between the two attempts, and the second is described in exactly the words used of the first. What the song mourns is not bad luck but a pattern that reproduced itself with a different man inside it.
The imagery then changes from a lioness to a vine, and the vine is the older picture of the nation. It is fruitful and full of branches by many waters, and its strong rods become scepters for those who rule. Then it is plucked up in fury, cast down, dried by the east wind, and planted in a wilderness where the ground is thirsty. Fire goes out from a branch and consumes the fruit, and the closing line states what is left: there is in it no strong branch to be a scepter to rule. The last sentence of the chapter says that this is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation — a song written to be sung again.
settled What this mark means