Fourteen verses carry two funeral images for Israel’s fallen rulers: a lioness whose cubs are trapped and caged, and a vine whose strong branches are broken and burned by fire from its own stem.
Full sung version coming soon.
Lyrics
Take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel What was your mother A lioness she couched amongst lions In the middle of the young lions she nourished her cubs
She brought up one of her cubs He became a young lion He learnt to catch the prey He devoured men The nations also heard of him He was taken in their pit They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt
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
He went up and down amongst the lions He became a young lion He learnt to catch the prey He devoured men
He knew their palaces and laid waste their cities The land was desolate with its fullness Because of the noise of his roaring The nations attacked him on every side From the provinces they spread their net He was taken in their pit
They put him in a cage with hooks Brought him to the king of Babylon Brought him into strongholds So that his voice should no more be heard On the mountains of Israel
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 It had strong branches for the sceptres of those who ruled Their stature was exalted amongst the thick boughs
But it was plucked up in fury Cast down to the ground The east wind dried up its fruit Its strong branches were broken off and withered Fire consumed them
Now it is planted in the wilderness In a dry and thirsty land Fire has gone out of its branches It has devoured its fruit So that there is in it no strong branch To be a sceptre to rule This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation
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Ezekiel 19 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.