A song of sorrow for the princes of Israel
19
📚“Moreover take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 📚and say, “‘What is your mother 📖?
A lioness. She lay down among lions,
she nourished her cubs
among young lions.
3 📚And she raised one of her cubs 📖.
It became a young lion,
and it learned to catch prey;
it devoured men.
4 📚The nations also heard of him.
He was captured in their pit,
and they brought him with chains
to the land of Egypt.
5 📚“Now she waited and saw
that her hope was gone.
Then she took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion,
6 📚And he prowled among the lions.
He became a young lion,
and learned to catch prey,
and he devoured men.
7 📚And he knew their desolate palaces,
and he laid waste their cities;
and the land with its abundance
became desolate through the sound
of his roaring.
8 📚Then the nations from the provinces
beset him on every side,
and spread their net over him.
He was captured in their pit.
9 📚And with hooks they put him
in a cage and brought him
to the king of Babylon.
They brought him into nets,
so that his voice would no longer
be heard on the mountains
of Israel.
19:5-9 Both King Jehoiachin and King Zedekiah were taken to Babylon but the description in verses 6-9 seems to fit Zedekiah better, although the time of his exile had not yet come.⚜
10 📚“Your mother is like a vine 📖
in your bloodline, planted by the waters.
She was fruitful and full of branches
because of the many waters.
11 📚And she had strong rods
for the sceptres of those who ruled,
and she towered in height among
the thick branches,
and she appeared in her height
with her many branches.
12 📚But she was rooted up in fury.
She was hurled to the ground,
and the east wind dried up her fruit.
Her strong rods were broken
and withered; the fire consumed them.
19:12 The armies of Babylon which destroyed Judah and Jerusalem were from an eastern country.⚜
13 📚And now she is planted
in the wilderness 📖, in a dry
and thirsty ground.
14 📚And fire has gone out of a rod
of her branches;
it has consumed her fruit,
19:14 Fire here means sinful rebellion that brought destruction on Jerusalem.⚜
so that she has no strong rod 📖
to be a sceptre to rule.
This is a lament, and is to be for a lament.’ ”