A LAMENT FOR JUDAH
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, work in and through me today; use me to relate to others in ways that show them my love for Jesus and the grace and mercy he offers.
Read EZEKIEL 19
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A Lament Over Israel’s Princes
19 “Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel 2 and say:
“‘What a lioness was your mother
among the lions!
She lay down among them
and reared her cubs.
3 She brought up one of her cubs,
and he became a strong lion.
He learned to tear the prey
and he became a man-eater.
4 The nations heard about him,
and he was trapped in their pit.
They led him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 “‘When she saw her hope unfulfilled,
her expectation gone,
she took another of her cubs
and made him a strong lion.
6 He prowled among the lions,
for he was now a strong lion.
He learned to tear the prey
and he became a man-eater.
7 He broke down[a] their strongholds
and devastated their towns.
The land and all who were in it
were terrified by his roaring.
8 Then the nations came against him,
those from regions round about.
They spread their net for him,
and he was trapped in their pit.
9 With hooks they pulled him into a cage
and brought him to the king of Babylon.
They put him in prison,
so his roar was heard no longer
on the mountains of Israel.
10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard[b]
planted by the water;
it was fruitful and full of branches
because of abundant water.
11 Its branches were strong,
fit for a ruler’s scepter.
It towered high
above the thick foliage,
conspicuous for its height
and for its many branches.
12 But it was uprooted in fury
and thrown to the ground.
The east wind made it shrivel,
it was stripped of its fruit;
its strong branches withered
and fire consumed them.
13 Now it is planted in the desert,
in a dry and thirsty land.
14 Fire spread from one of its main[c] branches
and consumed its fruit.
No strong branch is left on it
fit for a ruler’s scepter.’
“This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 19:7 Targum (see Septuagint); Hebrew He knew
- Ezekiel 19:10 Two Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts your blood
- Ezekiel 19:14 Or from under its
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What things, circumstances, or memories bring you sorrow? How do you respond?
The disasters that befell the kings of Judah are described in terms of the misfortunes of a brood of lion cubs. The first part of the chapter is an extended metaphor and the second is a simile within the genre of lamentation, giving the reader a further example of Ezekiel’s poetic gift. Most translations set this chapter out as poetry in what is known as lamentation meter—as used, for example, in the book of Lamentations—composed in distinctive mournful tones with a rhythm that is almost impossible to reproduce in an English translation. Chapter 18 ended with the words ‘Repent and live,’ so it is ironic that chapter 19 starts with a funeral dirge. It is a lament concerning the princes of Israel—Ezekiel consistently calls them princes, not kings, but it is not clear why. Apart from the command in verse 1, God is absent in the chapter, perhaps indicating that Israel was separated from God.
The chapter is a lament for three kings. The lioness represents Judah.1 The two cubs may be identified as Jehoahaz, son of Josiah (who reigned briefly in 609 BC until Pharaoh Necho deposed him and took him to Egypt for lifelong imprisonment)2 and Jehoiakim. The vine is Zedekiah. (An alternative interpretation sees the lioness as Hamutal, mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah, and the second lion cub as Jehoiachin.) Unlike chapter 17, this chapter does not give an explanation.
This is a very negative chapter, with Ezekiel offering no hope for the future. No strong branch is left until God fulfills the promise in Isaiah to raise a Branch from the stump of Jesse3 in the person of Jesus. Ezekiel’s only message to the exiles is to lament (v. 14b).
Apply
Nancy Bowen asks, ‘Can communities of faith become places that nurture the capacity to lament?’4 Laments are common in the Bible. Have modern Christians lost the aptitude to lament?
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to bring my sorrows and regrets to you. Use them to draw me closer to you as I experience your compassion and forgiveness. Use them to help me know afresh your power to bring change in me, as well as in my circumstances.
1 Gen 49:9 2 2 Kings 23:31–33; Jer 22:10–12 3 Isa 11:1 4 N Bowen, Ezekiel (Abingdon Press, 2010), 112.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.