Ezekiel Chapter 19 verse 2 Holy Bible
and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps.
read chapter 19 in ASV
What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones.
read chapter 19 in BBE
and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps in the midst of the young lions.
read chapter 19 in DARBY
And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
read chapter 19 in KJV
read chapter 19 in WBT
and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs.
read chapter 19 in WEB
and thou hast said: What `is' thy mother? -- a lioness, Among lions she hath crouched down, In the midst of young lions she hath multiplied her whelps.
read chapter 19 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - What is thy mother? etc.; better, with the Vulgate, LXX., and Keil, Why did thy mother, a lioness, lie down among lionesses? The image may have been suggested by Genesis 49:9 and Numbers 23:24, or perhaps also by Nahum 2:11, 12. The lioness is Israel, the kingdom idealized and personified. The lionesses among whom she had lain down are the heathen kingdoms. The question asks why she had become as one of them and adopted their cruelty and ferocity.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) Thy mother.--Mother stands for the whole national community--the theocracy, as is plain from Ezekiel 19:10. This was represented, since the captivity of the ten tribes, by Judah; and her "princes," of the line of David, were the legitimate kings of the whole nation. The figure of the lion is a common one in Scripture (see Genesis 49:9; Numbers 23:24; Numbers 24:9), and was also familiar in Babylonia.
