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[1]Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
[2]And say: How was thy mother a lioness; among lions she couched, in the midst of the young lions she reared her whelps!
[3]And she brought up one of her whelps, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.
[4]Then the nations assembled against him, he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks unto the land of Egypt.
[5]Now when she saw that she was disappointed, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
[6]And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.
[7]And he knew their castles, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring.
[8]Then the nations cried out against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him, he was taken in their pit.
[9]And they put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; that they might bring him into strongholds, so that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
[10]Thy mother was like a vine, in thy likeness, planted by the waters; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
[11]And she had strong rods to be sceptres for them that bore rule; and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she was seen in her height with the multitude of her tendrils.
[12]But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit; her strong rods were broken off and withered, the fire consumed her.
[13]And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
[14]And fire is gone out of the rod of her branches, it hath devoured her fruit, so that there is in her no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule.' This is a lamentation, and it was for a lamentation.
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