A Lament for the Princes of Israel
And you, atake up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
What was your mother? aA lioness!
Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
she reared her cubs.
3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
ahe became a young lion,
band he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations heard about him;
ahe was caught in their pit,
band they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
ashe took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
6 He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men,
7 and seized their widows.
He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring.
8 aThen the nations set against him
from provinces on every side;
bthey spread their net over him;
che was taken in their pit.
9 With hooks athey put him in a cage
and bbrought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
on cthe mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother was alike a vine in a vineyard
planted by the water,
bfruitful and full of branches
cby reason of abundant water.
11 Its strong stems became
rulers’ scepters;
it towered aloft
among the thick boughs;
it was seen in its height
with the mass of its branches.
12 But the vine was plucked up in fury,
cast down to the ground;
athe east wind dried up its fruit;
they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem,
fire consumed it.
13 aNow it is planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty land.
14 aAnd fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
has consumed its fruit,
bso that there remains in it no strong stem,
no scepter for ruling.
This is ca lamentation and has become a lamentation.