Lament for the Princes of Israel

1 “As for you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel 2 and say,
`What was your mother?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
She reared her cubs. 3
`When she brought up one of her cubs,
He became a lion,
And he learned to tear {his} prey;
He devoured men. 4
`Then nations heard about him;
He was captured in their pit,
And they brought him with hooks
To the land of Egypt. 5
`When she saw, as she waited,
{That} her hope was lost,
She took another of her cubs
And made him a young lion. 6
`And he walked about among the lions;
He became a young lion,
He learned to tear {his} prey;
He devoured men. 7
`He destroyed their fortified towers
And laid waste their cities;
And the land and its fullness were appalled
Because of the sound of his roaring. 8
`Then nations set against him
On every side from {their} provinces,
And they spread their net over him;
He was captured in their pit. 9
`They put him in a cage with hooks
And brought him to the king of Babylon;
They brought him in hunting nets
So that his voice would be heard no more
On the mountains of Israel. 10
`Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard,
Planted by the waters;
It was fruitful and full of branches
Because of abundant waters. 11
`And it had strong branches {fit} for scepters of rulers,
And its height was raised above the clouds
So that it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. 12
`But it was plucked up in fury;
It was cast down to the ground;
And the east wind dried up its fruit.
Its strong branch was torn off
So that it withered;
The fire consumed it. 13
`And now it is planted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land. 14
`And fire has gone out from {its} branch;
It has consumed its shoots {and} fruit,
So that there is not in it a strong branch,
A scepter to rule.’
This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.