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.