A Lament for the Princes of Israel

1“As for you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel 2and say,

‘[†]What was your mother?

A lioness among lions!

She lay down among young lions;

She reared her cubs.

3So she brought up one of her cubs;

He became a lion,

And he learned to tear his prey;

He devoured men.

4Then nations heard about him;

He was captured in their pit,

And they brought him with hooks

To the land of Egypt.

5Then she saw, as she waited,

That her hope was lost,

So she took [†]another of her cubs

And made him a young lion.

6And he walked about among the lions;

He became a young lion;

He learned to tear his prey;

He devoured men.

7He [†]knew how to destroy their [†]fortified towers

And laid waste their cities;

And the land was in desolation, as well as its fullness

Because of the sound of his roaring.

8Then nations put themselves against him

All around from their provinces,

And they spread their net over him;

He was captured in their pit.

9They 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.

10Your mother was like a vine in your [†]vineyard,

Planted by the waters;

It was fruitful and full of branches

Because of abundant waters.

11And it had [†]strong thick branches fit for scepters of rulers,

And its height was exalted above the clouds

So that it was seen in its exaltedness with the mass of its foliage.

12But it was uprooted in wrath;

It was cast down to the ground;

And the east wind dried up its fruit.

Its [†]strong thick branch [†]was torn off

So that [†]it dried up;

The fire consumed it.

13So now it is planted in the wilderness,

In a dry and thirsty land.

14And fire has gone out from its thick branch;

It has consumed its shoots and fruit,

So that there is not in it a [†]strong thick branch,

A scepter to rule.’” This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation.