What a lioness was your mother
    among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
    rearing her cubs.
3She raised up one of her cubs;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured humans.
4The nations sounded an alarm against him;
    he was caught in their pit;
and they brought him with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.
5When she saw that she was thwarted,
    that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
    and made him a young lion.
6He prowled among the lions;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured people.
7And he ravaged their strongholds,[a]
    and laid waste their towns;
the land was appalled, and all in it,
    at the sound of his roaring.
8The nations set upon him
    from the provinces all around;
they spread their net over him;
    he was caught in their pit.
9With hooks they put him in a cage,
    and brought him to the king of Babylon;
    they brought him into custody,
so that his voice should be heard no more
    on the mountains of Israel.
10Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard[b]
    transplanted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches
    from abundant water.
11Its strongest stem became
    a ruler’s scepter;[c]
it towered aloft
    among the thick boughs;
it stood out in its height
    with its mass of branches.
12But it was plucked up in fury,
    cast down to the ground;
the east wind dried it up;
    its fruit was stripped off,
its strong stem was withered;
    the fire consumed it.
13Now it is transplanted into the wilderness,
    into a dry and thirsty land.
14And fire has gone out from its stem,
    has consumed its branches and fruit,
so that there remains in it no strong stem,
    no scepter for ruling.