A Lament for the Princes of Israel

1Moreover do thou take up a lamentation for the prince of Israel,

2and say, Why is thy mother become a whelp in the midst of lions? in the midst of lions she has multiplied her whelps.

3And one of her whelps sprang forth; he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.

4And the nations heard a report of him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him into the land of Egypt in chains.

5And she saw that he was driven away from her, and her hope of him perished, and she took another of her whelps; she made him a lion.

6And he went up and down in the midst of lions, he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.

7And he prowled in his boldness and laid waste their cities, and made the land desolate, and the fullness of it, by the voice of his roaring.

8Then the nations set upon him from the countries round about, and they spread their nets upon him: he was taken in their pit.

9And they put him in chains and in a cage, and he came to the king of Babylon; and he cast him into prison, that his voice should not be heard on the mountains of Israel.

10Thy mother was as a vine and as a blossom on a pomegranate tree, planted by water: her fruit and her shoot abounded by reason of much water.

11And she became a rod for a tribe of princes, and was elevated in her bulk in the midst of other trees, and she saw her bulk in the multitude of her branches.

12But she was broken down in wrath, she was cast upon the ground, and the east wind dried up her choice branches: vengeance came upon them, and the rod of her strength was withered; fire consumed it.

13And now they have planted her in the wilderness, in a dry land.

14And fire is gone out of a rod of her choice boughs, and has devoured her; and there was no rod of strength in her. Her race is become a parable of lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.