¹“Moreover, raise a lament for the leaders of Isra’el;

²say:

‘What a mother you had —

a lioness among lions!

She lay down among young lions

and reared her cubs.

³One of her cubs she singled out:

he became a young lion,

he learned to seize his prey,

he became a man-eater.

⁴The nations sounded an alarm against him;

and he was caught in their pit.

With hooks they dragged him off

to the land of Egypt.

⁵When she saw that she had been thwarted,

that her hope was lost,

she took another of her cubs

and made a young lion of him.

⁶He prowled among the lions,

grew to be a young lion,

learned to seize his prey

and became a man-eater.

⁷He raped their widows

and destroyed their cities;

the land and all in it were appalled

at the sound of his roaring.

⁸The nations set a snare for him

from the provinces all around,

they spread their net over him,

and he was caught in their pit.

⁹With hooks they put him in a cage

and brought him to the king of Bavel

to imprison him in a fortress,

so that his roar would be heard no more

on the mountains of Isra’el.

¹⁰“‘Your mother was like a strong grapevine

planted by the water.

It was fruitful and luxuriant

because of the abundant water.

¹¹It had strong branches

to be used as scepters by rulers;

besides having thick foliage,

it grew taller and taller,

until its height was noticed,

with its mass of branches.

¹²But it was torn up in fury

and flung on the ground.

An east wind withered her fruit,

her strong branches were broken off;

they dried up; and fire consumed the vine.

¹³It has been transplanted to the desert,

to a dry, thirsty land.

¹⁴Fire has gone out from its own branches,

burning up its fruit,

so that now it has no strong branch

to be a ruler’s scepter.’”

This lamentation became very well known.