¹“Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel ,

²and say,

‘What was your mother?

A lioness .

She couched amongst lions ,

in the middle of the young lions she nourished her cubs .

³She brought up one of her cubs .

He became a young lion .

He learnt to catch the prey .

He devoured men.

⁴The nations also heard of him .

He was taken in their pit ;

and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt .

⁵“‘Now when she saw that she had waited ,

and her hope was lost,

then she took another of her cubs ,

and made him a young lion .

⁶He went up and down amongst the lions .

He became a young lion .

He learnt to catch the prey .

He devoured men .

⁷He knew their palaces,

and laid waste their cities .

The land was desolate with its fullness ,

because of the noise of his roaring .

⁸Then the nations attacked him on every side from the provinces .

They spread their net over him .

He was taken in their pit .

⁹They put him in a cage with hooks ,

and brought him to the king of Babylon.

They brought him into strongholds,

so that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel .

¹⁰“‘Your mother was like a vine in your blood , planted by the waters .

It was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters .

¹¹It had strong branches for the sceptres of those who ruled .

Their stature was exalted amongst the thick boughs .

They were seen in their height

with the multitude of their branches .

¹²But it was plucked up in fury .

It was cast down to the ground,

and the east wind dried up its fruit .

Its strong branches were broken off and withered .

The fire consumed them .

¹³Now it is planted in the wilderness ,

in a dry and thirsty land .

¹⁴Fire has gone out of its branches .

It has devoured its fruit ,

so that there is in it no strong branch to be a sceptre to rule .’

This is a lamentation , and shall be for a lamentation .”