A Lament Over the Princes of Israel

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

²and say,

‘What was your mother?

A lioness!

She lay down among lions,

and nourished her cubs among the young lions.

³She brought up one of her cubs,

and he became a young lion.

He learned to catch the prey,

and he devoured humans.

⁴The nations also heard of him,

and he was captured in their pit.

They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁵“‘When she saw that she had hoped,

but her hope had been lost,

She took another of her cubs,

and made him a young lion.

⁶He walked about among the lions,

and he became a young lion.

He learned to catch the prey,

and he devoured humans.

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,

and 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 scepters of those who ruled.

Their stature was exalted among 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 spread out from its branches.

It has devoured its fruit,

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

This is a lament, and should be for a lament.”