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

2and say: How was thy mother a lioness; among lions she couched, in the midst of the young lions she reared her whelps!

3And she brought up one of her whelps, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.

4Then the nations assembled against him, he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks unto the land of Egypt.

5Now when she saw that she was disappointed, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

6And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.

7And he knew their castles, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring.

8Then the nations cried out against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him, he was taken in their pit.

9And they put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; that they might bring him into strongholds, so that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10Thy mother was like a vine, in thy likeness, planted by the waters; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

11And she had strong rods to be sceptres for them that bore rule; and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she was seen in her height with the multitude of her tendrils.

12But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit; her strong rods were broken off and withered, the fire consumed her.

13And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

14And fire is gone out of the rod of her branches, it hath devoured her fruit, so that there is in her no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule.' This is a lamentation, and it was for a lamentation.