Lament for the Princes of Israel

1 “As for you, take up a alamentation for the bprinces of Israel

2 and say,

‘1What was your mother?

A lioness among lions!

She lay down among young lions,

She reared her cubs.

3 ‘When she brought up one of her cubs,

He became a lion,

And he learned to tear his prey;

He devoured men.

4 ‘Then nations heard about him;

He was captured in their pit,

And they abrought him with hooks

To the land of Egypt.

5 ‘When she saw, as she waited,

That her hope was lost,

She took 1another of her cubs

And made him a young lion.

6 ‘And he awalked about among the lions;

He became a young lion,

He learned to tear his prey;

He devoured men.

7 ‘He 1destroyed their 2fortified towers

And laid waste their cities;

And the land and its fullness were appalled

Because of the sound of his roaring.

8 ‘Then anations set against him

On every side from their provinces,

And they spread their net over him;

He was captured in their pit.

9 ‘aThey put him in a cage with hooks

And bbrought him to the king of Babylon;

They brought him in hunting nets

So that his voice would be heard no more

On the mountains of Israel.

10 ‘Your mother was alike a vine in your 1vineyard,

Planted by the waters;

It was fruitful and full of branches

Because of abundant waters.

11 ‘And it had 1astrong branches fit for scepters of rulers,

And its bheight was raised above the clouds

So that it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches.

12 ‘But it was aplucked up in fury;

It was bcast down to the ground;

And the ceast wind dried up its fruit.

Its 1dstrong branch 2was torn off

So that 3it withered;

The fire consumed it.

13 ‘And now it is planted in the awilderness,

In a dry and thirsty land.

14 ‘And afire has gone out from its branch;

It has consumed its shoots and fruit,

So that there is not in it a 1strong branch,

A scepter to rule.’ ”

This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.