¹ 'Now, raise a lament for the princes of Israel.

² Say: What was your mother? A lioness among lions; lying among the cubs she nursed her whelps.

³ She reared one of her whelps: he grew into a young lion; he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.

⁴ The nations came to hear of him; he was caught in their pit; they dragged him away with hooks to Egypt.

⁵ Her expectation thwarted, and seeing her hope dashed, she took another of her whelps and made a young lion of him.

⁶ He prowled among the lions, he grew into a young lion, he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.

⁷ He tore down their palaces, he destroyed their cities; the land and all its inhabitants were appalled by the sound of his roars.

⁸ The nations marched out against him from the surrounding provinces; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

⁹ They shackled him with hooks, they took him to the king of Babylon and threw him into a fortress, so that his voice could never again be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Your mother was like a vine planted beside the water, fruitful and leafy, because the water flowed so full.

¹¹ She had stout stems which became kingly sceptres; she grew higher and higher, up into the clouds; she was admired for her height and the number of her branches.

¹² But she was furiously uprooted and thrown on the ground; the east wind dried up her fruit, she was broken to pieces; her stout stem dried up, the fire devoured it.

¹³ Now she has been transplanted to the desert, to a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴ Fire burst out of her stem devouring her branches and fruit. No more stout stem for her, no more kingly sceptre.' This is a lament; it was used as such.