1 - "Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel
2 - and say: "'What a lioness was your mother among the lions! She lay down among them and reared her cubs.
3 - She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a strong lion. He learned to tear the prey and he became a man-eater.
4 - The nations heard about him, and he was trapped in their pit. They led him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
5 - "'When she saw her hope unfulfilled, her expectation gone, she took another of her cubs and made him a strong lion.
6 - He prowled among the lions, for he was now a strong lion. He learned to tear the prey and he became a man-eater.
7 - He broke down
8 - Then the nations came against him, those from regions round about. They spread their net for him, and he was trapped in their pit.
9 - With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel.
10 - "'Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard
11 - Its branches were strong, fit for a ruler's scepter. It towered high above the thick foliage, conspicuous for its height and for its many branches.
12 - But it was uprooted in fury and thrown to the ground. The east wind made it shrivel, it was stripped of its fruit; its strong branches withered and fire consumed them.
13 - Now it is planted in the desert, in a dry and thirsty land.
14 - Fire spread from one of its main