^1. And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

^2. and say: What a lioness was your mother among lions! She couched in the midst of young lions, rearing her whelps.

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

^4. The nations sounded an alarm against him; he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

^5. When she saw that she was baffled, that her hope was lost, she took another of her whelps and made him a young lion.

^6. He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured men.

^7. And he ravaged their strongholds, and laid waste their cities; and the land was appalled and all who were in it at the sound of his roaring.

^8. Then the nations set against him snares on every side; they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

^9. With hooks they put him in a cage, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into custody, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

^10. Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water.

^11. Its strongest stem became a ruler's scepter; it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches.

^12. But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried it up; its fruit was stripped off, its strong stem was withered; the fire consumed it.

^13. Now it is transplanted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

^14. And fire has gone out from its stem, has consumed its branches and fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for a ruler. This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.

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