| 1 | As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, |
| 2 | and say: What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs. |
| 3 | She raised up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured humans. |
| 4 | The nations sounded an alarm against him; he was caught in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. |
| 5 | When she saw that she was thwarted, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs 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 people. |
| 7 | And he ravaged their strongholds, and laid waste their towns; the land was appalled, and all in it, at the sound of his roaring. |
| 8 | The nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught 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, so that his voice should be heard no more on the mountains of Israel. |
| 10 | Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water. |
| 11 | Its strongest stem became a ruler’s scepter; it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches. |
| 12 | But it 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 into the wilderness, into 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 ruling. This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation. |