A Lament for Israel’s Princes
19 Moreover take up a lamentation for the officials of Israel, 2 and say:
What was your mother?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions;
she nourished her whelps.
3 When she brought up one of her whelps,
he became a lion
and learned to catch his prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him;
he was taken in their pit,
and they brought him with chains
to the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw as she had waited
that her hope was lost,
then she took another of her whelps
and made him a young lion.
6 He went up and down among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and learned to catch the prey,
and devoured men.
7 He destroyed their fortified palaces,
and he laid waste their cities;
and the land and its fullness
were appalled by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him
on every side from their provinces,
and spread their net over him;
he was taken in their pit.
9 They put him in a cage with hooks
and brought 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 like a vine in your vineyard,
planted by the waters;
it was fruitful and full of branches
by reason of many waters.
11 It had strong rods
for the scepters of those who rule.
And its stature
was exalted above the clouds,
so it appeared in its height
with the multitude of its branches.
12 But it was plucked up in fury,
it was cast down to the ground,
and the east wind dried up its fruit.
Its strong rod was broken and it withered;
the fire consumed it.
13 Now it is planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 Fire has gone out from its branch;
it has devoured its shoots and fruit,
so that there is no strong rod in it,
a scepter to rule.
This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.