New International Version NIV
Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
1 “Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel
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Moreover take thou up a lamentation for 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.
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And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?
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.
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And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
4 The nations heard about him, and he was trapped in their pit. They led him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
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And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into 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.
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But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a 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.
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And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
7 He broke down their strongholds and devastated their towns. The land and all who were in it were terrified by his roaring.
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He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.
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.
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And the nations came together against him on every side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was taken.
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.
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And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 “ ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyardplanted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of abundant water.
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Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.
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.
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And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her 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.
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But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured her.
13 Now it is planted in the desert, in a dry and thirsty land.
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And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.
14 Fire spread from one of its main branches and consumed its fruit. No strong branch is left on it fit for a ruler’s scepter.’ “This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”
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And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.
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