Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
New Revised Standard NRS
1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
1
As for you, raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?
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and say: What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs.
3 And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
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She raised up one of her cubs; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured humans.
4 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.
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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 But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion.
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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 And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
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He prowled among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured people.
7 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.
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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 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.
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The nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.
9 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.
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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 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.
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Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water.
11 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.
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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 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.
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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 And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.
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Now it is transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land.
14 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.
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.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.