1
Moreover take thou 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.