1 MOREOVER, you Son of man, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

2 And say, What is your mother? O whelp of lions! she crouched among lions, she reared her whelps among young lions.

3 And one of her whelps grew up and became a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; and he devoured men.

4 The nations also heard of his fame; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with a bridle to the land of Egypt.

5 Now when his mother saw that she had suffered and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps and made him a young lion.

6 And he went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey and devoured men.

7 Then he walked in his strength and ravaged cities and laid waste the land in its fulness by the noise of his roaring.

8 Then the nations gathered together against him from the provinces round about him, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

9 And they put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon; and he threw him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

11 And she had strong rods for scepters of the rulers upon the great branches, and their stature rose up higher among its shoots, and their height was seen and the multitude of their tendrils.

12 But it was plucked up in fury and was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit; its strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed it.

13 And now it is planted in the wilderness, in a thirsty and dry land.

14 And fire is gone out from its choice branches and has devoured its fruit, so that no strong rod was found in it, or a branch to become a ruler's scepter. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.