A Song of Sorrow
1 The Lord told me to sing this song of sorrow for two princes of Israel:
2 What a lioness your mother was!
She raised her cubs among the fierce male lions.
3 She raised a cub and taught him to hunt;
he learned to eat people.
4 The nations heard about him
and trapped him in a pit.
With hooks they dragged him off to Egypt.
5 She waited until she saw all hope was gone.
Then she raised another of her cubs,
and he grew into a fierce lion.
6 When he was full-grown,
he prowled with the other lions.
He too learned to hunt and eat people.
7 He wrecked forts, he ruined towns.
The people of the land were terrified
every time he roared.
8 The nations gathered to fight him;
people came from everywhere.
They spread their hunting nets
and caught him in their trap.
9 They put him in a cage
and took him to the king of Babylonia.
They kept him under guard,
so that his roar would never be heard again
on the hills of Israel.
10 Your mother was like a grapevine
planted near a stream.
Because there was plenty of water,
the vine was covered with leaves and fruit.
11 Its branches were strong
and grew to be royal scepters.
The vine grew tall enough to reach the clouds;
everyone saw how leafy and tall it was.
12 But angry hands pulled it up by the roots
and threw it to the ground.
The east wind dried up its fruit.
Its branches were broken off;
they dried up and were burned.
13 Now it is planted in the desert,
in a dry and waterless land.
14 The stem of the vine caught fire;
fire burned up its branches and fruit.
The branches will never again be strong,
will never be royal scepters.
This is a song of sorrow; it has been sung again and again.
1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. 3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. 5 Now when she saw that she had waited, 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 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. 8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. 9 And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, 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 waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 11 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. 12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. 13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.