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¹ Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, ² and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps. ³ And she brought up one of her whelps: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. ⁴ The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks 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 he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. ⁷ And he knew their ^[a]palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring. ⁸ Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit. ⁹ And they put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Thy mother was like a vine, ^[b]in thy blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. ¹¹ And it had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and ^[c]their stature was exalted among the ^[d]thick boughs, and ^[e]they were seen in ^[f]their height with the multitude of ^[g]their branches. ¹² But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them. ¹³ And now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. ¹⁴ And fire is gone out of ^[h]the rods of its branches, it hath devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.