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Lament for the Princes of Israel

¹ "As for you, take up a ^(C1)lamentation for the ^(C2)princes of Israel² and say,

'^(F1)What was your mother?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
She reared her cubs.

³ 'When she brought up one of her cubs,
He became a lion,
And he learned to tear his prey;
He devoured men.

⁴ 'Then nations heard about him;
He was captured in their pit,
And they ^(C1)brought him with hooks
To the land of Egypt.

⁵ 'When she saw, as she waited,
That her hope was lost,
She took ^(F1)another of her cubs
And made him a young lion.

⁶ 'And he ^(C1)walked about among the lions;
He became a young lion,
He learned to tear his prey;
He devoured men.

⁷ 'He ^(F1)destroyed their ^(F2)fortified towers
And laid waste their cities;
And the land and its fullness were appalled
Because of the sound of his roaring.

⁸ 'Then ^(C1)nations set against him
On every side from their provinces,
And they spread their net over him;
He was captured in their pit.

⁹ '^(C1)They put him in a cage with hooks
And ^(C2)brought him to the king of Babylon;
They brought him in hunting nets
So that his voice would be heard no more
On the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ 'Your mother was ^(C1)like a vine in your ^(F1)vineyard,
Planted by the waters;
It was fruitful and full of branches
Because of abundant waters.

¹¹ 'And it had ^(F1)(C1)strong branches fit for scepters of rulers,
And its ^(C2)height was raised above the clouds
So that it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches.

¹² 'But it was ^(C1)plucked up in fury;
It was ^(C2)cast down to the ground;
And the ^(C3)east wind dried up its fruit.
Its ^(F1)(C4)strong branch ^(F2)was torn off
So that ^(F3)it withered;
The fire consumed it.

¹³ 'And now it is planted in the ^(C1)wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴ 'And ^(C1)fire has gone out from its branch;
It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
So that there is not in it a ^(F1)strong branch,
A scepter to rule.'"
This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.