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Song of Mourning for the Leaders of Israel

¹ "As for you, take up a ^(C1)song of mourning for the ^(C2)leaders of Israel² and say,

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

³ 'When she brought up one of her cubs,
^(C1)He became a young lion,
And he learned to tear his prey;
He devoured people.

⁴ 'Then nations heard about him;
He was caught in their trap,
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 ^(C1)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 people.

⁷ 'He ^(F1)destroyed their ^(F2)palaces
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 caught in their trap.

⁹ '^(C1)They put him in a ^(F1)wooden collar with hooks
And ^(C2)brought him to the king of Babylon;
They brought him in hunting nets
So that his voice would no longer be heard
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 thick with branches
Because of abundant waters.

¹¹ 'And it had ^(F1)(C1)strong stems 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)uprooted in fury;
It was ^(C2)thrown down to the ground;
And the ^(C3)east wind dried up its fruit.
^(F1)Its ^(C4)strong stem ^(F2)was torn out
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 stem;
It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
So that there is no ^(F1)strong stem in it,
A scepter to rule.'"
This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.