1. “And take up a lamentation for the leaders of Yisra’ĕl,
2. and you shall say, ‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions! She lay down among the lions, in the midst of the young lions she reared her cubs.
3. ‘And she brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. And he learned to tear the prey, he devoured men.
4. ‘Then nations heard of him. He was caught in their pit, and they brought him with chains to the land of Mitsrayim.
5. ‘When she saw, as she waited, that her expectancy was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.
6. ‘And he went about among the lions, and became a young lion. And he learned to tear the prey, he devoured men.
7. ‘And he knew their widows, and laid waste their cities. And the land and all who filled it was stunned by the noise of his roaring.
8. ‘Then nations set against him from the provinces on every side, and spread their net over him, he was caught in their pit.
9. ‘And they put him in a cage in chains, and brought him to the sovereign of Baḇel. They brought him in nets, so his roar was no longer heard on the mountains of Yisra’ĕl.
10. ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the waters, a bearer of fruit and branching, because of many waters.
11. ‘And she had strong rods for sceptres of rulers. And her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and was seen in her height with the mass of its branches.
12. ‘But she was uprooted in wrath, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried her fruit. Her strong rods were broken and withered, fire consumed them.
13. ‘And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
14. ‘And fire went out from a rod of her branches. It devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod, a sceptre to rule.’ ” This is a lament, and it shall be a lament.