What a lioness was your mother
    among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
    rearing her cubs.^(B)
3 She raised up one of her cubs;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured humans.^(C)
4 The nations heard about him;
    he was caught in their pit,
and they brought him with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.^(D)
5 When she saw that she was thwarted,
    that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
    and made him a young lion.^(E)
6 He prowled among the lions;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured people.^(F)
7 And he ravaged their strongholds^[a]
    and laid waste their towns;
the land was appalled, and all in it,
    at the sound of his roaring.^(G)
8 The nations set upon him
    from the provinces all around;
they spread their net over him;
    he was caught in their pit.^(H)
9 With hooks they put him in a neck collar
    and brought him to the king of Babylon;
    they brought him into custody,
so that his voice should be heard no more
    on the mountains of Israel.^(I)
10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard^[b]
    transplanted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches
    from abundant water.^(J)
11 Its strongest stem became
    a ruler’s scepter;^[c]
it towered aloft
    among the clouds;
it stood out in its height
    with its mass of branches.^(K)
12 But it was plucked up in fury,
    cast down to the ground;
the east wind dried it up;
    its fruit was stripped off;
its strong stem was withered;
    the fire consumed it.^(L)
13 Now it is transplanted into the wilderness,
    into a dry and thirsty land.^(M)
14 And fire has gone out from its stem,
    has consumed its branches and fruit,
so that there remains in it no strong stem,
    no scepter for ruling.