19:1 “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel
19:2 and say,
‘ ①What was your mother?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
She raised her cubs.
▷ ①Or Why did your mother, a lioness, lie down among lions; among young lions rear her cubs?
19:3 When she brought up one of her cubs,
He became a young lion,
And he learned to tear his prey;
He devoured people.
19:4 Then nations heard about him;
He was caught in their trap,
And they brought him with hooks
To the land of Egypt.
19:5 When she saw, as she waited,
That her hope was lost,
She took ①another of her cubs
And made him a young lion.
▷ ①Lit one
19:6 And he walked about among the lions,
He became a young lion;
He learned to tear his prey;
He devoured people.
19:7 He ①destroyed their ②palaces
And laid waste their cities;
And the land and its fullness were appalled
Because of the sound of his roaring.
▷ ①As in Targum; MT knew ②Or widows
19:8 Then nations set against him
On every side from their provinces,
And they spread their net over him;
He was caught in their trap.
19:9 They put him in a ①wooden collar with hooks
And 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.
▷ ①Or iron
19:10 Your mother was like a vine in your ①vineyard,
Planted by the waters;
It was fruitful and thick with branches
Because of abundant waters.
▷ ①As in some mss; MT blood
19:11 And it had ①strong stems fit for scepters of rulers,
And its height was raised above the clouds
So that it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches.
▷ ①Lit stems of strength
19:12 But it was uprooted in fury;
It was thrown down to the ground;
And the east wind dried up its fruit.
①Its strong stem ②was torn out
So that ③it withered;
The fire consumed it.
▷ ①Lit The stem of her strength ②As in LXX; MT were ③As in LXX; MT they
19:13 And now it is planted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land.
19:14 And fire has gone out from its stem;
It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
So that there is no ①strong stem in it,
A scepter to rule.’ ” This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.
▷ ①Lit stem of strength