What was your mother? ^(B)A lioness!
    Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
    she reared her cubs.
³ And she brought up one of her cubs;
    ^(C)he became a young lion,
^(D)and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men.
⁴ The nations heard about him;
    ^(E)he was caught in their pit,
^(F)and they brought him with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.
⁵ When she saw that she waited in vain,
    that her hope was lost,
^(G)she took another of her cubs
    and made him a young lion.
⁶ He prowled among the lions;
    he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
    he devoured men,
⁷ and seized^[a] their widows.
    He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
    at the sound of his roaring.
^8 (H)Then the nations set against him
    from provinces on every side;
^(I)they spread their net over him;
    ^(J)he was taken in their pit.
⁹ With hooks ^(K)they put him in a cage^[b]
    and ^(L)brought him to the king of Babylon;
    they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
    on ^(M)the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Your mother was ^(N)like a vine in a vineyard^[c]
    planted by the water,
^(O)fruitful and full of branches
    ^(P)by reason of abundant water.
¹¹ Its strong stems became
    rulers' scepters;
it towered aloft
    among the thick boughs;^[d]
it was seen in its height
    with the mass of its branches.
¹² But the vine was plucked up in fury,
    cast down to the ground;
^(Q)the east wind dried up its fruit;
    they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem,
    fire consumed it.
^13 (R)Now it is planted in the wilderness,
    in a dry and thirsty land.
^14 (S)And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
    has consumed its fruit,
^(T)so that there remains in it no strong stem,
    no scepter for ruling.