1: Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of
Israel, |
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2: And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among
lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. |
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3:
And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion,
and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. |
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4: The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and
they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. |
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5: Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost,
then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion. |
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6: And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young
lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. |
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7: And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their
cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the
noise of his roaring. |
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8: Then the nations set against him on every side from the
provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.
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9: And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the
king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no
more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. |
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10: Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the
waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
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11: And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare
rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she
appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. |
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12: But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the
ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were
broken and withered; the fire consumed them. |
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13: And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and
thirsty ground. |
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14: And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath
devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to
rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. |