1 O Senhor Deus me mandou cantar uma canção de tristeza a respeito de dois reis de Israel:
2 Que leoa era a sua mãe !
Ela andava com o bando
e criava os filhotes no meio dos leões.
3 Ela criou um filhote
e o ensinou a caçar,
e ele se tornou um devorador de gente.
4 As nações ouviram falar dele
e o apanharam numa cova.
Puseram uma argola no nariz dele
e o arrastaram para o Egito.
5 A leoa viu que as suas esperanças estavam perdidas.
Aí criou outro filhote ,
e ele se tornou um leão feroz.
6 Quando já estava crescido,
andava com os outros leões.
Aprendeu a caçar
e se tornou um devorador de gente.
7 Destruiu fortalezas e arrasou cidades.
Cada vez que ele rugia,
o povo da sua terra tremia de medo.
8 Os povos se reuniram para combatê-lo;
veio gente de todos os lados.
Estenderam as suas redes de caça
e o pegaram na armadilha.
9 Puseram uma argola no nariz dele
e o puxaram para dentro de uma gaiola;
então o levaram para o rei da Babilônia.
Eles o deixaram preso
para que nunca mais se ouvisse o seu rugido nos montes de Israel.
10 Israelitas, a mãe de vocês era como uma parreira
plantada perto de um ribeirão.
Ela estava cheia de galhos
e produzia muitas uvas
porque havia bastante água.
11 Os seus galhos eram fortes
e cresceram até se tornarem cetros reais.
A parreira cresceu tanto,
que os seus galhos chegaram até as nuvens;
todos viram como era alta
e cheia de galhos.
12 Porém mãos furiosas a arrancaram pela raiz
e a jogaram no chão.
O vento leste secou as suas uvas.
Os seus galhos foram quebrados;
eles secaram e foram queimados.
13 Agora, a parreira está plantada no deserto,
numa terra seca e sem água.
14 O seu tronco pegou fogo;
o fogo destruiu os seus galhos e as uvas.
Os seus galhos nunca mais serão fortes,
nunca mais serão cetros reais.
Esta é uma canção de tristeza que tem sido cantada muitas vezes.
1 Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 and say: How was thy mother a lioness; among lions she couched, in the midst of the young lions she reared her whelps!
3 And she brought up one of her whelps, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.
4 Then the nations assembled against him, he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks unto the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that she was disappointed, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion; and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.
7 And he knew their castles, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations cried out against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him, he was taken in their pit.
9 And they put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; that they might bring him into strongholds, so that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Thy mother was like a vine, in thy likeness, planted by the waters; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong rods to be sceptres for them that bore rule; and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she was seen in her height with the multitude of her tendrils.
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 off and withered, the fire consumed her.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And fire is gone out of the rod of her branches, it hath devoured her fruit, so that there is in her no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule.' This is a lamentation, and it was for a lamentation.