¹ Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,

² What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones.

³ And one of her little ones came to growth under her care, and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.

⁴ And the nations had news of him; he was taken in the hole they had made: and, pulling him with hooks, they took him into the land of Egypt.

⁵ Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a young lion.

⁶ And he went up and down among the lions and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.

⁷ And he sent destruction on their widows and made waste their towns; and the land and everything in it became waste because of the loud sound of his voice.

⁸ Then the nations came against him from the kingdoms round about: their net was stretched over him and he was taken in the hole they had made.

⁹ They made him a prisoner with hooks, and took him to the king of Babylon; they put him in the strong place so that his voice might be sounding no longer on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the great waters.

¹¹ And she had a strong rod for a rod of authority for the rulers, and it became tall among the clouds and it was seen lifted up among the number of its branches.

¹² But she was uprooted in burning wrath, and made low on the earth; the east wind came, drying her up, and her branches were broken off; her strong rod became dry, the fire made a meal of it.

¹³ And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and unwatered country.

¹⁴ And fire has gone out from her rod, causing the destruction of her branches, so that there is no strong rod in her to be the ruler's rod of authority. This is a song of grief, and it was for a song of grief.

¹ In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.

² Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servants the prophets.

³ Surely at the commandment of Yahweh came this on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,

⁴ and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh would not pardon.

⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁶ So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁷ The king of Egypt didn't come again out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months: and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

⁹ He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father had done.

¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it;

¹² and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

¹³ He carried out there all the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Yahweh, as Yahweh had said.

¹⁴ He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, except the poorest sort of the people of the land.

¹⁵ He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

¹⁶ All the men of might, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths one thousand, all of them strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

¹⁷ The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, [Jehoiachin's] father's brother, king is his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

¹⁹ He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰ For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.