Et tu assume planctum super principes Israël,

Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

… Thine to raise a dirge over the princes of Israel:

et dices: Quare mater tua leæna inter leones cubavit? in medio leunculorum enutrivit catulos suos?

And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?

Prince, that mother of thine was a lioness indeed; where lions haunt, she made her lair, among their whelps nursed her brood.

Et eduxit unum de leunculis suis, et leo factus est: et didicit capere prædam, hominemque comedere.

And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

One cub she reared that grew to lion’s estate, learned to bring down his prey, to eat men;

Et audierunt de eo gentes: et non absque vulneribus suis ceperunt eum, et adduxerunt eum in catenis in terram Ægypti.

And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt.

the neighbours heard of it, caught him, not scatheless, in their pit, and carried him off in chains to Egypt.

Quæ cum vidisset quoniam infirmata est, et periit exspectatio ejus, tulit unum de leunculis suis; leonem constituit eum.

But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion.

Baulked of her hopes, she reared another, till it was a grown lion.

Qui incedebat inter leones, et factus est leo: et didicit prædam capere, et homines devorare:

And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

This one, in turn, took his ease like a lion among the rest; learned to bring down prey, eat men,

didicit viduas facere, et civitates earum in desertum adducere: et desolata est terra et plenitudo ejus a voce rugitus illius.

He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.

of women make widows, of cities a desert; dispeopled a whole land with his roaring.

Et convenerunt adversus eum gentes undique de provinciis, et expanderunt super eum rete suum: in vulneribus earum captus est,

And the nations came together against him on every side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was taken.

At that, folk came from far and near with nets to snare him, caught him in their cruel toils and caged him.

et miserunt eum in caveam: in catenis adduxerunt eum ad regem Babylonis, miseruntque eum in carcerem, ne audiretur vox ejus ultra super montes Israël.

And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

This one they led off in chains to the king of Babylon; in Babylon he remained a prisoner, and his voice was heard on the hill-sides of Israel no more.

Mater tua quasi vinea in sanguine tuo super aquam plantata est: fructus ejus et frondes ejus creverunt ex aquis multis.

Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.

Mother of that royal stock! Vine planted by the water-side, and in that neighbourhood leafy and fruitful both, was never so fertile.

Et factæ sunt ei virgæ solidæ in sceptra dominantium, et exaltata est statura ejus inter frondes, et vidit altitudinem suam in multitudine palmitum suorum.

And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her branches.

Here was a vine could yield sturdy boughs, sceptres for kings to govern with; high grew the leaves, fair the branching tendrils.

Et evulsa est in ira, in terramque projecta, et ventus urens siccavit fructum ejus: marcuerunt et arefactæ sunt virgæ roboris ejus: ignis comedit eam.

But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured her.

But vengeance fell upon it, torn up and thrown away on the ground, the sirocco to wither its leaves; faded and dry those strong boughs, till at last fire consumed them!

Et nunc transplantata est in desertum, in terra invia et sitienti.

And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.

It is planted now far away, in the parched soil of a desert.

Et egressus est ignis de virga ramorum ejus, qui fructum ejus comedit: et non fuit in ea virga fortis, sceptrum dominantium. Planctus est, et erit in planctum.

And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.

Fire came out from those branching boughs, that consumed all the fruit of it; never a sturdy bough more, to be a king’s sceptre. Make lament, then; here is good cause for lament.