“ Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel

“你当为以色列的王作起哀歌，

你当为以色列的领袖们唱哀歌，

你当为以色列的领袖们唱哀歌，

“你要为以色列的首领唱哀歌，

“你当为以色列的众领袖作一首哀歌，

你當為以色列的王作起哀歌，

你當為以色列的領袖們唱哀歌，

你當為以色列的領袖們唱哀歌，

「你要為以色列的首領唱哀歌，

“你當為以色列的眾領袖作一首哀歌，

你，你要為以色列的人君舉哀唱歌，

爾當為以色列牧伯作哀歌、

爾當為以色列牧伯作哀歌、

爾以西結當為以色列諸君諸君或作牧伯作哀歌、曰、

“ Sing a song of sadness about Israel’s princes.

And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

“ Sing this funeral song for the princes of Israel:

“ As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel,

“ As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel

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

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

“ Now, lament for the princes of Israel

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

“ And you, sing a lament for the princes of Israel,

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

Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.

Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you:“‘ How you are destroyed, city of renown, peopled by men of the sea! You were a power on the seas, you and your citizens; you put your terror on all who lived there.

“ Son of man, take up a lament concerning Tyre.

Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.

but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

Fire spread from one of its main branches and consumed its fruit. No strong branch is left on it fit for a ruler’s scepter.’“ This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”

which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.

While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo.Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died.

Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city.Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

The king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:“ They will not mourn for him:‘ Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him:‘ Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’He will have the burial of a donkey— dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”

This is what the Lord Almighty says:“ Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.

If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.Say to the king and to the queen mother,“ Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads.”

There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah.Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.

As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament concerning you:“ Who was ever silenced like Tyre, surrounded by the sea?”

“ Son of man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and consign to the earth below both her and the daughters of mighty nations, along with those who go down to the pit.

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.

“ This is the lament they will chant for her. The daughters of the nations will chant it; for Egypt and all her hordes they will chant it, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

This is what the Lord says:“ Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know?

After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.

Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again.For this is what the Lord says about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place:“ He will never return.He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”

The Lord’s anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations.

“‘ But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord,‘ so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt.

Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.

I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.

In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, together with articles of value from the temple of the Lord, and he made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king over Judah and Jerusalem.