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and say:

What a lioness was your mother,
    a lion among lions!
She made her lair among young lions,
    to raise her cubs;
One cub she raised up,
    a young lion he became;
He learned to tear apart prey,
    he devoured people.(A)
Nations heard about him;
    in their pit he was caught;
They took him away with hooks
    to the land of Egypt.[a](B)
When she realized she had waited in vain,
    she lost hope.
She took another of her cubs,
    and made him a young lion.
He prowled among the lions,
    became a young lion;
He learned to tear apart prey,
    he devoured people.(C)
He ravaged their strongholds,
    laid waste their cities.
The earth and everything in it were terrified
    at the sound of his roar.

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Footnotes

  1. 19:4 A common fate for royal prisoners: e.g., Assurbanipal claims he put a ring in the jaw of a captive king and a dog collar around his neck (cf. v. 9). A wall relief shows Esarhaddon holding two royal captives with ropes tied to rings in their lips.