9 With hooks they put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into custody and put him in strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother [the mother-city Jerusalem] was like a vine [like you, Zedekiah, and in your blood] planted by the waters; it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. [II Kings 24:17; Ezek. 17:7.]
11 And it had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule and its height was exalted among the thick branches and into the clouds, and it was seen in its height among the multitude of its branches and was conspicuous.
12 But the vine was plucked up in God's wrath [by His agent the Babylonian king] and it was cast down to the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire [of God's judgment] consumed them.
13 And now it is transplanted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land [Babylon].
14 And fire went out of a rod [Zedekiah] of its branches which has consumed the vine's fruit, so that it has in it no [longer a] strong rod to be a scepter for ruling. This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation and a dirge.