Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
There is a tacit antithesis between this lamentation and that of the Jews for their own miseries, the causes of which, however, they did not inquire.
Take ... up a lamentation for the princes of Israel - i:e., of Judah, whose "princes" alone were recognized by prophecy; those of the ten tribes were, in respect to the theocracy, usurpers.