ANSWER: This chapter is divided into comparisons. The first (vss.1-9) is a description of God’s justice which He poured out through other nations upon Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim during their reigns in Jerusalem, because they had turned the people away from Him. The lioness in verse two refers to Jerusalem.

The first young lion (vs.3) refers to Jehoahaz; the second young lion (vs.6) refers to Jehoiakim. The second comparison (vss.11-14) describes the captivity of all the Jewish peoples, represented by a vine (vs.10), who at the first were blessed greatly by God (vss.10-11). But when they rejected Him and turned to idols, He permitted them to be destroyed and carried away into captivity, as depicted by the destruction of the vine (vss.12-14).