³¹ I hear a cry as of a woman in labor,^(A)
    a groan as of one bearing her first child—
the cry of Daughter Zion^(B) gasping for breath,^(C)
    stretching out her hands^(D) and saying,
“Alas! I am fainting;
    my life is given over to murderers.”^(E)

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,^(A)
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;^(B)
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean^(C) thing^(D) among them.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands^(A) in prayer,
    I hide^(B) my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
    I am not listening.^(C)

Your hands^(D) are full of blood!^(E)

²¹ What will you say when the Lord sets over you
    those you cultivated as your special allies?^(A)
Will not pain grip you
    like that of a woman in labor?^(B)

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”^[a](A)

¹³ Pains as of a woman in childbirth^(A) come to him,
    but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time^(B) arrives,
    he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.^(C)