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30 You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life. 31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

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30 What are you doing,
    you who have been plundered?
Why do you dress up in beautiful clothing
    and put on gold jewelry?
Why do you brighten your eyes with mascara?
    Your primping will do you no good!
The allies who were your lovers
    despise you and seek to kill you.

31 I hear a cry, like that of a woman in labor,
    the groans of a woman giving birth to her first child.
It is beautiful Jerusalem[a]
    gasping for breath and crying out,
    “Help! I’m being murdered!”

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Footnotes

  1. 4:31 Hebrew the daughter of Zion.

30 What are you doing,(A) you devastated one?
    Why dress yourself in scarlet
    and put on jewels(B) of gold?
Why highlight your eyes with makeup?(C)
    You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers(D) despise you;
    they want to kill you.(E)

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

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