30 And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    (A)that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    (B)that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    (C)Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
31 For I heard (D)a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    (E)stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before 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.