⁹ Why do you now cry aloud—
    have you no king^[a](A)?
Has your ruler^[b] perished,
    that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?^(B)

¹⁹ Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:^(A)
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King^(B) no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused^(C) my anger with their images,
    with their worthless^(D) foreign idols?”^(E)

¹⁰ Where is your king,^(A) that he may save you?
    Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
    ‘Give me a king and princes’?^(B)
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,^(C)
    and in my wrath I took him away.^(D)

³ Then they will say, “We have no king
    because we did not revere the Lord.
But even if we had a king,
    what could he do for us?”

²⁰ The Lord’s anointed,^(A) our very life breath,
    was caught in their traps.^(B)
We thought that under his shadow^(C)
    we would live among the nations.

⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,
    and his hands hang limp.^(A)
Anguish has gripped him,
    pain like that of a woman in labor.^(B)

⁶ Ask and see:
    Can a man bear children?
Then why do I see every strong man
    with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor,^(A)
    every face turned deathly pale?^(B)
7 How awful that day^(C) will be!
    No other will be like it.
It will be a time of trouble^(D) for Jacob,
    but he will be saved^(E) out of it.

²³ You who live in ‘Lebanon,^[a](A)’
    who are nestled in cedar buildings,
how you will groan when pangs come upon you,
    pain^(B) like that of a woman in labor!