⁹ But why are you now screaming in terror?
    Have you no king to lead you?
Have your wise people all died?
    Pain has gripped you like a woman in childbirth.

“Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols
    and their worthless foreign gods?” says the Lord.

⁸     and people are terrified.
Pangs of anguish grip them,
    like those of a woman in labor.
They look helplessly at one another,
    their faces aflame with fear.

⁴ I will make boys their leaders,
    and toddlers their rulers.
⁵ People will oppress each other—
    man against man,
    neighbor against neighbor.
Young people will insult their elders,
    and vulgar people will sneer at the honorable.

⁶ In those days a man will say to his brother,
“Since you have a coat, you be our leader!
    Take charge of this heap of ruins!”
⁷ But he will reply,
    “No! I can’t help.
I don’t have any extra food or clothes.
    Don’t put me in charge!”

¹⁰ Now where is^[a] your king?
    Let him save you!
Where are all the leaders of the land,
    the king and the officials you demanded of me?
¹¹ In my anger I gave you kings,
    and in my fury I took them away.

²⁰ Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—
    was caught in their snares.
We had thought that his shadow
    would protect us against any nation on earth!

⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard reports about the enemy,
    and he is weak with fright.
Pangs of anguish have gripped him,
    like those of a woman in labor.