Jeremiah 4:31

31 I hear a woman in labor. I hear the woman cry with anguish as she gives birth to her first child. My people Zion are gasping for breath. They are stretching out their hands, saying, "How horrible it is for us! We're defenseless in the presence of murderers!"

Jeremiah 4:31 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 4:31

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail
So the distress of the Jews, at the time of their destruction, is compared to the sorrows of a woman in travail; and a word, that signifies that is used to express it, ( Matthew 24:8 ) : and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child;
whose time is more difficult, her pains sharper, her anguish greater, and, having less experience, the more impatient: the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself;
her unhappy condition, and miserable circumstances: that spreadeth her hands;
as persons in distress do, and particularly women in travail: saying, woe is me now, for my soul is wearied because of murderers:
these abounded: under the second temple, and was the reason, the Jews say: {m}, of the sanhedrim removing from their usual place in the temple; and why they ceased from the beheading of the red heifer ^F14.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 8. 2.
F14 Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 9.

Jeremiah 4:31 In-Context

29 All the people in the city will flee at the sound of riders and archers. They will go off into the thickets and climb among the rocks. The entire city will be abandoned, and no one will live in it.

30 You are going to be destroyed! What are you going to do? Why do you dress in red and put on gold jewelry? Why do you wear eye shadow? You are making yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers reject you; they want to kill you.

31 I hear a woman in labor. I hear the woman cry with anguish as she gives birth to her first child. My people Zion are gasping for breath. They are stretching out their hands, saying, "How horrible it is for us! We're defenseless in the presence of murderers!"