Jeremiah 4:30

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.

Jeremiah 4:30 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 4:30

And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?
&c.] Or, "O thou spoiled" F11, wasted, and undone creature, how wilt thou help thyself? by what means dost thou think thou canst be delivered? it suggests that her ruin was inevitable; that she could not be recovered from it by herself, or any other: though thou clothest thyself with crimson;
and so look like some rich and noble person; hoping thereby to find mercy, and to have quarter given and kindness shown: though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold;
as a person of high and princely dignity: or rather all this is to be understood of the manner of harlots, who dress rich and grand, in order to allure men; since it follows, though thou rendest thy face with painting;
or, eyes F12; which painting dilates as Jezebel did, ( 2 Kings 9:30 ) , in vain shalt thou make thyself fair;
so as to be loved and admired: far from it: thy lovers will despise thee;
as an old harlot is despised by her former gallants, notwithstanding all her dressing and painting; yea, their love is often turned into hatred and abhorrence, as would be the case here, they will seek thy life;
to take it away; so far would there be from being any ground of expectations of help and deliverance from them.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 (dwdv ytaw) "et tu vastata", Pagninus, Montanus "et tu, res vastata", Cocceius.
F12 (Kynye Kwpb yerqx) "scindes in fuco oculos tuos", Montanus; "rumpes stibio oculos tuos", Schmidt.

Jeremiah 4:30 In-Context

28 The earth will mourn and the heavens will be draped in black because of my decree against my people. I have made up my mind and will not change it.”
29 At the noise of charioteers and archers, the people flee in terror. They hide in the bushes and run for the mountains. All the towns have been abandoned— not a person remains!
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 gasping for breath and crying out, “Help! I’m being murdered!”
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.