Jeremiah 4:31

31 I hear a cry like a woman in labor, [a cry of] anguish like one bearing her first child. The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands: Woe is me, for my life is weary because of the 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 Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and the archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.

30 And you devastated one, what are you doing that you dress yourself in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? You beautify yourself for nothing. Your lovers reject you; they want to take your life.

31 I hear a cry like a woman in labor, [a cry of] anguish like one bearing her first child. The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands: Woe is me, for my life is weary because of the murderers!