Jeremiah 4:30

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.

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.

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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 sky will grow black. I have spoken, and I have planned it. I won't change my plans, and I won't turn back.

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!"