“For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.”
The cry of the daughter of Zion: 'I hear a cry as of a woman in childbirth, a groan as of one bearing her first child—the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, "Alas! They're killing me! My life is ebbing away before the murderers."' This final verse of chapter 4 presents Jerusalem herself (Daughter Zion) crying out in the pain and terror of childbirth, but childbirth that ends not in new life but in death. The phrase 'alas! They're killing me!' indicates that Jerusalem faces not renewal but annihilation, that the agony of the moment will not produce offspring but destruction. The image combines the pain of labor with the terror of violence, suggesting that Jerusalem's experience is overwhelming on both levels. Theologically, this verse concludes the chapter with Jerusalem's own voice crying out in desperation, a lament that will be echoed in the subsequent chapters of Jeremiah.
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