⁹ Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you? has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth:

¹⁹ The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people comes from a far land: Is the Lord not in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they made me angry with their images and their strange gods which are no gods?

⁸ Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces will be like flames.

¹⁰ Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you said, Give me a king and rulers.

¹¹ I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have taken him away in my wrath.

³ Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us?

⁴ For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images.

²⁰ Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we will be living among the nations.

⁴³ The king of Babylon has had news of them, and his hands have become feeble: trouble has come on him and pain like the pain of a woman in childbirth.

⁶ Put the question and see if it is possible for a man to have birth-pains: why do I see every man with his hands gripping his sides, as a woman does when the pains of birth are on her, and all faces are turned green?

⁷ Ha! for that day is so great that there is no day like it: it is the time of Jacob's trouble: but he will get salvation from it.

²³ O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!

²¹ How long will I go on seeing the flag and hearing the sound of the war-horn?

¹⁷ As a woman with child, whose time is near, is troubled, crying out in her pain; so have we been before you, O Lord.

³ For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see.

¹ For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away from Jerusalem and from Judah all their support; their store of bread and of water;

² The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the prophet; the man who has knowledge of secret arts, and the man who is wise because of his years;

³ The captain of fifty, and the man of high position, and the wise guide, and the wonder-worker, and he who makes use of secret powers.

⁴ And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them.

⁵ And the people will be crushed, every one by his neighbour; the young will be full of pride against the old, and those of low position will be lifted up against the noble.

⁶ When one man puts his hand on another in his father's house, and says, You have clothing, be our ruler and be responsible for us in our sad condition:

⁷ Then he will say with an oath, I will not be a helper, for in my house there is no bread or clothing: I will not let you make me a ruler of the people.