³¹ For a voice as of a sick woman I have heard, Distress, as of one bringing forth a first-born, The voice of the daughter of Zion, She bewaileth herself, she spreadeth out her hands, `Wo to me now, for weary is my soul of slayers!'

¹⁷ Spread forth hath Zion her hands, There is no comforter for her, Jehovah hath charged concerning Jacob, His neighbours `are' his adversaries, Jerusalem hath become impure among them.

¹⁵ And in your spreading forth your hands, I hide mine eyes from you, Also when ye increase prayer, I do not hear, Your hands of blood have been full.

²¹ What dost thou say, when He looketh after thee? And thou -- thou hast taught them `to be' over thee -- leaders for head? Do not pangs seize thee as a travailing woman?

⁸ And they have been troubled, Pains and pangs they take, As a travailing woman they are pained, A man at his friend they marvel, The appearance of flames -- their faces!

²⁴ Feeble hath been Damascus, She turned to flee, and fear strengthened her, Distress and pangs have seized her, as a travailing woman.

⁴³ Heard hath the king of Babylon their report, And feeble have been his hands, Distress hath seized him; pain as a travailing woman.

²⁰ See, O Jehovah, for distress `is' to me, My bowels have been troubled, Turned hath been my heart in my midst, For I have greatly provoked, From without bereaved hath the sword, In the house `it is' as death.

²¹ Lain on the earth `in' out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, Thou hast slain in a day of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered -- Thou hast not pitied.

⁵ And to the others he said in mine ears, `Pass on into the city after him, and smite; your eye doth not pity, nor do ye spare;

⁶ aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, ye do slay -- to destruction; and against any man on whom `is' the mark ye do not go nigh, and from My sanctuary ye begin.'

⁴⁶ For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Bring up against them an assembly, And give them to trembling and to spoiling.

⁴⁷ And they have cast at them the stone of the assembly, And cut them with their swords, Their sons and their daughters they do slay, And their houses with fire they burn.

¹³ Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He `is' a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons.

¹ My wo `is' to me, for I have been As gatherings of summer-fruit, As gleanings of harvest, There is no cluster to eat, The first-ripe fruit desired hath my soul.

⁵ `Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Lo, thy king doth come to thee, meek, and mounted on an ass, and a colt, a foal of a beast of burden.'

¹⁶ for if I may proclaim good news, it is no glorying for me, for necessity is laid upon me, and wo is to me if I may not proclaim good news;

³ for when they may say, Peace and surety, then sudden destruction doth stand by them, as the travail `doth' her who is with child, and they shall not escape;

²² Lo, as an eagle he cometh up, and flieth, And he spreadeth his wings over Bozrah, And the heart of the mighty of Edom hath been in that day, As the heart of a distressed woman!'

⁴¹ Captured have been the cities, And the strongholds are caught, And the heart of the mighty of Moab Hath been in that day as the heart of a distressed woman.

¹ My soul hath been weary of my life, I leave off my talking to myself, I speak in the bitterness of my soul.

⁵ Wo to me, for I have inhabited Mesech, I have dwelt with tents of Kedar.

⁵ And I say, `Wo to me, for I have been silent, For a man -- unclean of lips `am' I, And in midst of a people unclean of lips I am dwelling, Because the King, Jehovah of Hosts, have my eyes seen.'

³ Therefore filled have been my loins `with' great pain, Pangs have seized me as pangs of a travailing woman, I have been bent down by hearing, I have been troubled by seeing.

¹⁴ I have kept silent from of old, I keep silent, I refrain myself, As a travailing woman I cry out, I desolate and swallow up together.

² The comely and the delicate one I have cut off, The daughter of Zion.

²³ Bow and javelin they take hold of, Fierce it `is', and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea doth sound, And on horses they ride, set in array as a man of war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion.

²⁴ `We have heard its sound, feeble have been our hands, Distress hath seized us, pain as of a travailing woman.

¹⁹ Wo to me for my breaking, Grievious hath been my smiting, And I said, Only, this `is' my sickness, and I bear it.

¹⁸ If I have gone forth to the field, Then, lo, the pierced of the sword! And if I have entered the city, Then, lo, the diseased of famine! For both prophet and priest have gone up and down Unto a land that they knew not.

¹⁸ Why hath my pain been perpetual? And my wound incurable? It hath refused to be healed, Thou art surely to me as a failing stream, Waters not stedfast.

²¹ Therefore, give up their sons to famine, And cause them to run on the sides of the sword, And their wives are bereaved and widows, And their men are slain by death, Their young men smitten by sword in battle,

²³ O dweller in Lebanon, making a nest among cedars, How gracious hast thou been when pangs come to thee, Pain -- as of a travailing woman.

⁶ Ask, I pray you, and see, is a male bringing forth? Wherefore have I seen every man, His hands on his loins, as a travailing woman, And all faces have been turned to paleness?

² `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, concerning thee, O Baruch:

⁴⁶ And Rebekah saith unto Isaac, `I have been disgusted with my life because of the presence of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these -- from the daughters of the land -- why do I live?'