Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:30
And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers God’s indictment to personified Jerusalem during the terror of an approaching military invasion. The address targets a city portrayed as a woman whose defenses have already collapsed.
The words — שָׁד֜וּד (sha.Dud) translates literally to "devastated one," and תַּעֲשִׂ֗י (ta.'a.Si) means "are you doing." These terms frame the rhetorical question about futile preparation.
The thread — The motif of vain adornment before death appears in 2 Kings 9:30, where Jezebel paints her eyes before her demise. The betrayal by "lovers" recurs in Lamentations 1:2 and Lamentations 1:19, where external allies abandon the city.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that external ritual or political alliances cannot avert judgment. It forces the reader to confront the reality that spiritual decay renders all superficial preparation meaningless.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 9:30 Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.
- Lamentations 1:2 She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
- Lamentations 1:19 I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
- Isaiah 10:3 What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- Ezekiel 16:36 This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,
- Ezekiel 23:9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted.
- Isaiah 20:6 And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”
- Jeremiah 13:21 What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?
- Ezekiel 23:22 Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will incite your lovers against you, those from whom you turned away in disgust. And I will bring them against you from every side—
- Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.