Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:31
For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the devastated city of Zion, describing a vision of its imminent destruction. He reports hearing a cry of anguish that mirrors a woman in labor.
The words — The Hebrew term שָׁמַ֫עְתִּי (sha.Ma'.ti) literally means "I have heard," anchoring the vision in divine perception. The phrase בַּת־ (bat-) identifies the suffering subject as the Daughter of Zion.
The thread — The motif of stretched hands and unheeded cries appears in Isaiah 1:15 and Lamentations 1:17, while Jeremiah 13:21 links the scene to the consequences of training false allies. Both passages emphasize divine rejection of empty ritual amid impending judgment.
Why it lands — The text reports a cry of distress from the Daughter of Zion as murderers approach, using the metaphor of labor pains to convey irreversible crisis. It demands recognition that external religious adornment cannot avert divine judgment when covenant faithfulness has failed.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Lamentations 1:17 Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has decreed against Jacob that his neighbors become his foes. Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
- 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?
- Genesis 27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”
- Job 10:1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Psalms 120:5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!
- Isaiah 6:5 Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Isaiah 13:8 Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
- Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Isaiah 42:14 “I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.