Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:13 
Context4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. 1
The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. 2
His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”
I cry out, 3 “We are doomed, 4 for we will be destroyed!”
Jeremiah 4:31
Context4:31 In fact, 5 I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor,
a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby.
It is the cry of Daughter Zion 6 gasping for breath,
reaching out for help, 7 saying, “I am done in! 8
My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”
Jeremiah 13:17
Context13:17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, 9
I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride.
I will weep bitterly and my eyes will overflow with tears 10
because you, the Lord’s flock, 11 will be carried 12 into exile.”
1 tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.
2 tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.
3 tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the
4 tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.
5 tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.
6 sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.
7 tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.
8 tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”
9 tn Heb “If you will not listen to it.” For the use of the feminine singular pronoun to refer to the idea(s) expressed in the preceding verse(s), see GKC 440-41 §135.p.
10 tn Heb “Tearing [my eye] will tear and my eye will run down [= flow] with tears.”
sn The depth of Jeremiah’s sorrow for the sad plight of his people, if they refuse to repent, is emphasized by the triple repetition of the word “tears” twice in an emphatic verbal expression (Hebrew infinitive before finite verb) and once in the noun.
11 tn Heb “because the
12 tn The verb is once again in the form of “as good as done” (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).
