Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:30-31 
Context4:30 And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, 1
you accomplish nothing 2 by wearing a beautiful dress, 3
decking yourself out in jewels of gold,
and putting on eye shadow! 4
You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.
Your lovers spurn you.
They want to kill you. 5
4:31 In fact, 6 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 7 gasping for breath,
reaching out for help, 8 saying, “I am done in! 9
My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”
1 tn Heb “And you that are doomed to destruction.” The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.
2 tn Heb “What are you accomplishing…?” The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.
3 tn Heb “clothing yourself in scarlet.”
4 tn Heb “enlarging your eyes with antimony.” Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.
5 tn Heb “they seek your life.”
6 tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.
7 sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.
8 tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.
9 tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”
