This is what the Lord says: "What fault could your ancestors have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me? They paid allegiance to worthless idols, and so became worthless to me.

"How can you say, 'I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to the gods called Baal.' Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path.

"The way you have lived and the things you have done will bring this on you. This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart."

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in agony!
Oh, the pain in my heart!
My heart pounds;
I cannot be silent.
For you, my soul,
have heard the sound of the ram’s horn—
the shout of battle.

And thou, O spoiled one, what dost thou? For thou puttest on scarlet, For thou adornest thyself with ornaments of gold. For thou rendest with pain thine eyes, In vain thou dost make thyself fair, Kicked against thee have doting ones, Thy life they do seek.

A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my strength is gone from me before the takers of life.

Yahweh, do not your eyes [look] for honesty? You have struck them, but they felt no pain, you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, they have refused to turn back.

Listen, earth!
I am about to bring disaster on these people,
the fruit of their own plotting,
for they have paid no attention to My word.
They have rejected My instruction.

We have heard news of it, our hands grow slack, anxiety has grasped us, pain as a [woman who] gives birth.

They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. These are things they adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground.

I have paid careful attention.
They do not speak what is right.
No one regrets his evil,
asking, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone has stayed his course
like a horse rushing into battle.

Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.

They have gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

What will you say when the LORD appoints over you as your head those whom you taught to be your allies? Pain will seize you like that seizing a woman about to give birth, will it not?

I have let their widows be increased in number more than the sand of the seas: I have sent against them, against the mother and the young men, one who makes waste in the heat of the day, causing pain and fears to come on her suddenly.

Why is my pain endless, and my wound incurable? It refuses to become healed. Truly you are to me like a deceitful [brook], waters [that] are not trustworthy.

Then tell them that the Lord says, 'It is because your ancestors rejected me and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law.

Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf to keep you from venting your anger on them.

Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. But you said, "I refuse to listen to you." That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

Inhabitants of Lebanon, nestled among the cedars, how you will groan when labor pains come to you, fear and pain as the [woman who] gives birth.

For who has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and hear His word?
Who has paid attention to His word and obeyed?

The Lord sent all His servants the prophets to you time and time again, but you have not obeyed or even paid attention.

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. But you have not paid any attention to them.

For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,' says the Lord. 'And you exiles have not paid any attention to them either,' says the Lord.

Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale?

Why do you cry because of your wound? Your pain [is] incurable. Because of the greatness of your guilt--your sins are vast-- I have done these [things] to you.

Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goes forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

I've sent you all my servants, the prophets, sending them again and again. I've said, "Each of you turn from his evil behavior and make your deeds right. Don't follow other gods to serve them. Then you will remain in the land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.' But you haven't paid attention and you haven't obeyed me.

I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed."'"

Neither he nor the officials who served him nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah.

Thou didst say, Surely woe to me! For Yahweh hath added sorrow unto my pain, - I am weary with my moaning, And rest, have I not found!

This is what the Lord has said: See, waters are coming up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, overflowing the land and everything in it, the town and those who are living in it; and men will give a cry, and all the people of the land will be crying out in pain.

Lo! as an eagle, he shall mount and dart, and spread his wings over Bozrah, - So shall the heart of the heroes of Edom, in that day, become as the heart of a woman in her pain.

Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her, as on a woman in birth-pains.

The king of Babylon hath beard the report of them, And unnerved are his hands, - Anguish, hath seized him, Writhing pain, as a woman in child-birth.

Suddenly, hath Babylon fallen and been broken, - Howl ye over her Fetch balsam for her pain, Peradventure she shall be healed!

Then did the land tremble and was in pain, - For the plans of Yahweh, had been established against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon an astonishment, without inhabitant.

For this reason, see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on her images; and through all her land the wounded will be crying out in pain.