Jeremiah 4:31

4:31 In fact, ¹  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 ²  gasping for breath,

reaching out for help, ³  saying, “I am done in! ⁴ 

My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

Jeremiah 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ⁵ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ⁶ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ⁷ 

[4:31]  ¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.

[4:31]  ² sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.

[4:31]  ³ tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.

[4:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”

[16:19]  ⁵ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ⁷ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”