Jeremiah 4:19-20, 31

¶My soul, my soul! I writhe in anguish and pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is pounding and throbbing within me; I cannot be silent, For you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war. News of one [terrible] disaster comes close after another, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are spoiled and destroyed, My [tent] curtains [ruined] in a moment.

For I heard a cry like a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, The cry of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem), who gasps for breath, Who stretches out her hands, saying, “Woe is me [my judgment comes]! I faint [in fear] before the murderers.”