²⁹ When the enemy attacks a town,
    the people will run away to escape.
The enemy soldiers will ride on horses,
    and they will shoot arrows.
When the people hear them,
    some of them will hide among trees.
    Some of them will climb up among the rocks.
All the towns will become empty.
    Nobody will live in them.
³⁰ Yes, Jerusalem, an enemy has destroyed you!
You tried to make friends,
    like a woman who wears a beautiful dress.
You wore your gold and your jewels.
    You painted around your eyes.
But all that has not helped you.
The nations that you wanted to be your lovers have turned against you.
    Now they want to kill you.
³¹ I can hear people who are calling out.
    It sounds like a woman who is giving birth to her first baby.
    She is calling out with great pain.
It is Jerusalem who is crying!
    She is calling out for help.
She says, ‘Help me! I am very weak.
    These murderers have come to kill me!’