²⁹ At the sound of the horsemen and the archers,
    all the people in the towns ·run away [flee].
They ·hide [^Lgo] in the thick bushes
    and climb up into the rocks.
All of the cities of Judah are ·empty [abandoned; forsaken];
    no one lives in them.
³⁰ You destroyed nation [^CJudah], what are you doing?
    Why do you put on ·scarlet [purple; ^Can expensive dress]
    and decorate yourself with gold jewelry?
Why do you ·put color around your eyes [^Lenlarge your eyes with black eye paint]?
    You make yourself beautiful, ·but it is all useless [in vain; without purpose].
Your lovers ·hate [despise; reject] you;
    they ·want to kill you [^Lseek your life].

³¹ I hear a cry like a woman ·having a baby [writhing in labor],
    ·distress [trouble] like a woman having her first child.
It is the sound of ·Jerusalem [^Lthe daughter of Zion; ^Cthe location of the Temple] gasping for breath.
    She ·lifts [^Lspreads] her hands in prayer and says,
“·Oh! I am about to [Woe to me, for I am] faint
    before my murderers!”