Jeremiah 13:21
New International Version
What will you say when the LORD sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?

New Living Translation
What will you say when the LORD takes the allies you have cultivated and appoints them as your rulers? Pangs of anguish will grip you, like those of a woman in labor!

English Standard Version
What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you? Will not pangs take hold of you like those of a woman in labor?

Berean Standard Bible
What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?

King James Bible
What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

New King James Version
What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them To be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, Like a woman in labor?

New American Standard Bible
“What will you say when He appoints over you— And you yourself had taught them— Former companions to be head over you? Will sharp pains not take hold of you Like a woman in childbirth?

NASB 1995
“What will you say when He appoints over you— And you yourself had taught them— Former companions to be head over you? Will not pangs take hold of you Like a woman in childbirth?

NASB 1977
“What will you say when He appoints over you— And you yourself had taught them— Former companions to be head over you? Will not pangs take hold of you, Like a woman in childbirth?

Legacy Standard Bible
What will you say when He appoints over you— And you yourself had taught them— Former companions to be head over you? Will not pangs seize you Like a woman in childbirth?

Amplified Bible
“What will you say [O Jerusalem] when the LORD appoints [foreign nations to rule] over you— Those former friends and allies whom you have encouraged [to be your companions]— Will not pain seize you Like [that of] a woman in childbirth?

Christian Standard Bible
What will you say when he appoints close friends as leaders over you, ones you yourself trained? Won’t labor pains seize you, as they do a woman in labor?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
What will you say when He appoints close friends as leaders over you, ones you yourself trained? Won’t labor pains seize you, as they do a woman in labor?

American Standard Version
What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends to thee? shall not sorrows take hold of thee, as of a woman in travail?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
What will you say when he will visit with you, and you have taught them doctrine so that they will be for treading under foot? Behold, labor pains shall seize you like a woman that is in labor to give birth!

Brenton Septuagint Translation
What wilt thou say when they shall visit thee, for thou didst teach them lessons for rule against thyself; shall not pangs seize thee as a woman in travail?

Contemporary English Version
You once trusted them to help, but now I'll let them rule you. What do you say about that? You will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

Douay-Rheims Bible
What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

English Revised Version
What wilt thou say, when he shall set thy friends over thee as head, seeing thou thyself hast instructed them against thee? shall not sorrows take hold of thee, as of a woman in travail?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
What will you say when God makes the people you thought were your friends your new masters? Won't pain grip you like a woman in labor?

Good News Translation
What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you? You will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

International Standard Version
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?

JPS Tanakh 1917
What wilt thou say, when He shall set the friends over thee as head, Whom thou thyself hast trained against thee? Shall not pangs take hold of thee, As of a woman in travail?

Literal Standard Version
What do you say when He looks after you? And you have taught them [to be] over you—leaders for head? Do pangs not seize you as a travailing woman?

Majority Standard Bible
What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?

New American Bible
What will you say when rulers are appointed over you, those you taught to be allies? Will not pains seize you like those of a woman giving birth?

NET Bible
What will you say when the LORD appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.

New Revised Standard Version
What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you have trained to be your allies? Will not pangs take hold of you, like those of a woman in labor?

New Heart English Bible
What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

Webster's Bible Translation
What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

World English Bible
What will you say when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

Young's Literal Translation
What dost thou say, when He looketh after thee? And thou -- thou hast taught them to be over thee -- leaders for head? Do not pangs seize thee as a travailing woman?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Captivity Threatened
20Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride? 21What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor? 22And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.…

Cross References
Matthew 24:8
All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Isaiah 13:8
Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

Jeremiah 2:25
You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, 'It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.'

Jeremiah 4:30
And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.

Jeremiah 4:31
For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child--the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, "Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!"

Jeremiah 6:24
We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

Jeremiah 38:22
All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: 'They misled you and overcame you--those trusted friends of yours. Your feet sank into the mire, and they deserted you.'


Treasury of Scripture

What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?

wilt.

Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Jeremiah 22:23
O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

Isaiah 10:3
And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

punish.

2 Kings 16:7
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.

Isaiah 39:2-4
And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not…

shall not.

Jeremiah 4:31
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Jeremiah 6:24
We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

Jeremiah 30:6
Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

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Allies Appoints Captains Chief Childbirth Companions Cultivated Former Friends Grip Head Hold Labor Pain Pangs Punish Puts Sets Sorrows Special Taught Thyself Trained Travail Visit Wilt
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Allies Appoints Captains Chief Childbirth Companions Cultivated Former Friends Grip Head Hold Labor Pain Pangs Punish Puts Sets Sorrows Special Taught Thyself Trained Travail Visit Wilt
Jeremiah 13
1. By the type of a linen belt, hidden at Euphrates,
9. God prefigures the destruction of his people.
12. By the parable of bottles filled with wine he foretells their drunkenness in misery.
15. He exhorts to prevent their future judgments.
22. He shows their abominations are the cause thereof.














(21) What wilt thou say?--The verse is difficult, and requires an entire retranslation. What wilt thou (the daughter of Zion) say? for He (Jehovah) shall set over thee as head those whom thou taughtest (=tried to teach) to be thy familiar friends. This was to be the end of the alliance in which Judah had trusted. She had courted the Chaldean nobles as her lover-guides and friends (the word is the same as in Jeremiah 3:4; Psalm 55:13; Proverbs 2:17; Proverbs 16:28). Another possible construction gives, shall set over thee those whom thou delightest to be thy friends as head over thee, i.e., those whose supremacy Judah had acknowledged in order that she might court their alliance. What could come then but that which was to the Hebrew the type of extremest anguish (Isaiah 13:8; Isaiah 21:3; Psalm 48:6), the travail-pangs which were followed by no joy that a man was born into the world (John 16:21)? . . . Verse 21. - What wilt thou say, etc.? The rendering of the verse is uncertain, though the Authorized Version undoubtedly requires correction. The alternatives are, What wilt thou say when he shall appoint over thee (but thou thyself hast trained them against thee) familiar friends as thy head? and, What wilt thou say when he shall appoint over thee those whom thou hast taught thy familiar friends as thy head? The rendering "familiar friends" is justified by Psalm 55:13; Proverbs 16:28; Proverbs 17:9; Micah 7:5. The "captains" of Authorized Version, or rather "tribal chiefs," is unsuitable.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
What
מַה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

will you say
תֹּֽאמְרִי֙ (tō·mə·rî)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

when
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

He sets
יִפְקֹ֣ד (yip̄·qōḏ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6485: To visit, to oversee, muster, charge, care for, miss, deposit

over you
עָלַ֔יִךְ (‘ā·la·yiḵ)
Preposition | second person feminine singular
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

close
אַלֻּפִ֖ים (’al·lu·p̄îm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 441: Familiar, a friend, gentle, a bullock, a chieftain

allies
לְרֹ֑אשׁ (lə·rōš)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7218: The head

whom you
וְ֠אַתְּ (wə·’at)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - second person feminine singular
Strong's 859: Thou and thee, ye and you

yourself trained?
לִמַּ֨דְתְּ (lim·maḏt)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 3925: To exercise in, learn

Will not
הֲל֤וֹא (hă·lō·w)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

pangs of anguish
חֲבָלִים֙ (ḥă·ḇā·lîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2256: A rope, a measuring line, a district, inheritance, a noose, a company, a throe, ruin

grip you,
יֹאחֱז֔וּךְ (yō·ḥĕ·zūḵ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural | second person feminine singular
Strong's 270: To grasp, take hold, take possession

as
כְּמ֖וֹ (kə·mōw)
Preposition
Strong's 3644: Like, as, when

they do a woman
אֵ֥שֶׁת (’ê·šeṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 802: Woman, wife, female

in labor?
לֵדָֽה׃ (lê·ḏāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 3205: To bear young, to beget, medically, to act as midwife, to show lineage


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 13:21 What will you say when he shall (Jer.)
Jeremiah 13:20
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