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.
The daughter of Zion is God's true church on earth, not wholly pure yet not wholly apostate, distinct from the wholly apostate power called the daughter of Babylon. She cries out in anguish like a woman bearing her first child, gasping and spreading her hands in universal day-and-night prayer because murderers threaten her life and weary her soul. Her cry rises amid universal desolation under the Lord's fierce anger, when the land is laid waste and His people are foolish children wise to do evil, a judgment partly fulfilled in Jerusalem's destruction but reaching beyond it to the present world. It is a prophecy of the closing-time scenes now being fulfilled, when murder and violence are no longer confined to notorious places but fill the whole earth as in the days of Sodom and the Flood, amid nations preparing for battle unto Armageddon and the overthrow of wicked cities. That prevalence of bloodshed and injustice shows the second coming of Jesus to end evil and bring eternal judgment cannot be far off, and her travail is her mourning and longing in humiliation for the coming of her Deliverer.
Words and Historical Setting
The daughter of Zion is the true church of God on earth, also called Zion, Jerusalem, or the daughter of Jerusalem. The name does not mean she is fully pure, but that she is not wholly corrupt or wholly apostate, and she is distinct from the wholly apostate power called the daughter of Babylon and daughter of Chaldea, while the Jerusalem above is the mother of all. In Jeremiah 2-4 a union of His church with the world is called fornication and adultery. When the daughter of Zion as God's true church turns from God to the nations and their earthly power, she becomes the unfaithful church symbolized as Babylon, and what was said about Jerusalem's people also applies to the professed people of God in the last days who follow the same path of iniquity that brought destruction on ancient Jerusalem.
The daughter of Zion is the remnant in the time of Jacob's trouble, and her spreading of her hands is the lifting up of holy hands in prayer, which in that time will be as universal as day and night prayer because their souls are wearied because of murderers. The verse portrays the daughter bewailing herself with anguish like a woman in travail with her first child, gasping and struggling for breath, spreading her hands, crying Woe is me, and lamenting that her soul is wearied and exhausted because murderers threaten her life and bring calamity upon her. Her lament belongs to a prophecy of destruction amid war that expresses the horror and grief caused by violence and murder when deliberate violence is widespread. Her voice as a woman in travail with anguish and outspread hands is the crying, mourning, and longing of that church in her Babylonian humiliation for the coming of her Deliverer.
Its immediate setting is universal desolation under the Lord's fierce anger, when the whole land is laid waste, the earth is waste and void with no light in the heavens, mountains tremble, hills are in commotion, no man is left, birds have fled, the fruitful field has become wilderness, and cities are broken down. This comes because His people are foolish and sottish children who do not know Him, wise to do evil but with no knowledge to do good. The last part of Jeremiah 4 turns from Israel and Jerusalem to terrible last-day scenes of desolating destruction that will completely break the world down. The prophecy had a partial and incidental fulfillment in Jerusalem's siege and destruction, but the destruction spread over Jerusalem and Palestine was only a faint shadow, for its language reaches beyond that event and applies directly to the present world.
Last-Day Prophecy and Warning
The verse is a prophecy of the last days and of closing-time scenes that is being fulfilled in the present. It expresses the breaking up of society marked by violence and crime, with the daughter of Zion mourning amid destruction in anguish like a woman in childbirth and crying out that her life is exhausted because of murderers. Murder and criminality are no longer confined to notorious localities as in past ages but have become universal as in the days of Sodom and the Flood, so that violence and corruption threaten the whole earth and violence fills the earth. The anguish of the daughter wearied because of murderers is the distress and exhaustion caused by abounding murder, widespread killings, and brutalities everywhere, leaving the country wearied.
It belongs to the coming time when the nations are prepared and preparing for battle, culminating in the great war of Armageddon, and to the period before the day of the Lord marked by war, desolation, cities broken down, and awful confusion and trouble when people are no longer worthy of God's favor. The chapter's closing scenes are applied to the end of time, when desolation and war fill the earth and the lament follows the picture of cities broken down in fierce anger and reflects the violence and wickedness that bring destruction. It is God's declared purpose to overthrow the wicked cities of this time as in the past, depopulating the whole earth in the great day of its final doom, when His people are foolish and sottish children who do not know Him, wise to do evil but with no knowledge to do good. It applies to the carnage and suffering of war, including the plight of women and children fleeing it as in the devastation then unfolding in Europe, and to a time of extreme bloodshed and injustice that will be worse when that time is fully reached.
The growing number and prevalence of murders, brutalities, and deliberate violence point to the soon return of Jesus and the second coming of His Son to put an end to evil and crime, which is a cause for earnest hope. The cry of those wearied by murder condemns cruel murderers and voices a cry for justice and mercy, showing that eternal judgment cannot be far off. The shocking crimes reported throughout the world raise the question how long God's mercy and justice can endure them, yet rightly reading what the present universal criminality means gives understanding and the shelter of Omnipotence from the approaching storm of awful calamities and dangers. After the wicked are slain at Christ's coming the land is left desolate and without people, and during the thousand years Satan has no one on earth to tempt. In that final doom of the earth God's judgments depopulate it so there is no man and the fruitful field has become one vast wilderness, with the voice gasping for breath and spreading hands in anguish felt in that time.
Her voice as a woman in travail with anguish and outspread hands is the crying, mourning, and longing of the true church of God on earth in her Babylonian humiliation for the coming of her Deliverer. The name does not mean she is fully pure, but she is not wholly corrupt or wholly apostate. She is distinct from the wholly apostate power called the daughter of Babylon and daughter of Chaldea, while the Jerusalem above is the mother of all.