“Go up to Lebanon!
Cry out!
Lift up your voice
On Bashan!
Cry out
From Abarim!
All your lovers
Are crushed!
I spoke to you
In your prosperity.
But you said.
‘I will not listen.’
This has been your way
From your youth.
You have not obeyed
My voice.
The wind shall shepherd
All your shepherds.
Your lovers shall go
Into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed.
You will be dismayed
Because of all your wickedness.
O inhabitant of Lebanon!
Nested among the cedars!
How you will groan
When pangs come upon you!
You will have the pain
Of a woman in labor!”
Apparently, Jeremiah wanted the people in the high mountains of Lebanon, on the Bashan mountains in the south, as well as on the Abarim mountains in the north to cry out for their lost lovers. These would have been the various allies that they thought that they had, but were now all crushed. The prosperous people had not listened or obeyed Yahweh from their youth. Their shepherd leaders and their lover friends will all be sent into captivity, ashamed and dismayed because of their wickedness. The people of Lebanon, those living among the built cedars in the palace, will feel the pain of a woman in labor about to give birth.