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; Psalms 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; Psalms 48:6), the travail-pangs which were followed by no joy that a man was born into the world (John 16:21)?
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 13:21
Jeremiah 13:21
21 What wilt thou say when he shall punishd thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?