76 The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.
77 Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.
78 Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.
79 Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on for the usage of “Woe to …”

In other versions

For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,

anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,

the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands,

“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

I hear a cry as of a woman in labor,

a groan as of one bearing her first child—

the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands and saying,

“Alas! I am fainting;

my life is given over to murderers.”

I hear a cry like a woman in labor,

a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.

The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands:

“Woe is me, for my life is weary

because of the murderers!”

I hear a cry, like that of a woman in labor,

the groans of a woman giving birth to her first child.

It is beautiful Jerusalem

gasping for breath and crying out,

“Help! I’m being murdered!”

For I heard a voice like an ill woman,

anxiety like a woman who bears her first child,

the voice of the daughter of Zion.

She is gasping for breath,

she is spreading out her hands:

“Woe is me, for I am becoming tired before killers.”

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.

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