They said to him, ‘This is what Hezekiah says: “Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. It is as if children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labour. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear.
They said to him, ‘This is what Hezekiah says: “Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. , See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!
Now as he spoke about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come, Felix became afraid and replied, ‘Leave for now, but when I have an opportunity I’ll call for you.’
Ask and see whether a male can give birth. Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour and every face turned pale?
What will you say when he appoints close friends as leaders over you, ones you yourself trained? Won’t labour pains seize you, as they do a woman in labour?
I hear a cry like a woman in labour, 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! ’
When a woman is in labour, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.