For when they are saying, *Peace and safety,* then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, 'Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Ashur. And we, how will we escape?'*
But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.
Therefore shall evil come on you; you shall not know the dawning of it: and mischief shall fall on you; you shall not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know.
but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?
Have you utterly rejected Yehudah? has your soul loathed Tziyon? why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for shalom, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
Inhabitant of Levanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Tziyon, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.
Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Shalom; and there is no shalom; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they daub it with whitewash:
A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn't remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have shalom, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.