John 16:21

New American Bible - revised edition

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

Cross References

Genesis 3:16

To the woman he said: I will intensify your toil in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

Job 11:16

For then you shall forget your misery, like water that has ebbed away you shall regard it.

Psalm 113:9

Gives the childless wife a home, the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 13:8

and they are terrified, Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, like a woman in labor they writhe; They look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.

Isaiah 21:3

Therefore my loins are filled with anguish, pangs have seized me like those of a woman in labor; I am too bewildered to hear, too dismayed to look.

Isaiah 66:7

Before she is in labor, she gives birth; Before her pangs come upon her, she delivers a male child.

Micah 4:10

Writhe, go into labor, O daughter Zion, like a woman giving birth; For now you shall leave the city and camp in the fields; To Babylon you shall go, there you shall be rescued. There the Lord shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

Micah 4:9

Now why do you cry out so? Are you without a king? Or has your adviser perished, That you are seized with pains like a woman in labor?

Galatians 4:27

For it is written: “Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children; break forth and shout, you who were not in labor; for more numerous are the children of the deserted one than of her who has a husband.”

1 Thessalonians 5:3

When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.