30:6 Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: 1
Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby?
Why then do I see all these strong men
grabbing their stomachs in pain like 2 a woman giving birth?
And why do their faces
turn so deathly pale?
30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! 3
There has never been any like it.
It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,
but some of them will be rescued out of it. 4
1 tn Heb “Ask and see/consider.”
2 tn Heb “with their hands on their loins.” The word rendered “loins” refers to the area between the ribs and the thighs.
3 tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.
4 tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”