Isaiah 23:5

23:5 When the news reaches Egypt,

they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. ¹ 

Isaiah 45:10

45:10 Danger awaits one who says ²  to his father,

“What in the world ³  are you fathering?”

and to his mother,

“What in the world are you bringing forth?” ⁴ 

Isaiah 26:17

26:17 As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver

and strains and cries out because of her labor pains,

so were we because of you, O Lord.

Isaiah 51:2

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ⁵ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ⁶ 

but I blessed him ⁷  and gave him numerous descendants. ⁸ 

Isaiah 66:7-8

66:7 Before she goes into labor, she gives birth!

Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy!

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ⁹  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

Isaiah 13:8

13:8 They panic –

cramps and pain seize hold of them

like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.

They look at one another in astonishment;

their faces are flushed red. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 23:4

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ¹¹  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ¹² 

Isaiah 26:18

26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹³ 

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 54:1

Zion Will Be Secure

54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!

Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one are more numerous

than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

[23:5]  ¹ tn Heb “they will be in pain at the report of Tyre.”

[45:10]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to] one who says” (NASB and NIV both similar); NCV “How terrible it will be.”

[45:10]  ³ tn See the note at v. 9. This phrase occurs a second time later in this verse.

[45:10]  ⁴ sn Verses 9-10 may allude to the exiles’ criticism that the Lord does not appear to know what he is doing.

[51:2]  ³ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ⁵ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[66:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).

[13:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.

[23:4]  ⁶ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

[23:4]  ⁷ tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[26:18]  ⁷ tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.

[26:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.