Micah 4:10

4:10 Twist and strain, ¹  Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!

For you will leave the city

and live in the open field.

You will go to Babylon,

but there you will be rescued.

There the Lord will deliver ²  you

from the power ³  of your enemies.

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 ⁴  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!

Matthew 1:21

1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him ⁵  Jesus, ⁶  because he will save his people from their sins.”

Revelation 12:1-2

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

12:1 Then ⁷  a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. ⁸  12:2 She ⁹  was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling ¹⁰  to give birth.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”

[4:10]  ² tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[4:10]  ³ tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.

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

[1:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

[1:21]  ⁸ sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[12:1]  ¹¹ sn Sun…moon…stars. This imagery is frequently identified with the nation Israel because of Joseph’s dream in Gen 37.

[12:2]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[12:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and being tortured,” though βασανίζω (basanizw) in this context refers to birth pangs. BDAG 168 s.v. 2.b states, “Of birth-pangs (Anth. Pal. 9, 311 βάσανος has this mng.) Rv 12:2.” The καί (kai) has not been translated.