Bible Strands
Isaiah 13:8
Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah delivers this oracle concerning the judgment of Babylon to Judah during the approaching Day of the LORD. The text describes a moment of sudden, overwhelming dread as divine intervention breaks in.
The words — The Hebrew terms צִירִים (tzi.Rim) and חֲבָלִים (cha.va.Lim) denote the specific pangs and pains of childbirth. The verb יֹאחֵזוּ (yo.che.Zu) literally means to seize or lay hold of, indicating the inescapable nature of this terror.
The thread — This labor imagery appears in Isaiah 26:17 to describe national distress before God, and in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 to illustrate sudden destruction. The physical collapse described parallels the desolation noted in Nahum 2:10.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that divine judgment operates with sudden, inescapable force that overrides human composure. It requires the reader to acknowledge that fear and physical collapse are the direct result of confronting the Day of the LORD.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 26:17 As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
- Nahum 2:10 She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Psalms 48:5 They saw and were astounded; they fled in terror.
- Jeremiah 4:31 For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”
- Jeremiah 30:6 Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?
- Jeremiah 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.
- Daniel 5:5 At that moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. As the king watched the hand that was writing,
- Joel 2:6 Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.