Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet speaks in immediate response to a vision of siege against Elam and Media, describing his physical and mental reaction to the declared judgment.
The words — חַלְחָלָה (chal.chalah) means anguish and צִירִים (tzi'rim) means pangs, both terms describing the tight, involuntary grip of distress on the speaker.
The thread — This exact labor-pain metaphor appears in Isaiah 13:8, Psalm 48:6, and Isaiah 26:17 to mark moments of unavoidable divine intervention.
Why it lands — The text first records the prophet's bodily anguish and sensory dismay before drawing the conclusion that confronting divine judgment requires an unmediated, physical acknowledgment of its weight.
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
Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Psalms 48:6 Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.
- 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.
- Isaiah 16:11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.
- Jeremiah 48:41 Kirioth has been taken, and the strongholds seized. In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
- Micah 4:9 Why do you now cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.
- Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- Isaiah 16:9 So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest.