Bible Strands
Isaiah 26:18
We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet speaks in the first-person plural, describing Israel's desperate national state before God during a period of distress. The childbirth metaphor directly follows the declaration of waiting on the Lord in the preceding verse.
The words — The text uses ר֑וּחַ (Ru.ach), literally "wind," to describe the empty outcome of their labor. It also employs יְשׁוּעֹת (ye.shu.'Ot), meaning "deliverances," to state the salvation they explicitly failed to accomplish.
The thread — This labor metaphor appears in Hosea 13:13 and 2 Kings 19:3 to depict unfulfilled human effort or desperate crisis. The passage contrasts with Psalm 17:14, which distinguishes those whose hope is limited to this life from those who await divine action.
Why it lands — The text states that human striving produces only wind and no deliverance, demanding a clear-eyed assessment of human limitation. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on their own labor and look directly to the resurrection promise that immediately follows.
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
We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Cross-references
- Psalms 17:14 from such men, O LORD, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.
- Hosea 13:13 Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.
- 2 Kings 19:3 to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
- Isaiah 37:3 to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
- Isaiah 59:4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Isaiah 33:11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.
- Exodus 5:22 So Moses returned to the LORD and asked, “Lord, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me?
- Joshua 7:7 “O, Lord GOD,” Joshua said, “why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be destroyed? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!
- 1 Samuel 11:13 But Saul ordered, “No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has worked salvation in Israel.”
- 1 Samuel 14:45 But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die—he who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? Never! As surely as the LORD lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for with God’s help he has accomplished this today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.