Isaiah 26:18

"Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have been before you, LORD."

Key Reflection

This verse uses the analogy of a woman in labor to describe Israel's intense suffering and longing for deliverance, drawing near to God with hope and cries of anguish, mirroring their eventual joy at being freed from oppression. The comparison highlights both the pain of anticipation and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promised salvation.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

We have been ... -This refers to sorrows and calamities which they had experienced in former times, when they had made great efforts for deliverance, and when those efforts had proved abortive. Perhaps it refers to the efforts of this kind which they had made during their painful captivity of seventy years. There is no direct proof indeed, that during that time they attempted to revolt, or that they organized themselves for resistance to the Babylonian power; but there can be no doubt that they earnestly desired deliverance, and that their condition was one of extreme pain and anguish - a condition that is strikingly represented here by the pains of childbirth.

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