¹³ The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to keep his place when children come to birth.

⁸ Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces will be like flames.

⁹ Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you? has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth:

¹⁰ Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the town, living in the open country, and will come even to Babylon; there you will have salvation; there the Lord will make you free from the hands of your haters.

³ And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.

³ When they say, There is peace and no danger, then sudden destruction will come on them, as birth-pains on a woman with child; and they will not be able to get away from it.

¹⁷ As a woman with child, whose time is near, is troubled, crying out in her pain; so have we been before you, O Lord.

³ The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple go straight on and get into trouble.

⁶ Shaking came on them and pain, as on a woman in childbirth.

³ And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.

⁷ And so, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you let his voice come to your ears,

⁸ Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land,

² (For he says, I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: see, now is the good time; now is the day of salvation):

²⁵ And while he was talking about righteousness and self-control and the judging which was to come, Felix had great fear and said, Go away for the present, and when the right time comes I will send for you.

²⁹ And he sent for lights and came rushing in and, shaking with fear, went down on his face before Paul and Silas,

³⁰ And took them out and said, Sirs, what have I to do to get salvation?

³¹ And they said, Have faith in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will have salvation.

³² And they gave the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

³³ And that same hour of the night, he took them, and when he had given attention to their wounds, he and all his family had baptism straight away.

³⁴ And he took them into his house and gave them food, and he was full of joy, having faith in God with all his family.

²⁴ Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her, as on a woman in birth-pains.

⁶ Put the question and see if it is possible for a man to have birth-pains: why do I see every man with his hands gripping his sides, as a woman does when the pains of birth are on her, and all faces are turned green?

²³ O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!

²¹ What will you say when he puts over you those whom you yourself have made your friends? will not pains take you like a woman in childbirth?

³¹ A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my strength is gone from me before the takers of life.

⁹ Will I by whom the birth was started, not make it complete? says the Lord. Will I who make children come to birth, let them be kept back? says your God.

³ For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see.