Isaiah 26:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹²O LORD, You will establish peace for us, for, indeed, all that we have accomplished, You have done for us. ¹³O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had dominion, but Your name alone do we confess. ¹⁴The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them. ¹⁵You have enlarged the nation, O LORD; You have increased the nation. You are glorified. You have extended the borders of the land. ¹⁶O LORD, they sought You in their distress; when You disciplined them, they poured out a quiet prayer. ¹⁷As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, that is how we were in Your presence, O LORD.¹⁸We were pregnant, we writhed in pain, we gave birth to wind. We have brought no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world. ¹⁹Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 13:8, Isaiah 21:3, Psalms 48:6, Jeremiah 4:31, Jeremiah 6:24, Jeremiah 30:6, John 16:21, 1 Thessalonians 5:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:16 - in sorrow Exodus 5:23 - neither hast thou delivered 2 Kings 19:3 - for the children Isaiah 37:3 - for the Jeremiah 48:41 - as the heart Jeremiah 49:22 - the heart of the Lamentations 2:18 - heart Hosea 13:13 - for he Micah 4:9 - for

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Like as a woman with child,.... By this simile are set forth the great distresses and afflictions the church of Christ will be in, before redemption and deliverance from the antichristian yoke comes:

[that] draweth near the time of her delivery; when her burden is great and very troublesome:

[is] in pain, [and] crieth out in her pangs; for her friends to come about her, and give her all the help and assistance they can:

so have we been in thy sight, O Lord; in great distress and trouble, and crying to him for salvation and deliverance, all which were well known unto him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Like as a woman with child ... - This verse is designed to state their griefs and sorrows during the time of their oppression in Babylon. The comparison used here is one that is very frequent in the sacred writings to represent any great suffering (see Psalms 48:6; Jeremiah 6:24; Jeremiah 13:21; Jeremiah 22:23; Jeremiah 49:24; Jeremiah 50:43; Micah 4:9-10).