Discovery BoxIsaiah 26:18 
Context26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,
we gave birth, as it were, to wind. 1
We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;
people to populate the world are not born. 2
Isaiah 27:6
Context27:6 The time is coming when Jacob will take root; 3
Israel will blossom and grow branches.
The produce 4 will fill the surface of the world. 5
Isaiah 30:23
Context30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 6
At that time 7 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
1 tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.
2 tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.
3 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “the coming ones, let Jacob take root.” הַבָּאִים (habba’im, “the coming ones”) should probably be emended to יָמִים בָאִים (yamim va’im, “days [are] coming”) or בְּיָמִים הַבָּאִים (biyamim habba’im, “in the coming days”).
4 tn Heb “fruit” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
5 sn This apparently refers to a future population explosion. See 26:18.
6 tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”
7 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
