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 

Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen this? Can a country ¹  be brought forth in one day? Can a nation be born in a single moment? Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: ¹  Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like ²  a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale?

And a man lame ¹  from birth ²  was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day ³  so he could beg for money ⁴  from those going into the temple courts. ⁵ 

Then she gave birth ¹  to his brother Abel. ²  Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. ³ 

After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him. ¹ 

One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.

They say to a wooden idol, ¹  ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²  Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³  Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water; ¹  you were certainly not rubbed down with salt, nor wrapped with blankets. ² 

For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; ¹  break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.” ² 

Now ¹  the man had marital relations with ²  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ³  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ⁴  a man just as the Lord did!” ⁵ 

Cain had marital relations ¹  with his wife, and she became pregnant ²  and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after ³  his son Enoch.

Then she had ¹  yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib. ² 

“Tell the Israelites, ‘When a woman produces offspring ¹  and bears a male child, ²  she will be unclean seven days, as she is unclean during the days of her menstruation. ³ 

So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. ¹  The Lord enabled her to conceive ²  and she gave birth to a son.

Jabez was more respected than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, for she said, “I experienced pain when I gave birth to him.” ¹ 

Let them be ¹  like a snail that melts away as it moves along! ²  Let them be like ³  stillborn babies ⁴  that never see the sun!

I then had sexual relations with the prophetess; she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,

I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ¹  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

Her towns ¹  will be captured. Her fortresses will be taken. At that time the soldiers of Moab will be frightened like a woman in labor. ²