The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹  the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear ²  in the day of disease and incurable pain.

For they harass ¹  the one whom you discipline; ²  they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. ³ 

Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹ 

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

For all day long ¹  his work produces pain and frustration, ²  and even at night his mind cannot relax! ³  This also is futile!

For if I make you sad, who would be left to make me glad ¹  but the one I caused to be sad?

For this finds God’s favor, ¹  if because of conscience toward God ²  someone endures hardships in suffering unjustly.

For they suffer no pain; ¹  their bodies ²  are strong and well-fed. ³ 

“Lord, ¹  my servant ²  is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.”

Banish ¹  emotional stress ²  from your mind. ³  and put away pain ⁴  from your body; ⁵  for youth ⁶  and the prime of life ⁷  are fleeting. ⁸ 

The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor.

I will ignite a fire in Egypt; Syene ¹  will writhe in agony, Thebes will be broken down, and Memphis will face enemies every day.

They panic – cramps and pain seize hold of them like those of a woman who is straining to give birth. They look at one another in astonishment; their faces are flushed red. ¹ 

As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord.

ל (Lamed) Is it nothing to you, ¹  all you who pass by on the road? ²  Look and see! Is there any pain like mine? The Lord ³  has afflicted me, ⁴  he ⁵  has inflicted it on me when ⁶  he burned with anger. ⁷ 

Then ¹  the fifth angel ²  poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast so that ³  darkness covered his kingdom, ⁴  and people ⁵  began to bite ⁶  their tongues because ⁷  of their pain.

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

When a woman gives birth, she has distress ¹  because her time ²  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ³  has been born into the world. ⁴ 

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

The locusts ¹  were not given permission ²  to kill ³  them, but only to torture ⁴  them ⁵  for five months, and their torture was like that ⁶  of a scorpion when it stings a person. ⁷