Night pierces ¹  my bones; ²  my gnawing pains ³  never cease.

All ¹  these things are the beginning of birth pains.

My children – I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you! ¹ 

Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that everyone will see your progress. ¹ 

She ¹  was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling ²  to give birth.

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.

The labor pains of a woman will overtake him, but the baby will lack wisdom; when the time arrives, he will not come out of the womb!

But God raised him up, ¹  having released ²  him from the pains ³  of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. ⁴ 

For the love of money is the root ¹  of all evils. ²  Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.

To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase ¹  your labor pains; ²  with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, ³  but he will dominate ⁴  you.”

For nation will rise up in arms ¹  against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. ²  These are but the beginning of birth pains.

Now when ¹  they are saying, “There is peace and security,” ²  then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains ³  on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.

His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her.

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 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