The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. ¹  For the Lord will carry out his plan. He plans to make the land of Babylonia ²  a wasteland where no one lives. ³ 

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.

All his days ¹  the wicked man suffers torment, ²  throughout the number of the years that ³  are stored up for the tyrant. ⁴ 

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 

I said, ¹  “Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! ²  I writhe in anguish. Oh, the pain in my heart! ³  My heart pounds within me. I cannot keep silent. For I hear the sound of the trumpet; ⁴  the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! ⁵ 

Look at them shake uncontrollably, ¹  like a woman writhing in childbirth. ² 

People ¹  writhe in fear when they see them. ²  All of their faces turn pale with fright. ³ 

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.

When the mountains see you, they shake. The torrential downpour sweeps through. ¹  The great deep ²  shouts out; it lifts its hands high. ³ 

Twist and strain, ¹  Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver ²  you from the power ³  of your enemies.

Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. ¹  Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited.

Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, ¹  I will soon gather them together for judgment. ²  Then ³  they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king. ⁴ 

The nations will hear ¹  and tremble; anguish ²  will seize ³  the inhabitants of Philistia.

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 

Indeed, the residents of Maroth ¹  hope for something good to happen, ²  though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. ³ 

So they brought the boy ¹  to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He ²  fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

After all this happened, the Lord afflicted him with an incurable intestinal disease. ¹ 

The ruined town ¹  is shattered; all of the houses are shut up tight. ² 

The waters ¹  saw you, O God, the waters saw you and trembled. ²  Yes, the depths of the sea ³  shook with fear. ⁴ 

When Esther’s female attendants and her eunuchs came and informed her about Mordecai’s behavior, ¹  the queen was overcome with anguish. Although she sent garments for Mordecai to put on so that he could remove his sackcloth, he would not accept them.