They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
Parallel Translations
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They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
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And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
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And they shall be affrighted; pangs and throes shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail; they shall look aghast one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Isaiah 13:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 26:17 Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have been before you, Yahweh.
- Nahum 2:10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.
- Isaiah 21:3-4 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see. My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
- Psalms 48:5-6 They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away. Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
- Jeremiah 4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”
- Jeremiah 30:6 Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?
- Jeremiah 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor.
- Daniel 5:5-6 In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.
- Joel 2:6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.
- John 16:21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Babylonians’ anger and grief shall be so much,…
The Babylonians’ anger and grief shall be so much, that their faces shall burn as fire.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 13:8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and…
Isa 13:8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces [shall be as] flames.
Ver. 8. And they shall be afraid.]
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“ Conturbabuntur -
Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus. ”
They shall be amazed one at another.] Amused, amazed, amated, as being at their wits’ ends.
Their faces shall be as flames.] So Jer 30:5-6, a voice of fear and trembling, every man with his hands on his loins, the posture of a travailling woman, and all faces turned into paleness. The prophet here alludeth, saith Musculus, to the face of a smith at dark night, when he standeth blowing his fire, for his face appears as if it had no blood in it, most wan and pale. Or, as others think, to a man frightened, who first looketh pale, the blood running to the heart to relieve it, afterwards, upon the return of the blood to the outward parts, he looketh red, and of a flame colour.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They shall be amazed one at another, to see…
They shall be amazed one at another, to see so populous and impregnable a city as Babylon was, so easily and unexpectedly taken.
Flames, Heb. faces of flame; either pale with fear, or inflamed with rage and torment, as men in misery frequently are. Some render it the faces of Lehabim, a people descending from Mizraim, Gen 10:13; 1Ch 1:11, i.e. black with pain, as men use to be; of which see Joe 2:6; Nah 2:10.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they shall be afraid,.... Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at…
And they shall be afraid,.... Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at the sudden taking of the city, and at the sight of Cyrus's troops marching up into the very heart of it, and to the king's palace:
pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them; as convulsions, pains in the bowels, &c. more fully explained in the next clause:
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they shall be in pain, as a woman that travaileth; that is in labour, and ready to bring forth her child, whose pains are very sharp, and agonies great; the same is said of the king of Babylon, Jer 50:43,
they shall be amazed one at another; that so great a city should be so surprised, and so suddenly taken; and that they shall not be able to help one another; and that such as were so famous for courage and valour should be at once so dispirited:
their faces shall be as flames; not red with blushing, through shame, as Kimchi; but pale with fear, as the colour of flame, or, as the faces of smiths, that work at a forge: the words may be rendered, "their faces are as the faces of Lehabim" (d); the name of a people mentioned in Gen 10:13 the same with the Libians, which were of a blackish or tawny colour; so Jarchi interprets it, and says they were a people of a yellow complexion: and Aben Ezra observes, that some interpret it of a nation like the Ethiopians; and so it denotes, that the Babylonians, their faces should be black with distress and anguish; see Joe 2:6.
(d) "ut facies Lehabim, sive Lybiorum facies eorum", Gataker.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. And they shall be afraid - "And…
Verse 8. And they shall be afraid - "And they shall be terrified"] I join this verb, ונבהלו venibhalu, to the preceding verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate.
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold on them - "Pangs shall seize them"] The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read יאחזום yochezum, instead of יאחזון yochezun, which does not express the pronoun them, necessary to the sense.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They shall be in pain as a woman that…
They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth - This comparison is often used in the Scriptures to denote the deepest possible pain and sorrow, as well as the suddenness with which any calamity comes upon a people Psa 48:6; Isa 21:3; Isa 42:14; Jer 6:24; Jer 13:21; Jer 22:23; Jer 49:24; Jer 50:43; Hos 13:13; Mic 4:9-10; Joh 16:21; Gal 4:19; 1Th 5:3.
They shall be amazed one at another - They shall stare with a stupid gaze on one another, indicating a state of great distress, anxiety, and alarm. They shall look to each other for aid, and shall meet in the countenances of others the same expressions of wonder and consternation.
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Their faces shall be as flames - Their faces shall glow or burn like fire. When grief and anguish come upon us, the face becomes inflamed. The face in fear is usually pale. But the idea here is not so much that of fear as of anguish; and, perhaps, there is mingled also here the idea of indignation against their invaders.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Burnt. Black with despair, Nahum ii. 10., and Joel…
Burnt. Black with despair, Nahum ii. 10., and Joel ii. 6.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain pangs--The Hebrew means also a "messenger." HORSLEY, therefore, with…
pangs--The Hebrew means also a "messenger." HORSLEY, therefore, with the Septuagint translates, "The heralds (who bring word of the unexpected invasion) are terrified." MAURER agrees with English Version, literally, "they shall take hold of pangs and sorrows."
woman . . . travaileth-- (Th1 5:3).
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amazed--the stupid, bewildered gaze of consternation.
faces . . . flames--"their visages have the livid hue of flame" [HORSLEY]; with anguish and indignation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Afraid — Dismayed. Poetic power is manifest in…
8. Afraid — Dismayed. Poetic power is manifest in the figures here used, which are to the effect that contortions from agonizing pain fall on the people; men stare at each other in helpless fright; their faces are faces of flame — red as fire.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. they shall be amazed one at another] i.e.…
8. they shall be amazed one at another] i.e. “look in horror on each other.”
their faces shall be as flames] Lit. faces of flames are their faces, burning with feverish excitement, or perhaps with shame (Eze_7:18). There are no exact parallels to the expression; cf. Joe_2:6; Nah_2:10.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They shall be afraid; rather, dismayed. Pangs and sorrows…
They shall be afraid; rather, dismayed. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; literally, they shall take hold of pangs and sorrows. They shall be amazed; rather, look aghast. Their faces shall be as flames. I know no better explanation than that of Dr. Kay, that a sudden transition is intended flora despondency to extreme excitement.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 13:8 Pangs . . . like those of a…
13:8 Pangs . . . like those of a woman in labor: The day of the Lord brings sudden and overpowering pain and fear for the wicked (see also Jer 30:6; Hos 13:13; Mic 4:9, 10; 5:3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.