12 Bible Verses about Travail

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

Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. "My servant will acquit many, for he carried their sins.

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

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.

They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor -- and her labor was hard. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you are having another son." With her dying breath, she named him Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead.read more.
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

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

Before she goes into labor, she gives birth! Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy! Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen this? Can a country 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!

Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor? Twist and strain, 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 you from the power of your enemies.

So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth. Then the rest of the king's countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.

What does a man acquire from all his labor and from the anxiety that accompanies his toil on earth?

For no one knows what is best for a person during his life -- during the few days of his fleeting life -- for they pass away like a shadow. Nor can anyone tell him what the future will hold for him on earth.