Before she was in labor she gave birth; before labor pains came to her, she gave birth to a son.

"I have been inactive for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp.

"Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman," says the Lord.

All of your people will be godly; they will possess the land permanently. I will plant them like a shoot; they will be the product of my labor, through whom I reveal my splendor.

“They will not labor in vain,
Or bear children for disaster;
For they are the descendants of those blessed by the Lord,
And their offspring with them.

“Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day?
Or can a nation be brought forth in a moment?
As soon as Zion was in labor, she also brought forth her sons.

They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.

For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O Lord.

We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Thus saith Jehovah, The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall go after thee, in chains they shall come over; and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee,'saying , Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Many nations will take them and bring them to their land and their own place. The house of Israel will put those nations to conscripted labor in the LORD's land. They will take captive those who were their captors, and will rule continually over those who oppressed them.

"Then Assyria will fall by a sword that is not from human beings only a sword not wielded by mortal beings will devour them. They will flee from the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

Be ashamed, Sidon, because the sea has spoken, the fortress of the sea: I have neither been in labor nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women."

When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Hear this [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins] you find something you desire [to do],
And you force your hired servants to work [instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches].

Yet, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor.

Wo to those decreeing not decrees, and they wrote writings of labor;

Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries in which thou didst labor from thy youth; perhaps thou wilt be able to be of use, perhaps thou wilt cause fear.

Thus shall they be to thee for whom thou didst labor, thy merchants, from thy youth; they wandered a man to his other side; none saving thee.

And be shall see of the labor of his soul, he shall be satisfied: by his knowledge my just servant shall justify for many; and he shall bear their iniquities..

None called upon justice, and none judged in truth: trusting in vanity and speaking evil, they conceived labor and brought forth vanity.

Jehovah sware by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, If I shall give more thy grain for food to thine enemies, and if the sons of the stranger shall drink thy new wine which thou didst labor for it:

"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has {received} from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins."

Woe [to the] one who says to a father, 'What you are begetting?' or to a woman, '[With] what are you in labor?'"

But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God.

The ironworker labors over the coals,
shapes the idol with hammers,
and works it with his strong arm.
Also he grows hungry and his strength fails;
he doesn’t drink water and is faint.