'Pangs' in the Bible

To the woman He said,“I will greatly multiplyYour pain in childbirth;In pain you will give birth to children;Yet your desire and longing will be for your husband,And he will rule [with authority] over you and be responsible for you.”

Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath (Bethlehem), Rachel began to give birth and had difficulty and suffered severely.

“The peoples have heard [about You], they tremble;Anguish and fear has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel, ‘You know all the hardship that has come upon us [as a nation];

that this [incident] will not cause grief or [bring] a troubled conscience to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself. When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember [with favor] your maidservant.”

For there are no pains in their death,Their body is fat and pampered.

They [of Babylon] will be shocked and terrified,Pains and anguish will grip them;They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth.They will stare aghast and horrified at one another,Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].

Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish;Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth;I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.

As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth,She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor,So we were before You, O Lord.

We have heard the report of it;Our hands become limp and helpless.Anguish has gripped us,Pain like that of a woman in childbirth.

“What will you say [O Jerusalem] when the Lord appoints [foreign nations to rule] over you—Those former friends and allies whom you have encouraged [to be your companions]—Will not pain seize youLike [that of] a woman in childbirth?

“O inhabitant of [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made from the cedars of] Lebanon,You who nest in the cedars,How you will groan and how miserable you will be when pains come on you,Pain like a woman in childbirth!

“Kerioth [and the cities] has been takenAnd the strongholds seized;And the hearts of the warriors of Moab in that dayShall be like the heart of a woman in childbirth.

Behold, He will mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread His wings against [the city of] Bozrah; and in that day the heart of the mighty warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in childbirth.

“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,And his hands fall limp and helpless;Anguish has seized him,And agony like that of a woman in childbirth.

But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs [of the intolerable anguish and the time of unprecedented trouble].

For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These things are the beginning of the birth pangs [the intolerable anguish and suffering].

But God raised Him up, releasing Him and bringing an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in death’s power.

My little children, for whom I am again in [the pains of] labor until Christ is [completely and permanently] formed within you—

For it is written [in the Scriptures],“Rejoice, o barren woman who has not given birth;Break forth into a [joyful] shout, you who are not in labor;For the desolate woman has many more childrenThan she who has a husband.”

For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.

She was with child (the Messiah) and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.