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Blessings of Prosperity and Consolation

[a]Before she is in labor,
    she gives birth;(A)
Before her pangs come upon her,
    she delivers a male child.
Who ever heard of such a thing,
    or who ever saw the like?
Can a land be brought forth in one day,
    or a nation be born in a single moment?
Yet Zion was scarcely in labor
    when she bore her children.
Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth,
    and yet not let her child be born? says the Lord.
Or shall I who bring to birth
    yet close her womb? says your God.

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Footnotes

  1. 66:7–9 The renewal of Zion is pictured in terms of a miraculous, instantaneous birth, facilitated by God’s intervention.