^17 (A)Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;

⁸ They will be dismayed:
    ^(A)pangs and agony will seize them;
    ^(B)they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.

³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
    ^(A)pangs have seized me,
    like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

⁶ Ask now, and see,
    can a man bear a child?
^(A)Why then do I see every man
    with his hands on his stomach ^(B)like a woman in labor?
    ^(C)Why has every face turned pale?

²⁴ We have heard the report of it;
    ^(A)our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
    ^(B)pain as of a woman in labor.

³¹ For I heard ^(A)a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    ^(B)stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

^6 (A)Trembling took hold of them there,
    anguish ^(B)as of a woman in labor.