Isaiah 26:18

18 We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.

Isaiah 26:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 26:18

We have been with child
Like women with child; we have been full of hopes and expectations of great things, of deliverance from our enemies, and of the kingdom of Christ being at hand: we have been in pain;
in great distress and anxiety, and in fervent and frequent prayer, travailing in birth, which we looked upon as forerunners of a happy issue of things: we have as it were brought forth wind;
all our hopes have proved abortive, and we have been disappointed in our expectations: we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth:
or, "salvations" have "not been wrought in the earth" ^F6; this explains what is meant by bringing forth wind; salvation and deliverance out of the hand of the enemy not being wrought, as was expected: neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen;
worldly men, the great men, the kings of the earth; particularly such as commit fornication with the whore of Rome, Popish persecuting princes; these as yet are not fallen, though they shall in the battle of Armageddon.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (Ura hven lb twewvy) "res salutum non est facta", Vatablus; "salates non fit terra", Montanus; "salutes non factae sunt terrae", Tigurine version; "non sunt factae in terra", Pagninus.

Isaiah 26:18 In-Context

16 O LORD, they sought You in their distress; when You disciplined them, they poured out a quiet prayer.

17 As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.

18 We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.

19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.