Isaiah 26:18

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

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 Yahweh, in trouble have they visited you; they poured out a prayer [when] your chastening was on them.

17 Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Your dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is [as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

20 Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation be past.