³ For this reason my ^(A)loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a ^(B)woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

³¹ For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains,
The distress as of one giving birth to her first child,
The sound of the daughter of Zion ^(A)gasping for breath,
^(B)Stretching out her ^[a]hands, saying,
“Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.”

⁶ Ask now, and see
If a male can give birth.
Why do I see every man
With his hands on his loins, ^(A)as a woman in childbirth?
And why have all faces turned pale?

²⁴ Damascus has become limp in their hands;
She has turned away to flee,
And panic has taken hold of her;
^(A)Distress and pangs have seized her
Like a woman in childbirth.