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?

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.”

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.

^13 (A)The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
    ^(B)at the opening of the womb.

²³ O inhabitant of ^(A)Lebanon,
    nested among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
    ^(B)pain as of a woman in labor!”

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.