Isaiah 26:16-18

New Life Version

¹⁶ O Lord, they looked for You in their trouble. They could only say a quiet prayer while You were punishing them. ¹⁷ As the woman who is going to have a baby comes close to the time to give birth, she suffers and cries out in her pains. This is how we were before You, O Lord. ¹⁸ We suffered in pain. We gave birth, as it were, only to wind. We could not bring the world out of its trouble. And no people of the earth were born.