Isaiah 26:16-18

Revised Standard Version

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought thee,
    they poured out a prayer^[a]
    when thy chastening was upon them.
¹⁷ Like a woman with child,
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
    when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O Lord;
¹⁸     we were with child, we writhed,
    we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.