Hosea 13:13
New International Version
Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

New Living Translation
Pain has come to the people like the pain of childbirth, but they are like a child who resists being born. The moment of birth has arrived, but they stay in the womb!

English Standard Version
The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb.

Berean Standard Bible
Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

King James Bible
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

New King James Version
The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, For he should not stay long where children are born.

New American Standard Bible
The pains of childbirth come on him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

NASB 1995
The pains of childbirth come upon him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

NASB 1977
The pains of childbirth come upon him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

Legacy Standard Bible
The pains of childbirth come upon him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

Amplified Bible
The pains of childbirth come on him; But he is not a wise son, For it is not the time to delay [his chance at a new birth] as the womb opens [but he ignores the opportunity to change].

Christian Standard Bible
Labor pains come on him. He is not a wise son; when the time comes, he will not be born.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Labor pains come on him. He is not a wise son; when the time comes, he will not be born.

American Standard Version
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Pains as of a woman in labor will come upon him; because he is a son that is not wise, therefore he shall not remain in the pains of bearing children

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Pains as of a woman in travail shall come upon him: he is thy wise son, because he shall not stay in the destruction of thy children.

Contemporary English Version
You are like a senseless child who refuses to be born at the proper time.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The sorrows of a woman in labour snail come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

English Revised Version
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They have the opportunity to live again, but they are not smart enough to take it. They are like a baby who is about to be born but won't come out of its mother's womb.

Good News Translation
Israel has a chance to live, but is too foolish to take it--like a child about to be born, who refuses to come out of the womb.

International Standard Version
When the time of childbirth comes, he will be so foolish that he will refuse to be born."

JPS Tanakh 1917
The throes of a travailing woman shall come upon him; He is an unwise son; For it is time he should not tarry In the place of the breaking forth of children.

Literal Standard Version
Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, | He [is] not a wise son, | For he does not remain [at] the time for the breaking forth of sons.

Majority Standard Bible
Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

New American Bible
The birth pangs will come for him, but this is an unwise child, Who, when it is time, does not present himself at the mouth of the womb.

NET Bible
The labor pains of a woman will overtake him, but the baby will lack wisdom; when the time arrives, he will not come out of the womb!

New Revised Standard Version
The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son; for at the proper time he does not present himself at the mouth of the womb.

New Heart English Bible
The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn't come to the opening of the womb.

Webster's Bible Translation
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

World English Bible
The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son, for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb.

Young's Literal Translation
Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He is a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
God's Mercy
12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up. 13Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb. 14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.…

Cross References
John 16:21
A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

Deuteronomy 32:6
Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?

Isaiah 13:8
Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

Isaiah 37:3
to tell him, "This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

Isaiah 66:9
Shall I bring a baby to the point of birth and not deliver it?" says the LORD. "Or will I who deliver close the womb?" says your God.

Hosea 5:4
Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.

Micah 4:9
Why do you now cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?


Treasury of Scripture

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come on him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

sorrows.

Psalm 48:6
Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

Isaiah 13:8
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

Isaiah 21:3
Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

an.

Proverbs 22:3
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Acts 24:25
And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

for he.

2 Kings 19:3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

Isaiah 26:17
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

Isaiah 37:3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

long.

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Arrives Birth Breaking Child Childbirth Children Delay Forth Opening Pains Pangs Present Right Sorrows Tarry Throes Time Travailing Unwise Wisdom Wise Womb
Hosea 13
1. Ephraim's glory vanishes.
4. God's anger.
9. God's mercy.
15. The judgment of Samaria.














(13) Travailing woman.--Ephraim is first addressed as a travailing woman; but the imagery passes to the condition of the unborn child, which tarries just where it should issue into the light of the world. Lack of seasonable repentance increases the danger at this critical stage of Israel's destiny. The latter part of the verse is missed in the rendering of the English version. Read, For at the right time he standeth not in the place where children break forth. But the use of the Hebrew word for "at the right time" ('?th) is doubtful. Perhaps the word should be read 'attah ("now"), as Buhl, in Zeitschrift fr Kirchliche Wissenschaft, suggests. (Comp. Ezekiel 27:34.)

Verse 13. - The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. The threatened punishment that is to overtake them is compared to the throes of a parturient woman, on account of their severity, as 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Their sinfulness, which stands in the way of their success, shall be succeeded by severe sufferings and many sorrows. But eventually these worldly sorrows shall, under Divine grace, issue in the godly sorrows of repentance: then, and not till then, shall a new and happier period of existence be ushered in. The sorrow of travail shall give place to the joy of birth Delay of confession and repentance defers that joy, prolongs the sufferings, and puts the life of both parent and child in peril, so far as their personality is identical. He is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. Here the unwisdom of Israel is accounted for: it is folly, sheer folly that postpones repentance, and delays efforts and aspirations after new spiritual life, The literal rendering of the last clause is -

(1) For it is time, he should not tarry at the place of the breaking forth of children; or rather,

(2) When it is time, he does not place himself at (literally, stand) or come forward to the opening of the womb; and some translate עֵתִ

(3) "at the time," but that would rather require לְעֵת; it might, indeed, be duration of time, and Aben Ezra so renders it: "Therefore at the time he will not stand in the breaking forth of children." Also Wunsche: "He is an unwise son, for at the time he stands not in the breaking forth of children." It might be expressed, as in the Authorized Version, with a slight modification; thus: For otherwise he would not stand long time in the place of the breaking forth of children. The figure is now shifted from the mother to the child; such abrupt and sudden transitions are not infrequent in Scripture, especially in the Pauline Epistles (setup. e.g. 2 Corinthians 3:13-16). The danger is represented as extreme, as may be inferred from the similar expression, "The children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth." A perilous period in Israel's history is indicated, and to escape the danger he must make no tarrying, but advance at once into the new life of faith and repentance. Kimchi has the following comment: "Because he has compared his pains to the pain of a woman in travail, he says, 'The children are not wise,' as if he said, 'The coming generations, who have seen their fathers in affliction because of their iniquities, are not wise, and do not consider that distress has overtaken their fathers because of their iniquity; and turn not from the evil deeds of their fathers, but have done wickedness like them.'" He adds: "There are children lively by nature in their coming forth out of the womb; so also would these, if they were wise, not stay a single hour in distress, but immediately On returning to the Lord be delivered out of their distress." The LXX. omit the negative and render מי by ἐν συντριβῇ: "This wise son of thine [employed ironically] shall not stand [or, 'endure'] in the destruction of his children or people."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Labor
יֽוֹלֵדָ֖ה (yō·w·lê·ḏāh)
Verb - Qal - Participle - feminine singular
Strong's 3205: To bear young, to beget, medically, to act as midwife, to show lineage

pains
חֶבְלֵ֥י (ḥeḇ·lê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 2256: A rope, a measuring line, a district, inheritance, a noose, a company, a throe, ruin

come
יָבֹ֣אוּ (yā·ḇō·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

upon him,
ל֑וֹ (lōw)
Preposition | third person masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew

but he is
הוּא־ (hū-)
Pronoun - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

an unwise
חָכָ֔ם (ḥā·ḵām)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 2450: Wise

son.
בֵן֙ (ḇên)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1121: A son

When
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the time has arrived,
עֵ֥ת (‘êṯ)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 6256: Time, now, when

he
בָּנִֽים׃ (bā·nîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1121: A son

does not
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

present himself
יַעֲמֹ֖ד (ya·‘ă·mōḏ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5975: To stand, in various relations

at the opening of the womb.
בְּמִשְׁבַּ֥ר (bə·miš·bar)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4866: The orifice of the womb


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OT Prophets: Hosea 13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman will (Ho Hs Hos.)
Hosea 13:12
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