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Think carefully about this.
    Do men ever give birth to babies?
So why are these strong men weak with pain?
    They seem like a woman who is giving birth.
All their faces have become white with fear.
It will be a time of terrible trouble,
    worse than anything that has happened before.
It will be a time of great trouble for Jacob's descendants.[a]
    But I will rescue them from their trouble.’

The Lord Almighty says this:

‘When that day comes,
    I will break the yoke that is around your necks.[b]
    I will remove the ropes that tie your legs.
My people will no longer be slaves
    under the power of foreign people.

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Footnotes

  1. 30:7 Jacob was the ancestor of all the Israelites.
  2. 30:8 A yoke means the hard work that they had to do for their enemies. See Jeremiah 27:2. When the Lord breaks the yoke, they will no longer be slaves.

Ask and see:
    Can a man bear children?
Then why do I see every strong man
    with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor,(A)
    every face turned deathly pale?(B)
How awful that day(C) will be!
    No other will be like it.
It will be a time of trouble(D) for Jacob,
    but he will be saved(E) out of it.

“‘In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty,
    ‘I will break the yoke(F) off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;(G)
    no longer will foreigners enslave them.(H)

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