As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in your presence, O LORD.

We were with child, we writhed in pain,

but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth;

we have not given birth to people of the world.

But your dead will live; their bodies will rise.

You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.

See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;

she will conceal her slain no longer.

Isaiah 26:17 – 21