Isaiah 26:16-18

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer^[a]
    when your chastening was on them.^(A)
¹⁷Like a woman with child
    about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;^(B)
¹⁸    we were with child; we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.^(C)