3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The "trouble" consisted in rebuke" (rather, "chastisement,") for sins at the hand of God, and "blasphemy" (rather, "reproach,") at the hands of man.
The children - i. e., "we are in a fearful extremity - at the last gasp - and lack the strength that might carry us through the danger."
The children are come to the birth - The Jewish state is here represented under the emblem of a woman in travail, who has been so long in the pangs of parturition, that her strength is now entirely exhausted, and her deliverance is hopeless, without a miracle. The image is very fine and highly appropriate.
A similar image is employed by Homer, when he represents the agonies which Agamemnon suffers from his wound: -
Οφρα οἱ αἱμ' ετι θερμον ανηνοθεν εξ ωτειλης·
Λυταρ επει το μεν ἑλκος ετερσετο παυσατο δ' αἱμα,
Οξειαι οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο·
Ως δ' ὁταν ωδινουσαν εχῃ βελος οξυ γυναικα,
Δριμυ, το τε προΐεισι μογοστοκοι Ειλειθυιαι
Ἡρης θυγατερες πικ ρας ωδινας εχουσαι·
Ὡς οξει' οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο.
Il. xi., ver. 266.
This, while yet warm, distill'd the purple flood;
But when the wound grew stiff with clotted blood,
Then grinding tortures his strong bosom rend.
Less keen those darts the fierce Ilythiae send,
The powers that cause the teeming matron's throes,
Sad mothers of unutterable woes.
Pope
Better translated by Macpherson; but in neither well:
"So long as from the gaping wound gushed forth, in its warmth, the blood; but when the wound became dry, when ceased the blood to flow amain, sharp pains pervade the strength of Atrides. Racking pangs glide through his frame; as when the Ilythiae, who preside over births, the daughters of white armed Juno, fierce dealers of bitter pains, throw all their darts on hapless women, that travail with child. Such pains pervade the strength of Atrides."
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 (b) the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring forth.
(b) The dangers are so great, that we can neither avenge this blasphemy, or help ourselves any more than a woman in labour.
"A day of distress, and of chastisement, and of rejection is this day." תּוכחה: the divine chastisement. נאצה: contemptuous treatment, or rejection of the people on the part of God (compare נאץ, Deuteronomy 32:19; Jeremiah 14:21; Lamentations 2:6). "For children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth." A figure denoting extreme danger, the most desperate circumstances. If the woman in travail has not strength to bring forth the child which has come to the mouth of the womb, both the life of the child and that of the mother are exposed to the greatest danger; and this was the condition of the people here (see the similar figure in Hosea 13:13). For לדה instead of לדת, see Ges. 69, 2 Anm.
The children - We are like a poor travailing woman in great extremity, having no strength left to help herself, and to bring forth her infant into the world. We have attempted to deliver ourselves from the Assyrian yoke; and had carried on that work to some maturity, and as we thought, brought it to the birth; but now we have no might to finish. We have begun an happy reformation, and are hindered by this insolent Assyrian, from bringing it to perfection.
*More commentary available at chapter level.