Isaiah 66:8 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The prophet calls either to the whole world, or to such as feared God amongst the Jews, to admire God in his stupendous works of providence, either in the easy manner of the deliverance of the Jews out of the captivity of Babylon, without any pain, without so much as one throe; or else in the erecting of his gospel church, into which all the Jews that received Christ were gathered as well as Gentiles, making both one, Ephesians 2:14; which seems to be meant by the earth's bringing forth in one day; as great a work of Providence as if all the women in the world should have brought forth in a day, or as if all the plants of the earth had brought forth their flowers and fruit in one day. As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth children; as soon as the church of the Jews began to move out of the captivity of Babylon, God put it into the hearts of multitudes to go up, Exodus 1:5 Isaiah 2:1,2, &c. Or, as soon as the voice of the gospel put the church of the Jews into her travail, in John the Baptist s, Christ s, and the apostles times, it presently brought forth. In John Baptist's time, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent took it by force, Matthew 11:12; and it continued so, as three thousand were converted at Peter's sermon, Ac 2. The Gentiles were the children of Zion, being planted into their stock, tho law of the gospel first going out of Zion.