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 the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 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."