Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
She - Zion. Before she travailed, she brought forth. The accession of numbers, and of prosperity, to her, shall be sudden beyond all expectation, and unattended with painful effort (Isaiah 54:1 ; Isaiah 54:4-5 ).
Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Contrast with this case of the future Jewish Church the travail-pains of the Old Testament and the present Christian Church in bringing forth "a man-child" (Revelation 12:2; Revelation 12:5 ). A man-child's birth is in the East a matter of special joy, while that of a female is not so; therefore, it here means the manly sons of the restored Jewish Church, the singular being used collectively for the plural; or the many sons being regarded as one under Messiah, who shall then be manifested as their one representative Head.