Isaiah 42:14 · Bible study
Isaiah 42:14 Commentary: Divine Silence, Labour, and Salvation
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore Isaiah 42:14: God breaks long silence with a cry like a woman in labor.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God’s long silence ends with a cry of travail, initiating a decisive act of judgment and salvation.
- Key words: hechesheti (silent), eth’appak (restrained), ka’yoledah (like giving birth), ef’eh (groan), eshom (puff/pant), vesh’af (pant), yachad (together).
- Main debate: Is the labour cry primarily a war cry of judgment (Barnes, JFB) or a birth cry of deliverance (Calvin, Keil & Delitzsch)? Most now see both as inseparable.
- Theological theme: Divine patience that leads to decisive, costly intervention, God’s passionate commitment to his covenant.
- Best use: Teaching on God’s timing, the problem of divine hiddenness, and the hope that waiting is not wasted.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
KJV King James Version 1769
I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
I have kept silent from of old, I keep silent, I refrain myself, As a travailing woman I cry out, I desolate and swallow up together.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Long time have I holden my peace; I have been still, I have restrained myself: I will cry like a woman that travaileth; I will blow and pant at once.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and swallow up at once.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Desde el siglo he callado, tenido he silencio, y heme detenido: daré voces como la que está de parto; asolaré|strong="H5395, H8074" y devoraré juntamente.
Por muito tempo fiquei calado, quieto estive, e me retive; mas agora darei gritos como a que está de parto, suspirando e juntamente ofegando.
J’ ai longtemps gardé le silence,
Ich schweige wohl eine Zeitlang und bin still und halte an mich; nun aber will wie eine Gebärerin schreien; ich will sie verwüsten und alle verschlingen.
Ik heb van ouds gezwegen, Ik heb Mij stil gehouden en Mij ingehouden; Ik zal uitschreeuwen, als een, die baart, Ik zal ze verwoesten, en te zamen opslokken.
Per lungo tempo mi son taciuto, me ne sono stato cheto, mi son trattenuto; ora griderò come una donna ch’è sopra parto, respirerò affannosamente e sbufferò ad un tempo.
Mówiąc: Milczałem dość długo, jakobym nie słyszał, wstrzymywałem się; ale już jako rodząca krzyczeć będę, spustoszę, i wszystkich oraz połknę.
Долго молчал Я, терпел, удерживался; теперь буду кричать, как рождающая, буду разрушать и поглощать все;
我許久 閉口不言，靜默 不語；現在我要喊叫，像產難的婦人；我要急氣 而 喘哮。
I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in childbirth, breathing hard and quickly.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Isaiah 42:14
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Isaiah 42:14 marks a dramatic turning point in divine action. For a long period, God remained silent, actively restraining himself. The Hebrew perfect hechesheti (I have been silent) and the Hithpael eth’appak (I restrained myself) indicate a voluntary withholding of response, not passive absence. Keil and Delitzsch note that from God’s perspective the waiting already felt like an “eternity.” Calvin reads the silence as a test of faith: God delays help, but believers suffer nothing by waiting patiently. Now God breaks forth “like a travailing woman.” Barnes interprets this as giving full vent to righteous indignation against enemies. But Keil and Calvin also emphasise tenderness: the labour cry reveals God’s “astonishing warmth of love” (Calvin). The birth of salvation comes through pain. This cry brings judgment on oppressors and deliverance for the oppressed as two sides of one event.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Judgment-oriented reading: Points to verses 15–17 where mountains are laid waste and idolaters shamed; also to the warrior shout in verse 13. Supported by Barnes, JFB, and the older KJV translation.
- Salvation-oriented reading: Focuses on the ‘travailing woman’ as a mother bringing forth new life; verse 16 shows God leading the blind on a safe path. Emphasised by Calvin, Keil & Delitzsch, and Matthew Henry.
- Integrated reading: Sees judgment on oppressors and deliverance for God’s people as two sides of one birth. The same cry brings destruction of the old order and creation of the new. Supported by Gill and the Cambridge Bible.
What is clear: God’s long period of apparent inaction ends with a decisive intervention that involves both pain and purpose, consistent with his covenant commitment to his people.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of the silence | God deliberately refrained from action for a period, and the restraint was voluntary, not weakness. | Some (Barnes, JFB) stress that silence gave room for judgment to accumulate; others (Calvin, Keil) emphasise that it tested and strengthened believers waiting for deliverance. |
| Cry of travail | The metaphor conveys intense, passionate divine action that marks a decisive turning point. | Whether the primary emphasis is judgment on enemies (Barnes, JFB) or the birth of salvation (Calvin, Keil & Delitzsch) or both inseparably (Matthew Henry, Gill). |
| Translation of the final verbs | The Hebrew <em>eshom</em> (from <em>nasham</em>) and <em>esh'af</em> (from <em>sha'af</em>) indicate heavy breathing, panting, or blowing hard. | Older translations (KJV) render them as 'destroy and devour,' perhaps interpreting the panting as an expression of anger; modern versions (WEB, BSB) have 'gasp and pant.' |
| Relation to surrounding passage | Verse 14 functions as a hinge between the call to praise (vv.10, 13) and the description of judgment and restoration (vv.15, 17). | Some see the verse as part of the 'new song' itself (Matthew Henry); others take it as a divine speech that grounds the song. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Isaiah 42:14 stands near the centre of a passage celebrating God’s coming reign. Verses 10, 13 call the whole earth to sing a new song. Verse 13 pictures Yahweh as a warrior going forth with a shout. Then verse 14 inverts the imagery: the warrior’s silence gives way to the cry of a woman in labour. The literary context suggests that God’s “silence” refers to the period of Israel’s exile. For decades, even centuries, God seemed inactive while Babylon dominated his people. The Cambridge Bible notes that the silence reaches “further back than the Exile; it is the time during which Jehovah has permitted the oppression of His people by the heathen.”
Prophets often used labour imagery for human distress (see Isaiah 13:8; 21:3; 26:17). But here the metaphor is applied to God himself. It is God who groans and pants, as if bringing something new to birth. This is not a description of God’s physical nature but a figure for his passionate involvement in history. The juxtaposition with the warrior (v.13) reinforces the point: the same God who fights for his people also labours for them. The birth that follows includes both judgment for the proud and restoration for the humble, the next verses describe mountains laid waste and the blind led home.
Textual Notes
The Masoretic Text is well preserved. Clarke notes that some Septuagint manuscripts insert heleolam (literally “for ever”) after meolam, giving the sense “Shall I keep silence for ever?” but this is likely a scribal expansion. The main textual divergence appears in the final verbs. The KJV follows a reading that interprets the rare verbs eshom and esh’af as “destroy and devour,” possibly influenced by an Aramaic sense or an effort to harmonise with the judgment context. Modern versions (WEB, BSB) consistently translate them as “gasp and pant,” which matches the lexical data and the childbirth imagery.
Reception History
Christian interpreters have long read this verse as a picture of God’s passionate involvement in history, culminating in Christ. In the early church, the labour cry was sometimes linked to the incarnation: God himself enters the pain of human birth to bring salvation. Reformation commentators such as Calvin used it to comfort believers: God’s delay is love, not neglect. Matthew Henry and Gill saw it as the going forth of the gospel, destroying paganism and gathering God’s people. In modern scholarship, the verse has been explored for its bold use of feminine imagery for God, opening up conversation about divine vulnerability and strength. Throughout history, the verse has been sung in hymns of longing and deliverance.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God’s long silence. The opening verbs stress duration: “I have been silent from a long time.” Calvin calls this God’s patient forbearance, a lesson for believers who grow weary in waiting.
- The cry of travail. Suddenly the silence breaks. God cries out “like a travailing woman”, a metaphor that combines pain, urgency, and the promise of new life (Keil and Delitzsch).
- The breath of purpose. “I will both gasp and pant.” The Hebrew verbs eshom and esh’af denote heavy, deliberate breathing. Barnes sees this as the breath of anger; Keil as the straining of deliverance. Either way, God is fully engaged.
Five-point outline
- God’s voluntary restraint (v.14a).
- The end of apparent inaction (v.14b).
- God as birthing mother, a startling image of vulnerability and strength.
- The cry that shakes heaven and earth.
- The panting that brings salvation and judgment together.
Illustration hooks
- A student who has been bullied for months finally speaks up, not in rage, but with calm, decisive authority. The waiting was not weakness; it was timing.
- A mother in labour has breathed steadily through contractions. At the final moment she cries out, the pain is intense, but the cry signals the baby is coming.
- A caregiver who holds back frustration for years, then one day acts firmly to change the situation. The silence was love waiting for the right moment.
Questions your congregation is asking
- How long must I wait for God to act in my situation?
- Does God really feel what I feel, pain, urgency, exhaustion?
- If God is silent, does he still care?
Leading a Discussion
This verse uses one of the most visceral images in Scripture to describe God’s action. The silence of God is a hard reality for many believers. The labour cry gives us permission to bring our own pain and waiting to God, knowing that he himself has experienced something like it. Use these questions to guide your group from observation to deeper reflection.
Discussion questions
- What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “God is silent”? Have you ever felt that way?
- Look at the Hebrew verbs: hechesheti (silent), eth’appak (restrained). What does it mean that God actively chooses silence? How is that different from being absent?
- Why do you think the prophet chose the image of a woman in labour to describe God’s action? What does this image reveal that a warrior image (v.13) does not?
- Read verses 15, 16. How do these verses reflect both judgment and mercy? Can both come from the same act of God?
- Calvin wrote that the long silence tests our faith but does not harm it. How does waiting shape your trust in God?
- If God “gives birth” to salvation through pain, how might that change the way you view your own struggles?
- What “new thing” might God be bringing to birth in your life, your church, or your community right now?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 32:18 | For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me. |
| Job 32:20 | I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer. |
| Psalms 50:2 | Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out. |
| Psalms 83:1 | A song. A Psalm by Asaph. God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God. |
| Psalms 83:2 | For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. |
| Ecclesiastes 8:11 | Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. |
| Ecclesiastes 8:12 | Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. |
| Jeremiah 15:6 | You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
11 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke argues that a single Hebrew word, haleolam, was accidentally omitted by a scribe copying a similar-looking adjacent word. Its inclusion would transform the verse into a lament over remaining silent forever, like one who is only a listener. The textual correction shifts the emotional weight of the passage
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes insists that the Hebrew words behind "destroy" and "devour" literally mean to pant or breathe hard, like a warrior inflamed with anger. He stresses that this is human language God uses to describe his settled purpose, not a literal description of God's nature or emotions.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin confronts the temptation to think God has abandoned us when He delays His help. The silence is not weakness but contains a love so intense that the Lord compares Himself to a woman in labor, whose pain proves she will not abandon her child.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
This commentator reads the verse as God ending a long period of deliberate inaction, not silence. The cry that follows is not ordinary speech but an involuntary outburst of intense emotion, like a woman in labor. The whole passage is treated as a bold battle-song, with God rousing Himself like a warrior.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note emphasizes the sudden shift from God's patient restraint to fierce, immediate action. After a long silence, He cries out with the intensity of a woman in labor, destroying and devouring at once. The point is the startling contrast between divine longsuffering and swift judgment.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill sees the travailing woman imagery as having two meanings: it pictures both Christ working through ministers to bring spiritual birth and God suddenly unleashing destruction on His enemies. God's long silence toward the Gentiles was self-restraint, but that restraint ends in decisive, overwhelming action.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes that God's restraint is like a woman in labor holding her breath, and when He finally cries out, it is the sudden, forceful release of long-pent-up wrath. The Hebrew verbs traditionally translated "destroy" and "devour" should instead be rendered "breathe hard and pant," capturing the full venting of God's anger.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch see God's long silence not as passivity but as active restraint, like Joseph holding back tears. Now God is compared to a woman in labor, breathing hard and longing to give birth. What has long been pregnant within Him is about to be delivered for His people.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues that the Servant of Jehovah could cry out and break the bruised reed, but He will not, deliberately refraining from using His great power. This gentle restraint, not weakness, proves His strength is real, for only one who truly can do harm earns praise by abstaining from it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry interprets these verses as a prophecy of God's powerful intervention through the gospel. After a long period of patient silence toward the Gentile world, God now goes forth as a warrior to attack and destroy Satan's kingdom, with Christ conquering through the preaching of the apostles.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley emphasizes God's patient endurance, having allowed the devil and his servants to prevail for many ages. But now God declares He will accomplish His long-conceived glorious work, suddenly destroying those who stubbornly oppose His truth.