ישעיהו, פרק כ״ו, פסוק י״ח

The agonizing wait for redemption during the long years of exile is captured through a powerful metaphor of pregnancy and labor. The Israelites' experience is compared to the trembling and pain of a woman enduring the difficulties of childbirth [מצודת ציון]. The primary approach among commentators is that this serves as a metaphor for a woman who suffers through labor expecting a child, only to discover she has given birth to wind. This reflects a condition of a false pregnancy where the womb is filled with wind rather than a real child [שד״ל]. For the Israelites, this means there is no comfort for the suffering of their oppression, as true redemption has not yet arrived. Just as a woman experiencing false labor knows that her true birthing pains are still ahead of her, the Israelites in exile cannot rejoice over temporary relief, knowing that more troubles await them before their complete redemption [רד״ק]. In stark contrast, a completely different approach suggests that this birth is not empty at all, but entirely spiritual. The immense suffering of the exile successfully birthed a spirit of bravery, prophecy, wisdom, and exalted hope within the people [מלבי״ם].

Despite enduring such profound pain, the Israelites are ultimately helpless to change their reality. The commentators agree that the people are incapable of bringing salvation to their land on their own without God's direct help [רש״י, שד״ל, אבן עזרא]. Building on the spiritual approach, this helplessness is not merely a physical limitation; rather, it reflects the reality that absolute and true salvation cannot be realized within the confines of this physical, material world [מלבי״ם].

This sense of powerlessness extends to their relationship with the foreign empires, such as Babylon, that conquered their land. The accepted explanation is that the Israelites are distressed by their inability to bring down these occupying nations, knowing that the fall of these empires is the clear and necessary sign of their own redemption [רש״י, מצודת דוד, רד״ק, שד״ל, אבן עזרא]. Alongside this view, several other perspectives offer different understandings of the surrounding nations. Some explain that the foreign empires are simply incapable of performing wonders or bringing about any true salvation [רש י בשם תרגום יונתן, אבן עזרא]. Another approach views the Israelites' distress as a prayer, expressing a deep wish that God's salvation will arrive even before these great empires collapse [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Finally, from a purely spiritual standpoint, the inhabitants of the material world are simply unfit and unworthy to experience such an exalted level of salvation [מלבי״ם].