Isaiah 13:8

⁶ Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

⁷ Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
KJV: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
WEB: They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
ASV: and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold [of them]; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces [shall be] faces of flame.
DARBY: and they shall be terrified: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall writhe as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames.
BLB: and they will be afraid; pains and pangs will seize them; like a woman in labor they will writhe. Each man to his neighbor will look with astonishment, [with] faces aflame—their faces.

ÅB: Og de forferdes; veer og smerter griper dem, som den fødende kvinne vrir de seg; fulle av redsel ser de på hverandre, deres ansikter blusser som flammer.
OTB: De vil bli grepet av frykt, smerte og angst vil gripe dem; de vil vri seg som en kvinne i fødsel. De vil se på hverandre i forbauselse, deres ansikter i flammer.
B1930: Og de forferdes; veer og smerter griper dem, som den fødende kvinne vrir de sig; fulle av redsel ser de på hverandre, deres ansikter blusser som ildsluer.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Nahum 2:10
She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
Read in context
1 Thessalonians 5:3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Read in context
Isaiah 26:17
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
Read in context
Isaiah 21:3–4
Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
Read in context
John 16:21
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
Read in context
Psalms 48:5–6
They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
Read in context
Jeremiah 50:43
The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
Read in context
Daniel 5:5–6
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Read in context