They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.
8. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. The word צירים (tzirim) being ambiguous, the Greek translators render it ambassadors. But the comparison of a woman that travaileth, which is added immediately afterwards, sufficiently proves that it denotes pangs; for here, as if by a single word, he explains what he had previously said, that their hearts shall be melted and their hands shall...
We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the descent which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. Those that were now secure and easy were bidden to howl and make sad lamentation; for, I.
Commenting on Isaiah 13:6-18
And they shall be afraid,.... Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at the sudden taking of the city, and at the sight of Cyrus's troops marching up into the very heart of it, and to the king's palace: pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them; as convulsions, pains in the bowels, &c.