חִיל

From the study of Exodus 15:14

Range of meaning

A noun from the root ḥ-y-l / ḥ-w-l, 'to writhe, twist, whirl.' The verb is used of a woman in labor ('to be in birth pangs,' Isa 26:17–18; 54:1) and of the earth or mountains convulsing (Ps 29:8; 97:4). The noun ḥîl means the writhing pain of childbirth. It is often spelled out with the comparison kayyōlēdāh, 'like a woman giving birth.'

Against the English

KJV 'sorrow' turns it into an inner feeling of sadness. BSB and NIV 'anguish' and NASB 'anguish' give the intensity but lose the body and the birth image. WEB and ESV 'pangs' and YLT 'pain' keep the physical sense, and 'pangs' faintly hints at labor.

How it drifted

In 1611, 'sorrow' could still mean bodily pain, as in 'in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,' Gen 3:16. Today it means grief. 'Anguish' is accurate about how intense the feeling is, but abstract.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 48:6 (Heb 48:7): 'trembling seized them (ʾăḥāzātam) there, ḥîl like a woman giving birth.' This uses the same verb 'seize' and the same noun, in a scene where kings panic before God's city. Jer 6:24 and 50:43 have the same pair: 'pain (ḥîl) seized us/him, as of a woman in labor.' Mic 4:9 and Jer 22:23 are similar. The LXX translates it here with ōdines, the standard Greek word for birth pangs.

From the study of Jeremiah 22:23

Range of meaning

ḥîl means writhing or convulsive anguish, from ḥûl/ḥîl, 'to whirl, twist, writhe', including in birth. Joined to 'like a woman giving birth', it forms a fixed phrase for panic when disaster arrives.

Against the English

'Agony' (BSB) and 'pain' (KJV, WEB) catch the intensity but lose the bodily picture of twisting and convulsing.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact phrase ḥîl kayyōlēdāh appears in Jeremiah 6:24 (and 50:43) and Psalm 48:6 [Heb. 48:7], where kings who see Zion are seized with 'trembling, anguish like a woman in labor'. Micah 4:9–10 and Isaiah 13:8 have the same motif. Comparable imagery for terror in war appears in Assyrian treaty curses and laments.

From the study of Jeremiah 6:24

Range of meaning

חִיל comes from חוּל/חִיל, 'to whirl, twist, writhe, tremble.' It names the convulsions of labour and, by extension, any trembling, writhing agony. יוֹלֵדָה is the feminine participle of 'bear/give birth': 'a woman in the act of giving birth.'

Against the English

English renderings include 'pain like that of a woman in labour' (BSB), 'pain, as of a woman in travail' (KJV), 'pains' (WEB) and 'pangs' (NLT). 'Pain' names a sensation. חִיל also pictures the visible doubling over and shaking of the body.

How it drifted

Modern English 'pain' is mostly an inner feeling. The Hebrew picture includes the outward, uncontrollable convulsions of a body in crisis. Archaic 'travail' preserved some of that sense of exhausting struggle.

Used elsewhere in the period

It is one of the most frequent crisis images in the prophets: Isaiah 13:8, 21:3; Jeremiah 4:31, 13:21, 22:23, 30:6 ('why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labour?'), 48:41, 49:22, 49:24, 50:43; Micah 4:9–10; Psalm 48:6. Exodus 15:14 applies חִיל to the Philistines hearing of the Exodus. Neo-Assyrian treaty curses threaten that a rebel's warriors will 'become women' (e.g. the treaty of Ashur-nirari V with Mati'ilu; the Esarhaddon succession treaties). The Septuagint here has ὠδῖνες (ōdines, 'labour pains'), the word behind Jesus' 'beginning of birth pains' (Mark 13:8; Matthew 24:8).