Revelation 12:2

Revelation 12:2 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
• New International Version (NIV)She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
• English Standard Version (ESV)She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

Context of Revelation 12:2

1A very wonderful thing then appeared in the sky. I saw a woman who was wearing the sun like her clothes. The moon was under her feet. A crown of 12 stars was on her head. She was pregnant. She screamed with pain as she tried to give birth to her baby. 3Then another wonderful thing appeared in the sky. It was a very big red dragon. It had seven heads and ten horns. There was a crown on each head. 4Its tail beat away a third of the stars from the sky. It threw them down on the earth. Then the dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon give birth to her baby. He was waiting there to eat her child as soon as he was born.

Revelation 12:2 word by word

καὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα, καὶ κράζει ὠδίνουσα καὶ βασανιζομένη τεκεῖν.¶Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Andκαίkai · andG2532
• she beingἔχωechō · to have/beG2192
• withἐνen · in/on/amongG1722
• childγαστήρgastēr · bellyG1064
• criedκράζωkrazō · to cryG2896
• travailing in birthὠδίνωōdinō · be in laborG5605
• painedβασανίζωbasanizō · to torture: anguishG928
• to be deliveredτίκτωtiktō · to give birth toG5088

Cross-references for Revelation 12:2

• Revelation 12:4Its tail beat away a third of the stars from the sky. It threw them down on the earth. Then the dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon give birth to her baby. He was waiting there to eat her child as soon as he was born.
• Isaiah 53:11When God's servant sees the result of his pain, he will understand what he has done. And he will be happy. The Lord says, ‘My righteous servant will cause many people to be “not guilty”, because he will take the punishment for all their sins.
• Isaiah 54:1‘Sing with joy, you woman who could not give birth to any children. You have never known the pain of a child's birth, but now shout loudly with joy. Be happy, because the woman who is alone will have many children. She will have more children than the woman who has a husband.’ That is what the Lord says.
• Isaiah 66:7What is happening? Zion is giving birth to a son before she has her birth pains!
• Micah 5:3So God will turn away from his people, until the time that the woman gives birth to this baby in Bethlehem. Then this ruler's own people who are still alive will return to Israel.
• John 16:21It will be like this. When a woman is soon to give birth to a baby, she is sad. She knows that it will be painful. But after the baby is born, she is happy. She forgets her pain, because now she is so happy. She is happy because her child has been born into the world.
• Galatians 4:19My children, I feel like a mother who is giving birth to you again. I will continue to feel that kind of pain until you become more completely like Christ.

Commentaries on Revelation 12:2

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, etc. - This, when taken in connection with the following verses, is a striking figure of the great persecution which the Church of Christ should suffer under the heathen Roman emperors, but more especially of that long and most dreadful one under Diocletian. The woman is represented as Being with child, to show that the time would speedily arrive when God's patient forbearance with the heathen would be…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2And she being with child cried, travailing in birth … - That is, there would be something which would be properly represented by a woman in such circumstances. The question now is, what is referred to by this woman? And here it need hardly be said that there has been, as in regard to almost every other part of the Book of Revelation, a great variety of interpretations. It would be endless to undertake to examine them, and would not be profitable if it…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2The symbolic woman experiencing the pain of labor represents Christ’s birth. This reflects the biblical theme of Israel’s struggle while waiting for deliverance (see Isaiah 26:16–18; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah 4:9–10; John 16:21).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. pained--Greek, "tormented" (basanizomene). De Burgh explains this of the bringing in of the first-begotten into the world AGAIN, when Israel shall at last welcome Him, and when "the man-child shall rule all nations with the rod of iron." But there is a plain contrast between the painful travailing of the woman here, and Christ's second coming to the Jewish Church, the believing remnant of Israel, "Before she travailed she brought forth ... a…Read the comment

Topics related to Revelation 12:2

• Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena

In the dictionaries

• Adultery
• Earth
• Star
• Astronomy
• Deliver
• Dragon
• Mary
• Michael
• Pain
• Revelation of John

Commentaries on Revelation 12

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings