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

1Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. 4Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it 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 12:4Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.
• Isaiah 53:11Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. “My servant will acquit many, for he carried their sins.
• Isaiah 54:1“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
• Isaiah 66:7Before she goes into labor, she gives birth! Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy!
• Micah 5:3So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth. Then the rest of the king’s countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel.
• John 16:21When a woman gives birth, she has distress because her time has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being has been born into the world.
• Galatians 4:19My children – I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you!

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