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Psalm 48:6
Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
4For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.
5They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.
6Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
7With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.
8As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.
Notice
Trembling seizes the assembled kings, and the comparison to labor pains exposes how little their rank can do against terror at God’s city.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does the comparison to labor pains suggest about the kings’ control over what happens next?
Write on thisWhere might the contrast between assembled kings and trembling bodies challenge your view of human power?
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Where else Scripture says this
11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Hosea 13:13The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son, for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb.Both passages compare distress to labor pains; Hosea adds the image of an unwise son who fails to emerge.
Jeremiah 30:6Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?Both passages use a woman’s labor pains to describe men overcome by bodily distress and fear.
1 Thessalonians 5:3For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.Both use birth pains for distress that overtakes people; Thessalonians makes the suddenness and impossibility of escape explicit.
Exodus 15:14The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.Trembling and pangs seize the kings in Psalm 48 and the inhabitants of Philistia in Exodus.
Isaiah 21:3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed …Both describe pain taking hold like labor pains, with dismay overwhelming those who experience it.
Mark 13:8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines and troubles. These things …Both use birth pains to describe distress, though Mark speaks of wars and disasters rather than kings retreating.
Isaiah 13:6–8Wail, for the LORD’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.Psalm 48 depicts kings seized by terror; Isaiah announces destruction from the Almighty and tells his hearers to wail.
Matthew 28:4For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men.The kings tremble and the guards shake, making fear visible in the bodies of people with earthly authority.
Exodus 15:15–16Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.Trembling takes hold of both the assembled kings and Moab’s mighty men, while nearby lines describe dismay.
Daniel 5:6Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.Both passages portray royal power undone by bodily fear: kings tremble, and Daniel’s king finds his knees knocking.
Isaiah 19:16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the LORD of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them.Both portray trembling before divine power, and both settings name the LORD of Armies.
Where this verse fits
Fear for the future. praise and worship. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The kings’ terror belongs to a song about God establishing his city. Their gathered strength does not decide its future; God does.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).