Isaiah 37:3

a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy Rather, of distress and chastisement and rejection. The word for "blasphemy" (Nehemiah 9:18; Nehemiah 9:26; Ezekiel 35:12) is differently pointed from that here used, which occurs only here and in 2 Kings 19:3. The sense "rejection" suits the context better; the king speaks of the "distress" as a Divine dispensation.

the children are come to the birth Obviously a proverbial expression for a crisis which becomes dangerous through lack of strength to meet it (cf. ch. Isaiah 66:9; Hosea 13:13).