Continuing the metaphor of human birth, the LORD asks two more rhetorical questions that make the same statement. For languages that prefer strong statements here, see the second example below.

Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth?: Yahweh is not the kind of God who brings an infant to the point of birth, and then prevents that birth taking place. This question implies that he carries through what he intends to do. The Hebrew pronoun for I is emphatic in both questions to stress that God will definitely complete what he has planned. The Hebrew verb rendered bring to the birth is literally “break/shatter.” It is an idiomatic expression for birth, perhaps with the sense of “breaking out.” Bible en français courant translates the first two lines of this verse as “If I bring a woman to the closing stages of her pregnancy, the Lord asks, am I going to prevent the child from being born?”

Says the LORD is normally a quote frame that concludes a divine speech, but here it occurs in the middle of a statement to add emphasis to what is being said.

Shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb? asks the same question as the previous one. Good News Translation combines both questions into one strong statement. The Hebrew verb rendered shut the womb is literally “restrain / hold back.” Revised Standard Version adds the womb on the basis of the context. Bible en français courant is closer to the original text by saying “make that birth impossible.”

Says your God also emphasizes the certainty of the events promised. Good News Translation prefers not to interrupt God’s speech with two quote frames, so it combines both of them at the end of the verse, saying “The LORD has spoken.”

For this whole verse New Jerusalem Bible has “Shall I open the womb and not bring to birth? says Yahweh. Shall I, who bring to birth, close the womb? says your God.” Other translation examples are:

• Do you think I would bring a child to the point of birth
and then prevent it happening?”
asks the LORD.
“Do you think I would cause a birth,
and then make it impossible?”
asks your God.

• I, I would not prevent a child to be born
once I have brought that child to the point of birth,”
says the LORD.
“I, I would not make a birth impossible
once I have caused it to happen,”
says your God.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .