The conjunction For introduces how a mother’s womb is like the chambers in Hades. Good News Bible leaves this connector implied.
Just as a woman who is in travail makes haste to escape the pangs of birth refers to a woman who is in labor ready to have her baby. All cultures will have very specific ways to talk about this. Good News Bible has “as a woman is to end her labor pains,” and Contemporary English Version translates “just as a pregnant woman is in a hurry to end the pain of childbirth.”
So also do these places hasten to give back those things that were committed to them from the beginning: These places refers to the chambers in Hades where the dead are waiting for the judgment. Those things refers to the souls of the dead. That were committed to them from the beginning may be rendered “that were placed there since the beginning of time.” Contemporary English Version translates this last half of the verse as “That place is in a hurry to give back these souls that have been there since the beginning of time.” Just as a time has been set for a child to be in the mother’s womb, a time has been set that souls will spend in the world of the dead, before judgment.
Good News Bible provides a helpful model for this verse.
Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.
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