We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
Parallel translations
- WEB For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
- KJV For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
- NKJV For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
- NASB For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
- NLT For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
All creation groans together in pain like childbirth until now. The present suffering of the world signals the birth pangs of the coming renewal.
Overview
Paul depicts the whole creation groaning and travailing as in labor. This imagery casts present suffering not as meaningless decay but as the painful prelude to new birth. The groaning of creation anticipates the deliverance and glory yet to come.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 12:4How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
- Jer 12:11They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
- John 16:21A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
- Col 1:23if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
- Rom 8:20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
- Mark 16:15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- Rev 12:2She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth.
- Ps 48:6Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 8:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.