Romans 8:22

Amplified Bible

For we know that the whole creation has been moaning together as in the pains of childbirth until now.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain like a woman ready to give birth to a child.

Revised Standard Version
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For we knowe that every creature groneth with vs also and travayleth in payne even vnto this tyme.

Hebrew Names Version
For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

International Standard Version
For we know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.Jeremiah 12:11;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

New Century Version
We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain, like a woman ready to give birth.

Update Bible Version
For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

Webster's Bible Translation
For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now:

English Standard Version
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

World English Bible
For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For we know that the whole creation groaneth together and travaileth together until now.

Weymouth's New Testament
For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And we witen, that ech creature sorewith, and trauelith with peyne til yit.

English Revised Version
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Berean Standard Bible
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

Contemporary English Version
We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.

American Standard Version
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Bible in Basic English
For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now.

Complete Jewish Bible
We know that until now, the whole creation has been groaning as with the pains of childbirth;

Darby Translation
For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now.

Etheridge Translation
For we know that all creatures groan and travail until this day;

Murdock Translation
For we know, that all the creatures are groaning and travailing in pain unto this day.

King James Version (1611)
For wee know that the whole creation groaneth, and trauaileth in paine together vntill now.

New Living Translation
For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

New Life Bible
We know that everything on the earth cries out with pain the same as a woman giving birth to a child.

New Revised Standard
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;

Geneva Bible (1587)
For we knowe that euery creature groneth with vs also, and trauaileth in paine together vnto this present.

George Lamsa Translation
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors in pain to this day.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For we know that, all creation, is sighing together, and travailing-in-birth-throes together until the present, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For we knowe, that euery creature groneth with vs also, and trauayleth in payne, euen vnto this tyme.

Good News Translation
For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.

Christian Standard Bible®
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

King James Version
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Lexham English Bible
For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now.

Literal Translation
For we know that all the creation groans together and travails together until now.

Young's Literal Translation
for we have known that all the creation doth groan together, and doth travail in pain together till now.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For we knowe, that euery creature groneth, and trauayleth with vs in payne vnto the same tyme.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for we know that the whole creation groans, and labours with general pain even to this day.

THE MESSAGE
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

New English Translation
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.

New King James Version
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Simplified Cowboy Version
All of creation has been in pain like a mother awaiting the birth of a child.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Legacy Standard Bible
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Contextual Overview

¹⁷And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory. ¹⁸For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us! ¹⁹For [even the whole] creation [all nature] waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration and futility, not willingly [because of some intentional fault on its part], but by the will of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will also be freed from its bondage to decay [and gain entrance] into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation has been moaning together as in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³And not only this, but we too, who have the first fruits of the Spirit [a joyful indication of the blessings to come], even we groan inwardly, as we wait eagerly for [the sign of] our adoption as sons—the redemption and transformation of our body [at the resurrection]. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved [by faith]. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait eagerly for it with patience and composure.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the: etc. or, every creature, Romans 8:20, Mark 16:15, Colossians 1:23

groaneth: Psalms 48:6, Jeremiah 12:11, John 16:21, Revelation 12:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 7:21 - General Leviticus 18:25 - the land Leviticus 18:28 - General Leviticus 26:35 - General Numbers 22:28 - What have I Job 15:20 - travaileth Psalms 38:9 - groaning Ecclesiastes 1:8 - full Jeremiah 12:4 - the beasts Joel 1:18 - General Romans 5:14 - even

Cross-References

Genesis 8:8
Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the water level had fallen below the surface of the land.

Genesis 8:9
But the dove found no place on which to rest the sole of her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were [still] on the face of the entire earth. So he reached out his hand and took the dove, and brought her into the ark.

Genesis 8:11
The dove came back to him in the evening, and there, in her beak, was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water level had subsided from the earth.

Genesis 8:12
Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

Genesis 8:16
"Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you.

Genesis 8:17
"Bring out with you every living thing from all flesh—birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

Genesis 8:20
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every [ceremonially] clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 45:6
"For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five more years in which there will be no plowing and harvesting.

Exodus 34:21
"You shall work for six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; [even] in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest [on the Sabbath].

Jeremiah 5:24
'They do not say in their heart, "Let us now fear and worship the LORD our God [with profound awe and reverence], Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For we know that the whole creation groaneth,.... As a woman with child, ready to bring forth: for it is added,

and travaileth in pain together until now; regeneration is owing to the grace of God, which is compared to "seed", of which men are born again; the means of conveying it is the Gospel, and ministers are the instruments of begetting souls to Christ, and who travail in birth till Christ be formed in them: now the Gospel being carried by the apostles into the Gentile world, and being succeeded there, it was like a woman big with child, ready to bring forth many sons to God; for as it was prophesied, so it came to pass, that "more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife", Isaiah 54:1; and these births were attended with pain. The apostles preached the word with much contention, and the Gentiles received it in much affliction, though with the joy of the Holy Ghost; as a woman rejoices when a man child is brought forth, though the birth has been attended with pain and labour. This was an united groan, and travail of all the converted Gentiles in the several parts of the world, together with the ministers of the Gospel, earnestly desiring more instances of conversion among them; and this vehement desire had appeared "until now", from the first time of the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, to the writing of this epistle; and supposes, that though there were many spiritual births, there were more to come; as there has been, and will be more abundantly, in the latter day: and moreover, this painful labour, and these united groans for spiritual births, the apostles were well acquainted with, and therefore could say, "we know", &c. by their preaching among them, in whom they could easily observe, and do in their writings take notice, how eagerly desirous they were of having the Gospel preached unto them.

(The whole creation was brought under a curse because of Adam's sin. This curse will be removed in the eternal state when Christ will restore the creation to the way it was in the beginning. Editor.)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For we know - The sentiment of this verse is designed as an illustration of what had just been said.

That the whole creation - Margin, “every creature.” This expression has been commonly understood as meaning the same as “the creature” in Romans 8:20-21. But I understand it as having a different signification; and as being used in the natural and usual signification of the word “creature,” or “creation.” It refers, as I suppose, to the whole animate creation; to all living beings; to the state of all created things here, as in a condition of pain and disorder, and groaning and death. Everything which we see; every creature which lives, is thus subjected to a state of servitude, pain, vanity, and death. The reasons for supposing that this is the true interpretation, are,

1. That the apostle expressly speaks of “the whole creation, of every creature, qualifying the phrase by the expression “we know,” as if he was drawing an illustration from a well-understood, universal fact.

(2)This interpretation makes consistent sense, and makes the verse have a direct bearing on the argument. “It is just an argument from analogy.”

He had Romans 8:20-21 said that the condition of a Christian was one of bondage and servitude. It was an imperfect, humiliating state; one attended with pain, sorrow, and death. This might be regarded as a melancholy description, and the question might arise, why was not the Christian at once delivered from this? The answer is in this verse. “It is just the condition of everything.” It is the manifest principle on which God governs the world. The whole creation is in just this condition; and we are not to be surprised, therefore, if it is the condition of the believer. It is a part of the universal system of things; it accords with everything we see; and we are not to be surprised that the church exists on the same principle of administration; in a state of bondage, imperfection, sorrow, and sighing for deliverance.

Groaneth - Greek, Groans together. All is united in a condition of sorrow. The expression denotes mutual and universal grief. It is one wide and loud lamentation, in which a dying world unites; and in which it has united “until now.”

And travaileth in pain together - This expression properly denotes the extreme pain of parturition. It also denotes any intense agony, or extreme suffering; and it means here that the condition of all things has been that of intense, united, and continued suffering; in other words, that we are in a world of misery and death. This has been united; all have partaken of it: it has been intense; all endure much: it has been unremitted; every age has experienced the repetition of the same thing.

Until now - Until the time when the apostle wrote. It is equally true of the time since he wrote. It has been the characteristic of every age. It is remarkable that the apostle does not here say of “the whole creation,” that it had any hope of deliverance; an additional consideration that shows that the interpretation above suggested is correct, Romans 8:20-21, Romans 8:23. Of the sighing and suffering universe, he says nothing with respect to its future state. He does not say that the suffering brutal creation shall be compensated, or shall be restored or raised up. He simply adverts to the fact that it suffers, as an illustration that the condition of the Christian is not singular and special. The Scriptures say nothing of the future condition of the brutal creation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 22. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth — If it be inquired how the Gentile world groaned and travailed in pain; let them who explain this of the fabric of the material world, tell us how that groans and travails? They must needs own it to be a borrowed and allusive phrase: but in the sense above given, the very literal construction may be admitted.