God is here shown as being like a woman in childbirth:
The Hebrew translated ‘you brought forth’ means primarily ‘to be in pangs with child,’ ‘to bear a child.’ (Reference)
Scripture gives other hints of the imagery of God giving birth.
Isaiah 42:14 “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. (15) I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
The latter part of the following verse clearly refers to the female role in procreation, and in the Hebrew it alludes not only to giving birth but to the pain involved. The first part of the verse is usually believed to refer to the male role in procreation and the Hebrew is capable of that meaning. A. D. H. Mayes, however, points out that the word usually means ‘bore,’ and if that is what is meant here, then this part of the verse is also female imagery.
Deuteronomy 32:18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
This refers to God giving birth:
Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Moses probably meant in the following that God had given birth to the Israelites and that it was therefore God’s duty to mother them.
Numbers 11:12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?
Although in the original Greek the term in the following might possibly be capable of sufficient stretching to apply to the male role in procreation, it is primarily a feminine, maternal term. This is so much the case that some radical Bible scholars have wrongly claimed the writer of this letter believed in a different God to that of other writers of Scripture. This argument disintegrates in the face of all the Old Testament precedents in applying to God both maternal and masculine terms.
James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
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