ὠδίν

ὠδίν — ōdín

ὠδίν (1Th 5:3; Isa 37:3) for ὠδίς (the earlier form; cf. Winer's Grammar, § 9, 2 e. N. 1), ὠδινος, ἡ, from Homer, Iliad 11,271 down, the pain of childbirth, travail-pain, birth-pang: 1Th 5:3; plural ὠδῖνες ((pangs, throes, R. V. travail); German Wehen), equivalent to intolerable anguish, in reference to the dire calamities which the Jews supposed would precede the advent of the Messiah, and which were called הַמָּשִׁיחַ חֶבְלֵי (see the commentaries (especially Keil) on Matthew, the passage cited), Mat 24:8; Mar 13:8 (9); ὠδῖνες θανάτου (Tr marginal reading ᾅδου), the pangs of death, Act 2:24, after the Sept. who translated the words מָוֶת חֶבְלֵי by ὠδῖνες θανάτου, deriving the word חֶבְלֵי not, as they ought, from חֶבֶל, i. e. σχοινίον 'cord', but from חֵבֶל, ὠδίς, Psa 17:5; Psa 114:3; 2Sa 22:6.