And they shall be afraid
Troubled, dismayed, frightened, at the sudden taking of the city, and at the sight of Cyrus's troops marching up into the very heart of it, and to the king's palace: pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them;
as convulsions, pains in the bowels more fully explained in the next clause: they shall be in pain, as a woman that travaileth;
that is in labour, and ready to bring forth her child, whose pains are very sharp, and agonies great; the same is said of the king of Babylon, ( Jeremiah 50:43 ) : they shall be amazed one at another;
that so great a city should be so surprised, and so suddenly taken; and that they shall not be able to help one another; and that such as were so famous for courage and valour should be at once so dispirited: their faces [shall be as] flames;
not red with blushing, through shame, as Kimchi; but pale with fear, as the colour of flame, or, as the faces of smiths, that work at a forge: the words may be rendered, "their faces are as the faces of Lehabim" F4; the name of a people mentioned in ( Genesis 10:13 ) the same with the Libians, which were of a blackish or tawny colour; so Jarchi interprets it, and says they were a people of a yellow complexion: and Aben Ezra observes, that some interpret it of a nation like the Ethiopians; and so it denotes, that the Babylonians, their faces should be black with distress and anguish; see ( Joel 2:6 ) .