Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 26:18

"We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen." — Isaiah 26:18 (ASV)

We have been ... - This refers to sorrows and calamities they had experienced previously, when they had made great efforts for deliverance, and when those efforts had proved unsuccessful. Perhaps it refers to these kinds of efforts they had made during their painful seventy-year captivity.

Indeed, there is no direct proof that during that time they attempted to revolt or organized themselves for resistance to the Babylonian power. However, there can be no doubt that they earnestly desired deliverance, and that their condition was one of extreme pain and anguish—a condition strikingly represented here by the pains of childbirth.

Moreover, it is quite probable that during that long period, unsuccessful efforts for deliverance may have been made, and that they refer here to those efforts as having achieved nothing.

We have as it were brought forth wind - Our efforts have achieved nothing.

Michaelis, as quoted by Lowth, explains this figure as follows: ‘Rariorem morbum describi, empneumatosin, aut ventosam molam dictum; quo quae laborant diu et sibi, et peritis medicis gravidae videntur, tandemque post omnes verae gravitatis molestias et labores ventum ex utero emittant; quem morbum passim describunt medici.’ (Syntagma Comment. vol. ii. p. 165.)

Grotius thinks that the reference is to birds, ‘Quae edunt ova subventanea,’ and refers to Pliny x. 58. But the correct reference is, undoubtedly, the one mentioned by Michaelis.

Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen - We had no power to subdue them; and despite all our efforts, their dominion remained unbroken. This refers to the Babylonians who had dominion over the captive Jews.