Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 42:14

"I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: [now] will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together." — Isaiah 42:14 (ASV)

I have long time held my peace ... —The change of person indicates that Jehovah is the speaker. "Long time," literally, for an age, or an eternity. What is actually meant is the period of the exile, during which, until the advent of the deliverer, there had been no interposition on behalf of Israel. To the exiles this had seemed endless in its weariness. Now there were the travail-pangs of a new birth for the nation. (Compare to Matthew 24:8.) Was it strange that there should be the convulsions and catastrophes which are as the thunder-roaring of the voice of Jehovah?

I will destroy and devour. —Better, I pant and gasp. The verbs express strong emotion, the cries of the travailing woman rather than destructive acts.