Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 66:7

"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child." — Isaiah 66:7 (ASV)

Before she travailed ... —The mother, as the next verse shows, is Zion; the man-child, born at last without the travail-pangs of sorrow, is the new Israel, the true Israel of God. This same figure also appears in Isaiah 49:17-21; Isaiah 54:1, and is implied in Matthew 24:8. Its antithesis is found in Isaiah 37:3.