Isaiah 37:3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
The verse stands in the account of Hezekiah's reign when the king of Assyria came up with a powerful army and threatened Judah and Jerusalem. The day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy describes Judah's crisis under that Assyrian threat, when the Assyrians' insults against Jehovah deepened the danger, and the image of children come to the birth with no strength to bring forth means the people faced an urgent crisis but seemed unable to save themselves or bring it to a successful outcome. It voices Hezekiah's humility and sense of helplessness as his enemies taunted him, as he pleaded with God and spread their insulting letter before the Lord. God answered through His message to Hezekiah by the prophet and delivered His people by His angel, defending them though greatly outnumbered, when the invading army lost 185,000 men in one night.
The campaign in this account is distinct from the campaign described in Isaiah 10, which is attributed to Sargon rather than to Sennacherib. Considered with the parallel accounts, the destruction of the 185,000 is argued not to have occurred near Jerusalem but with the king at Libnah, and therefore it was not the fulfillment of Isaiah 30:33. The chapter records God's witness to Assyria that He is God above all after Assyria had grown corrupt and gone far from God, with the slaughter of Sennacherib's host as its most notable instance. The verse is part of the example of Isaiah and Hezekiah subduing their enemies, an example Christians retaining faith and the church's spiritual gifts could have followed.
Standing in the history of Isaiah 36-39, the verse vividly portrays human frailty and warns against trusting in men, since even the great and good Hezekiah failed to give God the glory for his healing and instead displayed the earthly riches he had gathered, arousing the cupidity of the Babylonian ambassadors who afterward despoiled the kingdom. Its description of a time of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy applies to the present as a day of crisis for God's people and the church.