pain
che.vel denotes pains, chiefly the pangs associated with labor and birth, and once pains apportioned in anger.
The attested use is chiefly for the pains or pangs of labor and birth, whether of a woman giving birth or as imagery for distress. A rarer occurrence places pains among what is apportioned in anger.
Senses in use
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Labor pains and birth-pang imagery · dominant
The plural forms occur in clauses comparing distress to a woman in labor: in Isaiah 13:8 the APB renders “Pangs and pains will seize them,” followed by trembling like a woman bearing; in Jeremiah 13:21 it similarly renders pangs seizing the addressee like those of a woman in labor. Construct plural forms appear with childbirth scenes in Hosea 13:13 and Job 39:3, while Isaiah 66:7 has the singular before the woman's delivery.
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Pains allotted in anger · rare
In Job 21:17 the plural absolute form stands in the clause that the APB renders “Pains he apportions in his anger,” alongside the wicked person's lamp being put out and calamity coming upon them. The immediate verse does not identify these pains with childbirth.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the childbirth contexts, the APB uses “pangs,” “pains,” and “labor pains,” and it repeatedly frames the scene with a woman in labor or giving birth. In Job 21:17 it renders the clause “Pains he apportions in his anger”; These variations should not be treated as separate lexical definitions.