261. CONCERNING THE DELIVERANCE OF THOSE WHO ARE BOUND IN THE PIT: HENCE WHAT IS MEANT BY THE PANGS OF CHILD-BIRTH Some of those bound in the pit are not delivered until they have reached the last state of desperation, that is, until they have paid the last of the debt. [Matt. v. 26.] This is also called the "pangs of child-birth", and "coming to the mouth of the womb".* * In the Index Biblicus this phrase is thus explained: "This was a saying of the Ancients, signifying the more interior grief of spiritual punishment, or of vastation." (s.v. Partus. Isa. xxxvi [should be xxxvii] 3.)