379. 7780. ....[Is. 26:] verses 17 [and 18] treat further of their affliction and temptation. "To bring forth wind" - look at the Text to see whether it is like the pain of colic. They were afflicted to the point of despair, even until "there was no deliverance in the earth." The complaint is that "the inhabitants of the world have not fallen," for in the next verse the response is given that "the Rephaim shall fall."* Temptations are continued to the limit of a person's endurance, as I can confirm from experience, even until there is no hope left; but afterwards comes help. One reason why temptation is carried so far is so that we may learn what we are like in temptations, if God the Messiah does not uplift us, and so that we may acknowledge the mercy of God the Messiah. These things I have experienced very often in a wonderful way. [Despair; Temptation] Now, therefore, uplifting follows; for temptation, as is well known, goes on even until the death of the body in the case of martyrs, etc. etc. * KJV has "the earth shall cast out the dead;" see Acton's footnotes to The Word Explained 7777.