The Hebrew chul (also chil) carries the image of a spinning, whirling motion — like a dancer twirling or a woman in the agony of labor. It is used for travail, trembling, anguish, and sometimes dancing in worship.
Chul is an evocative word that captures embodied experience — the body in extremity, whether from pain or praise. Most commonly, it describes the birth pangs of labor, which the prophets use as their primary metaphor for both judgment and new creation. Isaiah uses chul to describe Zion giving birth to a new people (Isaiah 66:8) and nations trembling before God's judgment (Isaiah 23:5). The Psalms use it for trembling worship: 'the mountains melt like wax before the LORD' (Psalm 97:5). The New Testament echoes this in Romans 8:22 — all creation 'groans as in the pains of childbirth' (sunodino) waiting for redemption. The pain of chul is not meaningless — it is the pain before the birth of something new.