^{11 Ref} "Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

^{12 Ref} Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?

^{13 Ref} For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

^{14 Ref} With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

^{15 Ref} Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

^{16 Ref} Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.

^{17 Ref} There the wicked cease from troubling; There the weary are at rest.

^{18 Ref} There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

^{19 Ref} The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

^{20 Ref} "Why is light given to him who is in misery, Life to the bitter in soul,

^{21 Ref} Who long for death, but it doesn't come; Dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²² Who rejoice exceedingly, Are glad, when they can find the grave?

^{23 Ref} Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, Whom God has hedged in?

^{24 Ref} For my sighing comes before I eat, My groanings are poured out like water.

^{25 Ref} For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.

^{26 Ref} I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble comes."