³ And better than both of them `is' he who hath not yet been, in that he hath not seen the evil work that hath been done under the sun.

²⁹ for, lo, days do come, in which they shall say, Happy the barren, and wombs that did not bare, and paps that did not give suck;

¹⁹ `And wo to those with child, and to those giving suck in those days;

¹⁷ Because he hath not put me to death from the womb, And my mother is to me -- my grave, And her womb a pregnancy age-during.

¹⁸ Why `is' this? from the womb I have come out, To see labour and sorrow, Yea, consumed in shame are my days!

² Who doth give me in a wilderness A lodging-place of travellers? And I leave my people, and go from them, For all of them `are' adulterers, An assembly of treacherous ones.

³ And they bend their tongue, their bow `is' a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah!

³ If a man doth beget a hundred, and live many years, and is great, because they are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from the goodness, and also he hath not had a grave, I have said, `Better than he `is' the untimely birth.'

⁴ For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,

⁵ Even the sun he hath not seen nor known, more rest hath this than that.

¹⁷ And I have hated life, for sad to me `is' the work that hath been done under the sun, for the whole `is' vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁴ I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and lo, the whole `is' vanity and vexation of spirit!

⁶ And I say, `Who doth give to me a pinion as a dove? I fly away and rest,

⁷ Lo, I move far off, I lodge in a wilderness. Selah.

⁸ I hasten escape for myself, From a rushing wind, from a whirlwind.

⁹ Swallow up, O Lord, divide their tongue, For I saw violence and strife in a city.

¹⁰ By day and by night they go round it, on its walls. Both iniquity and perverseness `are' in its midst,

¹¹ Mischiefs `are' in its midst. Fraud and deceit depart not from its street.

¹⁸ And why from the womb Hast Thou brought me forth? I expire, and the eye doth not see me.

¹⁹ As I had not been, I am, From the belly to the grave I am brought,

²² Who are glad -- unto joy, They rejoice when they find a grave.

¹⁰ Because it hath not shut the doors Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from mine eyes.

¹¹ Why from the womb do I not die? From the belly I have come forth and gasp!

¹² Wherefore have knees been before me? And what `are' breasts, that I suck?

¹³ For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept -- then there is rest to me,

¹⁴ With kings and counsellors of earth, These building wastes for themselves.

¹⁵ Or with princes -- they have gold, They are filling their houses `with' silver.

¹⁶ (Or as a hidden abortion I am not, As infants -- they have not seen light.)