17. As a woman about to give birthwrithes and cries out in pain,so were we before you, Lord.
18. We conceived and writhed in pain,giving birth only to wind;Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,no inhabitants for the world were born.
19. But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise!Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust!For your dew is a dew of light,and you cause the land of shades to give birth.
20. Go, my people, enter your chambers,and close the doors behind you;Hide yourselves for a brief moment,until the wrath is past.
21. See, the Lord goes forth from his place,to punish the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants;The earth will reveal the blood shed upon it,and no longer conceal the slain.