12. Why did knees receive me,or breasts nurse me?
13. For then I should have lain down and been tranquil;had I slept, I should then have been at rest
14. With kings and counselors of the earthwho rebuilt what were ruins
15. Or with princes who had goldand filled their houses with silver.
16. Or why was I not buried away like a stillborn child,like babies that have never seen the light?
17. There the wicked cease from troubling,there the weary are at rest.
18. The captives are at ease together,and hear no overseer’s voice.
19. Small and great are there;the servant is free from the master.
20. Why is light given to the toilers,life to the bitter in spirit?
21. They wait for death and it does not come;they search for it more than for hidden treasures.
22. They rejoice in it exultingly,and are glad when they find the grave:
23. A man whose path is hidden from him,one whom God has hemmed in!