15. If I am guilty – woe to me!Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,for I am full of shameand drowned in my affliction.
16. If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lionand again display your awesome power against me.
17. You bring new witnesses against meand increase your anger towards me;your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18. ‘Why then did you bring me out of the womb?I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19. If only I had never come into being,or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20. Are not my few days almost over?Turn away from me so that I can have a moment’s joy
21. before I go to the place of no return,to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
22. to the land of deepest night,of utter darkness and disorder,where even the light is like darkness.’