And they went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?
For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,
With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.
There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master.
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;
Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;
Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?
(Why is light given) to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?
For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.
For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.
I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.
Wherefore I praised the dead that have been long dead more than the living that are yet alive;
yea, better than them both (did I esteem) him that hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet enjoy no good, do not all go to one place?
But thou art cast forth away from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body trodden under foot.
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever.
and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
And let that man be as the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;
because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.
Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.