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16 Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you.
    They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
17 Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery,
    is in pain and cries out in her pangs,
    so we have been before you, Yahweh.
18 We have been with child.
    We have been in pain.
We gave birth, it seems, only to wind.
    We have not worked any deliverance in the earth;
    neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead shall live.
    My dead bodies shall arise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust;
    for your dew is like the dew of herbs,
    and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.

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16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer[a]
    when your chastening was on them.(A)
17 Like a woman with child
    about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;(B)
18     we were with child; we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.(C)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses[b] shall rise.
    Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy![c]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
    and the earth will give birth to those long dead.[d](D)

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Footnotes

  1. 26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my corpse
  3. 26.19 Q ms Compare Gk Syr: MT dust, awake and shout for joy!
  4. 26.19 Heb to the shades