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11 “Why wasn’t I born dead?
    Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

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11 “Why did I not perish at birth,
    and die as I came from the womb?(A)

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“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob,
    all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born.
    Yes, I carried you before you were born.

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“Listen(A) to me, you descendants of Jacob,
    all the remnant(B) of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,(C)
    and have carried(D) since you were born.(E)

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18 “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb?
    Why didn’t you let me die at birth?
19 It would be as though I had never existed,
    going directly from the womb to the grave.

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18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?(A)
    I wish I had died before any eye saw me.(B)
19 If only I had never come into being,
    or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!(C)

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14 O Lord, what should I request for your people?
    I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth
    and breasts that give no milk.

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14 Give them, Lord
    what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
    and breasts that are dry.(A)

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Jeremiah’s Complaint

10 Then I said,

“What sorrow is mine, my mother.
    Oh, that I had died at birth!
    I am hated everywhere I go.
I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose
    nor a borrower who refuses to pay—
    yet they all curse me.”

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10 Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth,(A)
    a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!(B)
I have neither lent(C) nor borrowed,
    yet everyone curses(D) me.

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13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

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13 For you created my inmost being;(A)
    you knit me together(B) in my mother’s womb.(C)
14 I praise you(D) because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,(E)
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made(F) in the secret place,
    when I was woven together(G) in the depths of the earth.(H)
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained(I) for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

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Yes, you have been with me from birth;
    from my mother’s womb you have cared for me.
    No wonder I am always praising you!

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From birth(A) I have relied on you;
    you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.(B)
    I will ever praise(C) you.

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May they be like snails that dissolve into slime,
    like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.

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May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,(A)
    like a stillborn child(B) that never sees the sun.

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Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
    and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
10 I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
    You have been my God from the moment I was born.

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Yet you brought me out of the womb;(A)
    you made me trust(B) in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth(C) I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

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