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

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11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

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16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,(A)
    like an infant who never saw the light of day?(B)

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16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

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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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18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

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And I declared that the dead,(A)
    who had already died,
are happier than the living,
    who are still alive.(B)

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Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

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A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn(A) child is better off than he.(B)

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If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

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14 Cursed be the day I was born!(A)
    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
    who made him very glad, saying,
    “A child is born to you—a son!”
16 May that man be like the towns(B)
    the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing(C) in the morning,
    a battle cry at noon.
17 For he did not kill me in the womb,(D)
    with my mother as my grave,
    her womb enlarged forever.
18 Why did I ever come out of the womb(E)
    to see trouble(F) and sorrow
    and to end my days in shame?(G)

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14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

16 And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;

17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

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24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.(A) But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

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24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

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