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14 The dead shall not live.
    The departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore you have visited and destroyed them,
    and caused all memory of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Yahweh.
    You have increased the nation!
You are glorified!
    You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

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.

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14 They are dead, they will not live;
    they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
    and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 (A)But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    (B)you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 O Lord, (C)in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
17 (D)Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
18     (E)we were pregnant, we writhed,
    but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

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