¹⁶ O Lord, in our distress we cried out to you,
    pouring forth our prayers
    as we suffered your chastisement.
¹⁷ As a woman who is pregnant
    writhes and cries out in her agony
when her time of delivery is near,
    so were we because of you, O Lord.
¹⁸ We were with child and writhed with pain,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have achieved no salvation for the earth,
    and no one has been born to inhabit the world.