Or why ¹  was ²  I not buried ³  like a stillborn infant, ⁴  like infants ⁵  who have never seen the light? ⁶ 

Let them be ¹  like a snail that melts away as it moves along! ²  Let them be like ³  stillborn babies ⁴  that never see the sun!

Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its ¹  mother’s womb!”

Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years – even if he lives a long, long time, ¹  but cannot enjoy his prosperity – even if he were to live forever ²  – I would say, “A stillborn child ³  is better off than he is!” ⁴ 

“Why did I not ²  die ³  at birth, ⁴  and why did I not expire as ⁵  I came out of the womb?

I should have been as though I had never existed; ¹  I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

Though the stillborn child ¹  came into the world ²  for no reason ³  and departed into darkness, though its name is shrouded in darkness, ⁴ 

though it never saw the light of day ¹  nor knew anything, ²  yet it has more rest ³  than that man –