So I loathed ¹  life ²  because what happens ³  on earth ⁴  seems awful to me; for all the benefits of wisdom ⁵  are futile – like chasing the wind.

The people of ¹  Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz. For this reason Moab’s soldiers shout in distress; their courage wavers. ² 

As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord.

The sovereign master ¹  will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; ²  but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them. ³ 

But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; ¹  even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ² 

He was led away after an unjust trial ¹  – but who even cared? ²  Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; ³  because of the rebellion of his own ⁴  people he was wounded.

“Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ¹  like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ¹  Cries of distress come up to me ²  from Jerusalem. ³ 

I will scatter them before their enemies like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind. I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them ¹  when disaster strikes them.”

May that man be like the cities ¹  that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy. May he hear a cry of distress in the morning and a battle cry at noon.

The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor.

The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear ¹  when he hears news of their coming. ²  Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

Be distressed, ¹  farmers; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the field has perished.

Certainly ¹  I am aware of ²  your many rebellious acts ³  and your numerous sins. You ⁴  torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to ⁵  the needy at the city gate. ⁶ 

And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹ 

“Immediately ¹  after the suffering ²  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ³ 

For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him.

At once the bleeding stopped, ¹  and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. ¹  Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s ¹  house saying, “Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher any longer?”