14 Cursed be the day when I was born;

May the day when my mother gave birth to me not be blessed!

15 Cursed be the man who brought the news

To my father, saying,

"A *boy has been born to you!"

And made him very happy.

16 But may that man be like the cities

Which the Lord overthrew without *relenting,

And may he hear an outcry in the morning

And *an alarm for war at noon;

17 Because he did not kill me *before birth,

So that my mother would have been my grave,

And her womb forever pregnant.

18 Why did I ever come out of the womb

To look at trouble and sorrow,

So that my days have been spent in shame?