Isaiah 26:16-18

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought you,
    they poured out a prayer^[a]
    when your chastening was on them.
¹⁷ Like a woman with child,
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near her time,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸     we were with child, we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.