Isaiah 26:16-19

O LORD, oppressed by your punishment,

   we cried out in anguish under your chastising.

As a woman about to give birth

   writhes and cries out in her pains,

   so were we in your presence, O LORD.

We conceived and writhed in pain,

   giving birth to wind;

Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,

   the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.

But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise;

   awake and sing, you who lie in the dust.

For your dew is a dew of light,

   and the land of shades gives birth.