Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.
For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck.
I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good for a man so to be.
But woe to them that are with child, and give suck in those days; for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days.
Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall yield no fruit. And if they should have issue, I will slay the best beloved fruit of their womb.
Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre founded in beauty: and Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer.
As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.
There shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land. I will fill the number of thy days.
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground: the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.