Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as one dying.
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall follow after him, as there are innumerable gone before him.
Who long for death, but it comes not; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God has hedged in?
Then should I still have comfort; yea, I would exult myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
So that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life.
Therefore I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive.
Yea, better is he than both, who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.