16  Or why was I not as a hidden ^pstillborn child,

as infants who never see the light?

5  Behold, ^fI was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

13  For you ^eformed my inward parts;

you ^fknitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.¹

^gWonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15  ^hMy frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in ⁱthe depths of the earth.

16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your ^jbook were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

24  Thus says the Lord, ^eyour Redeemer,

^fwho formed you from the womb:

^g“I am the Lord, who made all things,

^hwho alone stretched out the heavens,

who spread out the earth by myself,

1  Listen to me, ^kO coastlands,

and give attention, you peoples ^lfrom afar.

^mThe Lord called me from the womb,

from the body of my mother he named my name.

5  ^rAnd now the Lord says,

he ^mwho formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him;

and that Israel might be gathered to him—

for ^sI am honored in the eyes of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—

5  ⁱ“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born ^jI consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet ^kto the nations.”

15  Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,

“A son is born to you,”

^omaking him very glad.

16  Let that man be like ^pthe cities

that the Lord overthrew without pity;

^qlet him hear a cry in the morning

and an alarm at noon,

17  ^rbecause he did not kill me in the womb;

so my mother would have been my grave,

and her womb forever great.

18  ^sWhy did I come out from the womb

^tto see toil and sorrow,

and spend my days in shame?