5
For not of your own will did you come into the world, and against your will you depart, for you have been given only a short time to live.
6
O Lord who are over us, grant to thy servant that we may pray before thee, and give us seed for our heart and cultivation of our understanding so that fruit may be produced, by which every mortal who bears the likeness of a human being may be able to live.
7
For thou alone dost exist, and we are a work of thy hands, as thou hast declared.
8
And because thou dost give life to the body which is now fashioned in the womb, and dost furnish it with members, what thou hast created is preserved in fire and water, and for nine months the womb which thou has formed endures thy creation which has been created in it.
9
But that which keeps and that which is kept shall both be kept by thy keeping. And when the womb gives up again what has been created in it,
10
thou hast commanded that from the members themselves (that is, from the breasts) milk should be supplied which is the fruit of the breasts,
11
so that what has been fashioned may be nourished for a time; and afterwards thou wilt guide him in thy mercy.
12
Thou hast brought him up in thy righteousness, and instructed him in thy law, and reproved him in thy wisdom.
13
Thou wilt take away his life, for he is thy creation; and thou wilt make him live, for he is thy work.
14
If then thou wilt suddenly and quickly destroy him who with so great labor was fashioned by thy command, to what purpose was he made?
15
And now I will speak out: About all mankind thou knowest best; but I will speak about thy people, for whom I am grieved,