5
For we must consider also this: that, had the woman been faint hearted, as being their other, she would have lamented over them; and perhaps might have spoken thus:
6
Ah! wretched I, and many times miserable; who having born seven sons, have become the mother of none.
7
O seven useless childbirths, and seven profitless periods of labour, and fruitless givings of suck, and miserable nursings at the breast.
8
Vainly, for your sakes, O sons, have I endured many pangs, and the more difficult anxieties of rearing.
9
Alas, of my children, some of you unmarried, and some who have married to no profit, I shall not see your children, nor be felicitated as a grandmother.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.