7
For Zion, the mother of us all, is in deep grief and great distress.
8
It is most appropriate to mourn now, because we are all mourning, and to be sorrowful, because we are all sorrowing; you are sorrowing for one son, but we, the whole world, for our mother.
9
Now ask the earth, and she will tell you that it is she who ought to mourn over so many who have come into being upon her.
10
From the beginning all have been born of her, and others will come; and, lo, almost all go to perdition, and a multitude of them will come to doom.
11
Who then ought to mourn the more, she who lost so great a multitude, or you who are grieving for one alone?
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.