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"On the wedding night when my son entered the bedroom, he dropped dead.
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So we put out all the wedding lamps, and all my neighbors came to comfort me. I remained in control of myself until the evening of the second day,
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when they all left. That night I got up and came out to this field, as you see.
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I have decided never to return to that town. I am going to stay here in constant mourning, neither eating nor drinking anything until I die."
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When she told me this, I put aside my own thoughts and spoke sharply to her:
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"You are the most foolish woman I ever met. Don't you see what our people are suffering? Don't you know all that has happened to us?
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Jerusalem, the mother of us all, is overcome with grief and shame. You ought to be mourning for her
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and sharing the grief and sorrow of all of us. But you are mourning for that one son of yours.
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Ask the earth; let her tell you that she is the one who ought to be mourning for the vast multitudes of people that she has brought to birth.