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
And from the beginning all have been born of her, and others will come; and behold, almost all go to perdition, and a multitude of them are destined for destruction.
11
Who then ought to mourn the more, she who lost so great a multitude, or you who are grieving for one?
12
But if you say to me, `My lamentation is not like the earth's, for I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth in pain and bore in sorrow;
13
but it is with the earth according to the way of the earth -- the multitude that is now in it goes as it came';
14
then I say to you, `As you brought forth in sorrow, so the earth also has from the beginning given her fruit, that is, man, to him who made her.'
15
Now, therefore, keep your sorrow to yourself, and bear bravely the troubles that have come upon you.
16
For if you acknowledge the decree of God to be just, you will receive your son back in due time, and will be praised among women.
17
Therefore go into the city to your husband."
18
She said to me, "I will not do so; I will not go into the city, but I will die here."