Vision of the woman in mourning
26 I went out as he told me into the field that is called Ardat. I sat there among the flowers, I ate of the plants of the field, and their food satisfied me.
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After seven days I was lying on the grass, and my heart was disturbed again as before.
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My mouth was opened and I began to say before the Most High:
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"Lord, you revealed yourself to us, to our ancestors in the wilderness, when they were going out from Egypt and when they were coming into the desert that no one crossed and that bore no fruit. You said:
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Listen to me, Israel! Offspring of Jacob, pay attention to what I say!
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Look, I am sowing my Law in you, and it will bear fruit in you, and you will be glorified in it forever.
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Though our parents received the Law, they didn't keep it and didn't observe what was lawful. The fruit of the Law didn't perish, nor could it, since it was yours.
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Yet those who received it perished, not keeping what was sown in them.
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Normally, when the ground receives seed or the sea a ship or some other container food or drink, and when it happens that what was sown or what was sent or what was received is destroyed,
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those things themselves are destroyed, but the containers remain. But this hasn't been so in our case.
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We who received the Law sinned and will perish, along with our hearts that received it;
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yet the Law doesn't perish but remains in its glory."
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While I was saying these things in my heart, I looked with my eyes and saw a woman to my right. She was lamenting and crying with a loud voice, and she was experiencing deep grief. Her clothes were torn, and there were ashes on her head.
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I dismissed my own thoughts, turned to her, and said,
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"Why are you weeping, and why do you grieve so deeply?"
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She said to me, "Leave me alone, sir, so that I may weep for myself and continue in my grief, because I am very bitter inside, and I am depressed."
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I said to her, "What have you suffered? Tell me!"
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She said to me: “I, your servant, was infertile, and I hadn't given birth, although I had a husband for thirty years.
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Hour after hour and day after day during these thirty years I pleaded with the Most High by night and day.
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After thirty years God heard your servant and saw how dejected I was. He attended to my distress and gave me a son. I rejoiced greatly over him, as did my husband and all my fellow citizens, and we greatly honored the mighty one.
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I nourished my son with much labor,
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and when he grew up, I came to take a wife for him and set the day of the marriage feast.