4
And now I intend not to return to the city, but to stay here, and I will neither eat nor drink, but without ceasing mourn and fast until I die."
5
Then I broke off the reflections with which I was still engaged, and answered her in anger and said,
6
"You most foolish of women, do you not see our mourning, and what has happened to us?
7
For Zion, the mother of us all, is in deep grief and great affliction.
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.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.