8
In vain, my sons, I endured many birth pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing.
9
Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring. I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother.
10
Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows.
11
And when I die, I shall have none of my sons to bury me."
12
Yet that holy and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying.
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.