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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.
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All of us who are living came originally from her, and there are more to come. Almost all of us go straight to destruction - the vast multitude of earth's children are lost.
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So who has more right to mourn, you for your one son, or the earth, which has lost so many?
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I know what you are thinking; you think that your sorrow is worse than the earth's. You think that it is only natural for earth's multitudes to live and then die, but you have lost your own flesh and blood which you brought to birth with such trouble and pain. But let me tell you
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that from the time God created the earth she has suffered as much in producing human beings for God as you did in childbirth.
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So keep your tears to yourself, and be brave about what has happened to you.
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If you will accept God's decision as just, you will get your son back at the right time, and you will receive the praise due a mother.