17
How the woman gave birth alone to such perfect devotion!
18
You didn't change your direction when your oldest son took his last breath, or when your second son was in torment and looked at you pitifully, or when the third son died.
19
You didn't cry out loud when you looked into each one's eyes, gripped by their own pain, or when you saw on the faces the signs of death approaching.
20
You didn't burst into tears when you saw the burned flesh of one child piling up on the burned flesh of the others, severed hands on severed hands, severed heads beside severed heads, bodies piled up on bodies, or when you saw the place filling with many spectators of their torture.
21
The children's voices calling out to their mother from the midst of their torture held her attention more strongly than the Sirens' singing or the song of swans captures the attention of those who hear them.
22
How great was the pain that this mother suffered while her sons were being tortured by wheels and hot irons!
23
However, godly thinking strengthened her to ignore her natural love for her children. Godly thinking created in her a masculine courage in the middle of this suffering.
24
Even though she saw the destruction of seven children and the various devices of torture, the excellent mother ignored all these things because of her faithfulness toward God.
25
Her life was like a courtroom, and many powerful voices were speaking out—nature, family, a parent's love, and the instruments of torture set out for her children.
26
This mother held two ballots in her hand: the first sentenced her children to death; the second rescued them.
27
She chose not to seek the kind of rescue that would keep her seven sons safe for a short time.