15
She watched the flesh of her children consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks.
16
O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birth-pangs you suffered for them!
17
O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion!
18
When the first-born breathed his last it did not turn you aside, nor when the second in torments looked at you piteously nor when the third expired;
19
nor did you weep when you looked at the eyes of each one in his tortures gazing boldly at the same agonies, and saw in their nostrils the signs of the approach of death.
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.