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
Nor when I die, shall I have any of my sons to bury me."
12
Yet the sacred 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,
13
but, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion.
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.