4 Maccabees 15:17

¹⁵She beheld her children’s flesh dissolving around the fire; and their extremities quivering on the ground, and the flesh of their heads dropped forward down to their beards, like masks.

¹⁶O thou mother, who wast tried at this time with bitterer pangs than those of parturition!

— 4 Maccabees 15:17 —

¹⁸Thy firstborn, expiring, turned thee not; nor the second, looking miserable in his torments; nor the third, breathing out his soul.

¹⁹Nor when thou didst behold the eyes of each of them looking sternly upon their tortures, and their nostrils foreboding death, didst thou weep!