4 Maccabees 15:18

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

¹⁷O thou only woman who hast brought forth perfect holiness!

— 4 Maccabees 15:18 —

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

²⁰When thou didst see children’s flesh heaped upon children’s flesh that had been torn off, hands upon hands cut off, heads decapitated upon heads, dead falling upon the dead, and a choir of children turned through torture into a burying ground, thou lamentedst not.