4 Maccabees 16:7

⁵For we must consider also this: that, had the woman been faint-hearted, as being their mother, she would have lamented over them; and perhaps might have spoken thus:

⁶Ah! wretched I, and many times miserable; who having born seven sons, have become the mother of none.

— 4 Maccabees 16:7 —

⁸Vainly, for your sakes, O sons, have I endured many pangs, and the more difficult anxieties of rearing.

⁹Alas, of my children, some of you unmarried, and some who have married to no profit, I shall not see your children, nor be felicitated as a grandmother.