16 O you mother, who was tried at this time with bitterer pangs than those at birth! (WEB) 17 O you only woman who have produced perfect holiness! (WEB) 18 Your firstborn, expiring, didn’t turn you, nor the second, looking miserable in his torments, nor the third, breathing out his soul. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 15:16–18
Semantically similar passages
4 Maccabees 17:1–3
1 Some of the spearbearers said that when she herself was about to be seized for the purpose of being put to death, she threw herself on the pile, rather than let them touch her body. (WEB) 2 O you mother, who together with seven children destroyed the violence of the t… (WEB)
Proverbs 31:1–3
1 These are the words of King Lemuel—the burden that his mother taught him: 2 What shall I say, O my son? What, O son of my womb? What, O son of my vows? 3 Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.
2 Esdras 10:11–13
11 Who then should mourn more, she who has lost so great a multitude, or you, who are grieved but for one? (WEB) 12 But if you say to me, ‘My lamentation is not like the earth’s, for I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth with pains, and bare with sorrows… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 16:10–12
10 Ah, that I who had many and fair children, should be a lone widow full of sorrows! (WEB) 11 Nor, should I die, will I have a son to bury me.” But with such a lament as this, the holy and God-fearing mother wept for none of them. (WEB) 12 Nor did she divert any of them from death… (WEB)
Numbers 12:11–13
11 and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” 13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, pl…
2 Maccabees 7:21–23
21 She exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble spirit and stirring up her woman’s thoughts with manly courage, saying to them, (WEB) 22 “I don’t know how you came into my womb. It wasn’t I who gave you your spirit and your life. It… (WEB) 23 … (WEB)
4 Maccabees 16:5–7
5 For 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: (WEB) 6 “Ah! I am wretched and many times miserable, who having born seven sons, have become the mothe… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 15:29–31
29 O holy mother of a nation, avenger of the law, defender of religion, and prime bearer in the battle of the affections! (WEB) 30 O you nobler in endurance than males, and more courageous than men in perseverance! (WEB) 31 For like Noah’s ship, bearing the world in the world-filli… (WEB)
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