Chapter 9 _{39 Then let I my thoughts go that I was in, and turned me unto her,40 And said unto her, Wherefore weepest thou? why art thou so grieved in thy mind?41 And she said unto me, Sir, let me alone, that I may bewail myself, and add unto my sorrow, for I am sore vexed in my mind, and brought very low.42 And I said unto her, What aileth thee? tell me.43 She said unto me, I thy servant have been barren, and had no child, though I had an husband thirty years,44 And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night, and every hour, but make my, prayer to the Highest.45 After thirty years God heard me thine handmaid, looked upon my misery, considered my trouble, and gave me a son: and I was very glad of him, so was my husband also, and all my neighbours: and we gave great honour unto the Almighty.46 And I nourished him with great travail.47 So when he grew up, and came to the time that he should have a wife, I made a feast.}

Chapter 10 _{1 And it so came to pass, that when my son was entered into his wedding chamber, he fell down, and died.2 Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbours rose up to comfort me: so I took my rest unto the second day at night.3 And it came to pass, when they had all left off to comfort me, to the end I might be quiet; then rose I up by night and fled, and came hither into this field, as thou seest.4 And I do now purpose not to return into the city, but here to stay, and neither to eat nor drink, but continually to mourn and to fast until I die.5 Then left I the meditations wherein I was, and spake to her in anger, saying,6 Thou foolish woman above all other, seest thou not our mourning, and what happeneth unto us?7 How that Sion our mother is full of all heaviness, and much humbled, mourning very sore?8 And now, seeing we all mourn and are sad, for we are all in heaviness, art thou grieved for one son?9 For ask the earth, and she shall tell thee, that it is she which ought to mourn for the fall of so many that grow upon her.10 For out of her came all at the first, and out of her shall all others come, and, behold, they walk almost all into destruction, and a multitude of them is utterly rooted out.11 Who then should make more mourning than she, that hath lost so great a multitude; and not thou, which art sorry but for one?12 But if thou sayest unto me, My lamentation is not like the earth's, because I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth with pains, and bare with sorrows;13 But the earth not so: for the multitude present in it according to the course of the earth is gone, as it came:14 Then say I unto thee, Like as thou hast brought forth with labour; even so the earth also hath given her fruit, namely, man, ever since the beginning unto him that made her.}