5. Then left I the meditations wherein I was, and answered her in anger, and said,
6. You foolish woman above all other, see you not our mourning, and what has happened to us?
7. how that Sion the mother of us all is full of sorrow, and much humbled.
8. It is right now to mourn very sore, seeing we all mourn, and to be sorrowful, seeing we are all in sorrow, but you sorrowest for one son.
9. For ask the earth, and she shall tell you, that it is she which ought to mourn for so many that grow upon her.
10. For out of her all had their beginnings, and others shall come; and, behold, they walk almost all into destruction, and the multitude of them is utterly rooted out.
11. Who then should make more mourning, she, that has lost so great a multitude, or you, which are grieved but for one?
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:
13. but it is with the earth after the manner of the earth; the multitude present in it is gone, as it came:
14. then say I to you, Like as you have brought forth with sorrow; even so the earth also has given her fruit, namely, man, ever since the beginning to him that made her.
15. Now therefore keep your sorrow to yourself, and bear with a good courage the adversities which have befallen you.
16. For if you shall acknowledge the decree of God to be just, you shall both receive your son in time, and shall be praised among women.
17. Go your way then into the city to your husband.
18. And she said to me, That will I not do: I will not go into the city, but here will I die.
19. So I proceeded to speak further to her, and said,
20. Do not so, but suffer yourself to be prevailed on by reason of the adversities of Sion; and be comforted by reason of the sorrow of Jerusalem.
21. For you see that our sanctuary is laid waste, our altar broken down, our temple destroyed;