For it has been written, “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not have birth pains! For the deserted one has many more children than she who has a husband.”
“The satisfied have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children pines away.
“And you shall say in your heart, ‘Who has brought forth these for me, since I am bereaved and barren, an exile, and wandering to and fro? And who reared them? See, I was left alone – from where did these come?’ ”