GIMEL. Nay, serpents have drawn out the breasts, they give suck to their young, the daughters of my people are incurably cruel, as an ostrich in a desert.

And she that is tender and delicate among you, whose foot has not ventured to go upon the earth for delicacy and tenderness, shall look with an evil eye on her husband in her bosom, and her son and her daughter,

and her offspring that comes out between her feet, and the child which she shall bear; for she shall eat them because of the needs of all things, secretly in your desperate straits, and in your affliction, with which your enemy shall afflict you in your cities.

And the woman whose the living child was, answered and said to the king, (for her heart yearned over her son), I beseech you, [my] lord, give her the child, and by no means slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor hers; divide [it].

Then the king answered and said, Give the child to her that said, 'Give it to her, and by no means slay it: she [is] its mother.

And the king said to her, What is [the matter] with you? And the woman said to him, This [woman] said to me, Give your son, and we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.

So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, Give your son, and let us eat him; but she has hidden her son.

RHECHS. Behold, O Lord, and see for whom You have gathered thus. Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb? The cook has made a gathering: shall the infants nursing at the breasts be slain? Will You slay the priest and prophet in the sanctuary of the Lord?

without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;

The labor of fools will afflict them, [as that of one] who knows not to go to the city.

Are not these things of the Lord Almighty? Surely many people have been exhausted in the fire, and many nations have fainted.