2 Maccabees 3:19-21

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁹ Women, girded with sackcloth under their breasts, thronged the streets. Some of the maidens who were kept indoors ran together to the gates, and some to the walls, while others peered out of the windows. ²⁰ And holding up their hands to heaven, they all made entreaty. ²¹ There was something pitiable in the prostration of the whole populace and the anxiety of the high priest in his great anguish.