2 Maccabees 7:21-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²¹ She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage and said to them,^{(A) 22} “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.^{(B) 23} Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, in his mercy gives life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”^(C)