4Macc 16
1
If, then, even a woman, and that an aged one, and the mother of seven children, endured
to see her children's torments even to death, confessedly religious reasoning is master
even of the passions.
2
I have proved, then, that not only men have obtained the mastery of their passions,
but also that a woman despised the greatest torments.
3
And not so fierce were the lions round Daniel, nor the furnace of Misael burning with
most vehement fires as that natural love of children burned within her, when she beheld
her seven sons tortured.
4
But with the reasoning of religion the mother quenched passions so great and powerful.
5
For we must consider also this: that, had the woman been faint hearted, as being their
other, she would have lamented over them; and perhaps might have spoken thus:
6
Ah! wretched I, and many times miserable; who having born seven sons, have become
the mother of none.
7
O seven useless childbirths, and seven profitless periods of labour, and fruitless
givings of suck, and miserable nursings at the breast.
8
Vainly, for your sakes, O sons, have I endured many pangs, and the more difficult
anxieties of rearing.
9
Alas, of my children, some of you unmarried, and some who have married to no profit,
I shall not see your children, nor be felicitated as a grandmother.
10
Ah, that I who had many and fair children, should be a lone widow full of sorrows!
11
Nor, should I die, shall I have a son to bury me. But with such a lament is this the
holy and God-fearing mother bewailed none of them.
12
Nor did she divert any of them from death, nor grieve for them as for the dead.
13
But as one possessed with an adamantine mind, and as one bringing forth again her
full number of sons to immortality, she rather with supplication exhorted them to
death in behalf of religion.
14
O woman, soldier of God for religion, you, aged and a female, have conquered through
endurance even a tyrant; and though but weak, have been found more powerful in deeds
and words.
15
For when you were seized along with your children, you stood looking upon Eleazar
in torments, and said to your sons in the Hebrew tongue,
16
O sons, noble is the contest; to which you being called as a witness for the nation,
strive zealously for the laws of your country.
17
For it were disgraceful that this old man should endure pains for the sake of righteousness,
and that you who are younger should be afraid of the tortures.
18
Remember that through God you obtained existence, and have enjoyed it.
19
And on this second account you ought to bear every affliction because of God.
20
For whom also our father Abraham was forward to sacrifice Isaac our progenitor, and
shuddered not at the sight of his own paternal hand descending down with the sword
upon him.
21
And the righteous Daniel was cast to the lions; and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael,
were slung out into a furnace of fire; yet they endured through God.
22
You, then, having the same faith towards God, be not troubled.
23
For it is unreasonable that they who know religion should not stand up against troubles.
24
With these arguments, the mother of seven, exhorting each of her sons, over-persuaded
them from transgressing the commandment of God.
25
And they saw this, too, that they who die for God, live to God; as Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the patriarchs.