2 Maccabees 6

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Shortly afterwards, the king sent Gerontes the Athenian to force the Jews to violate their ancestralcustoms and live no longer by the laws of God;
2 and to profane the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and the one on MountGerizim to Zeus, Patron of Strangers, as the inhabitants of the latter place had requested.
3 The advent of these evils was painful y hard for al the people to bear.
4 The Temple was fil ed with revel ing and debauchery by the gentiles, who took their pleasure withprostitutes and had intercourse with women in the sacred precincts, introducing other indecencies besides.
5 The altar of sacrifice was loaded with victims proscribed by the law as profane.
6 No one might either keep the Sabbath or observe the traditional feasts, or so much as admit to being aJew.
7 People were driven by harsh compulsion to take part in the monthly ritual meal commemorating theking's birthday; and when a feast of Dionysus occurred, they were forced to wear ivy wreaths and walk in theDionysiac procession.
8 A decree was issued at the instance of the people of Ptolemais for the neighbouring Greek cities,enforcing the same conduct on the Jews there, obliging them to share in the sacrificial meals,
9 and ordering the execution of those who would not voluntarily conform to Greek customs. So it becameclear that disaster was imminent.
10 For example, two women were charged with having circumcised their children. They were paradedpublicly round the town, with their babies hung at their breasts, and then hurled over the city wal .
11 Other people, who had assembled in some near-by caves to keep the seventh day without attractingattention, were denounced to Philip, and were then al burnt to death together, since their consciences would notal ow them to defend themselves, out of respect for the holiness of the day.
12 Now, I urge anyone who may read this book not to be dismayed at these calamities, but to reflect thatsuch visitations are intended not to destroy our race but to discipline it.
13 Indeed, when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution, it is a signof great benevolence.
14 In the case of other nations, the Master waits patiently for them to attain the ful measure of their sinsbefore he punishes them, but with us he has decided to deal differently,
15 rather than have to punish us later, when our sins come to ful measure.
16 And so he never entirely withdraws his mercy from us; he may discipline us by some disaster, but hedoes not desert his own people.
17 Let this be said simply by way of reminder; we must return to our story without more ado.
18 Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the Law, a man already advanced in years and of most nobleappearance, had his mouth forced open, to make him eat a piece of pork.
19 But he, resolving to die with honour rather than to live disgraced, walked of his own accord to thetorture of the wheel,
20 having spat the stuff out, as befits those with the courage to reject what is not lawful to taste, ratherthan live.
21 The people supervising the ritual meal, forbidden by the Law, because of the length of time for whichthey had known him, took him aside and privately urged him to have meat brought of a kind he could properlyuse, prepared by himself, and only pretend to eat the portions of sacrificial meat as prescribed by the king;
22 this action would enable him to escape death, by availing himself of an act of kindness prompted bytheir long friendship.
23 But having taken a noble decision worthy of his years and the dignity of his great age and the wel -earned distinction of his grey hairs, worthy too of his impeccable conduct from boyhood, and above al of theholy legislation established by God himself, he answered accordingly, telling them to send him at once to Hades.
24 'Pretence', he said, 'does not befit our time of life; many young people would suppose that Eleazar atthe age of ninety had conformed to the foreigners' way of life
25 and, because I had played this part for the sake of a paltry brief spel of life, might themselves be ledastray on my account; I should only bring defilement and disgrace on my old age.
26 Even though for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never, living or dead, elude the grasp ofthe Almighty.
27 Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and now, I shal prove myself worthy of my old age,
28 and I shal have left the young a noble example of how to make a good death, eagerly andgenerously, for the venerable and holy laws.' So saying, he walked straight to the wheel,
29 while those who were escorting him, recently so wel disposed towards him, turned against him afterthis declaration, which they regarded as sheer madness.
30 He for his part, just before he died under the blows, gave a sigh and said, 'The Lord whose knowledgeis holy sees clearly that, though I might have escaped death, from awe of him I gladly endure these agonies ofbody under the lash, and that in my soul I am glad to suffer.'
31 This was how he died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a record of virtue not only forthe young but for the greater part of the nation.