10
Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows.
11
And when I die, I shall have none of my sons to bury me."
12
Yet that holy and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying.
13
On the contrary, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion.
14
O mother, soldier of God in the cause of religion, elder and woman! By steadfastness you have conquered even a tyrant, and in word and deed you have proved more powerful than a man.
15
For when you and your sons were arrested together, you stood and watched Eleazar being tortured, and said to your sons in the Hebrew language,
16
"My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear witness for the nation. Fight zealously for our ancestral law.
17
For it would be shameful if, while an aged man endures such agonies for the sake of religion, you young men were to be terrified by tortures.
18
Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life,
19
and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God.
20
For his sake also our father Abraham was zealous to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and when Isaac saw his father's hand wielding a knife and descending upon him, he did not cower.