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For it is a token of His great goodness when wicked doers are not suffered any long time, but forthwith punished.
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For as with other nations, whom the Lord patiently forbeareth to punish till they have come to the fullness of their sins, so He dealeth not with us,
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lest that, having come to the height of sin, afterwards He should take vengeance on us.
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And therefore He never withdraweth His mercy from us; and though He punish with adversity, yet doth He never forsake His people.
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But let this that we have spoken be as a warning unto us. And now will we come to the declaring of the matter in a few words.
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Eleazar, one of the principal scribes, an aged man and of a well-favored countenance, was constrained to open his mouth and to eat swine's flesh.
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But he, choosing rather to die gloriously than to live stained with such an abomination, spat it forth and came of his own accord to the torment,
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as it behooved those to come who are resolute to stand up against such things that are not lawful, for love of life, to be tasted.
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But those who had the charge of that wicked feast, because of the old acquaintance they had with the man, taking him aside, besought him to bring flesh from his own provision, such as was lawful for him to use, and make as if he ate of the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the king,
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that in so doing he might be delivered from death and, because of the old friendship, find favor with them.
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But he began to consider discreetly, and as became his age and the excellency of his ancient years, and the honor of his gray head to which he had come, and his most honest education as a child, or rather, the holy law made and given by God therefore he answered accordingly, and willed them straightway to send him to the grave.