10
They showed themselves to be just, self-controlled, brave, high-minded, and devoted to each other. Moreover, they showed how much they loved their mother as they obeyed her by staying true to God's commands even to the point of death.
11
Though so many forces were pulling against the mother to feel her children's pain out of her love for them, none of the many tortures they suffered were strong enough to undermine her clear thinking.
12
Rather, the mother urged them individually and all of them together to a death for the sake of their godly way of life.
13
Sacred nature, a love spell cast over parents, devotion to children, tender care, and the unyielding passion that mothers show—how powerful they are!
14
Even though this mother watched her children tortured and burned up one after another, she kept her resolve firm for the sake of their godly way of life.
15
She watched as the fire devoured her children's flesh, their fingers and toes scattered all over the ground, the flesh of their faces torn off like masks down to their chins.
16
How the mother was tested by pains far worse than the labor pains she suffered for them!
17
How the woman gave birth alone to such perfect devotion!
18
You didn't change your direction when your oldest son took his last breath, or when your second son was in torment and looked at you pitifully, or when the third son died.
19
You didn't cry out loud when you looked into each one's eyes, gripped by their own pain, or when you saw on the faces the signs of death approaching.
20
You didn't burst into tears when you saw the burned flesh of one child piling up on the burned flesh of the others, severed hands on severed hands, severed heads beside severed heads, bodies piled up on bodies, or when you saw the place filling with many spectators of their torture.