6
yet while the old man's eyes were raised to heaven, his flesh was being torn by scourges, his blood flowing, and his sides were being cut to pieces.
7
And though he fell to the ground because his body could not endure the agonies, he kept his reason upright and unswerving.
8
One of the cruel guards rushed at him and began to kick him in the side to make him get up again after he fell.
9
But he bore the pains and scorned the punishment and endured the tortures.
10
And like a noble athlete the old man, while being beaten, was victorious over his torturers;
11
in fact, with his face bathed in sweat, and gasping heavily for breath, he amazed even his torturers by his courageous spirit.
12
At that point, partly out of pity for his old age,
13
partly out of sympathy from their acquaintance with him, partly out of admiration for his endurance, some of the king's retinue came to him and said,
14
"Eleazar, why are you so irrationally destroying yourself through these evil things?
15
We will set before you some cooked meat; save yourself by pretending to eat pork."
16
But Eleazar, as though more bitterly tormented by this counsel, cried out: