13
Eleazar was the first to contend: and the mother of the seven children entered the contest; and the brethren contended.
14
The tyrant was the opposite; and the world and living men were the spectators.
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And reverence for God conquered, and crowned her own athletes.
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Who did not admire those champions of true legislation? who were not astonied?
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The tyrant himself, and all their council, admired their endurance;
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through which, also, they now stand beside the divine throne, and live a blessed life.
19
For Moses saith, And all the saints are under thine hands.
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These, therefore, having been sanctified through God, have been honoured not only with this honour, but that also by their means the enemy did not overcome our nation;
21
and that the tyrant was punished, and their country purified.
22
For they became the ransom to the sin of the nation; and the Divine Providence saved Israel, aforetime afflicted, by the blood of those pious ones, and the propitiatory death.
23
For the tyrant Antiochus, looking to their manly virtue, and to their endurance in torture, proclaimed that endurance as an example to his soldiers.