2
Knowing that religious reasoning is lord of the passions, and those not only inward but outward.
3
When those persons giving up their bodies to pains for the sake of religion, were not only admired by men, but were deemed worthy of a divine portion.
4
And the nation through them obtained peace, and having renewed the observance of the law in their country, drove the enemy out of the land.
5
And the tyrant Antiochus was both punished upon earth, and is punished now he is dead; for when he was quite unable to compel the Israelites to adopt foreign customs, and to desert the manner of life of their fathers,
6
then, departing from Jerusalem, he made war against the Persians.
7
And the righteous mother of the seven children spake also as follows to her offspring: I was a pure virgin, and went not beyond my father's house; but I took care of the built-up rib.
8
No destroyer of the desert, ravisher of the plain, injured me; nor did the destructive, deceitful snake, make spoil of my chaste virginity; and I remained with my husband during the period of my prime.
9
And these my children, having arrived at maturity, their father died: blessed was he! for having sought out a life of fertility in children, he was not grieved with a period of loss of children.
10
And he used to teach you, when yet with you, the law and the prophets.
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He used to read to you the slaying of Abel by Cain, and the offering up of Isaac, and the imprisonment of Joseph.
12
And he used to tell you of the zealous Phinehas; and informed you of Ananias and Azarias, and Misael in the fire.