22
She said to them: I know not how you were formed in my womb: for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you.
20
Now the mother was to be ad above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God:
21
And she bravely exhorted every o of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom: and joining a man's heart to a woman's thought,
22
She said to them: I know not how you were formed in my womb: for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you.
23
But the Creator of the world, that formed the nativity of man, and that found out the origin of all, he will re- store to you again in his mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise your- selves for the sake of his laws.
24
Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and withal despising the voice of the upbraider, when the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with an oath, that he would make him a rich and a happy man, and, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, would take him for a friend, and furnish him with things necessary.