2 Maccabees 7
Seven Brothers, and a Mother Who Told Them to Die
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The Seven Brothers and Their Mother
7:1It also happened that seven brothers were arrested with their mother and compelled by the king to partake of forbidden pork, while being tortured with whips and sinew lashes.
7:2One of them became their spokesman and said, “What are you going to ask and learn from us? We are ready to die rather than transgress our ancestral laws.”
7:3The king became furious and ordered pans and cauldrons to be heated.
7:4When they were immediately heated, he ordered the tongue of their spokesman cut out, and that he be scalped and his extremities cut off while the other brothers and their mother watched.
7:5When he had been rendered completely helpless, the king ordered him brought to the fire, still breathing, and fried in a pan. As the vapor from the pan spread far, they encouraged one another with their mother to die nobly, saying,
7:6“The Lord God watches, and in truth He has compassion on us, as Moses explained in the song that bears witness against us to our face, saying, ‘And He will have compassion on His servants.’”
The Second Brother
7:7After the first had departed in this manner, they brought the second for their mockery. Tearing the skin from his head together with his hair, they asked, “Will you eat before your body is punished limb by limb?”
7:8He answered in his ancestral language, “No.” Therefore he too received the ensuing torture, as the first had.
7:9When he reached his last breath, he said, “You, accursed one, release us from this present life; but the King of the world will raise us, who die for His laws, to an everlasting renewal of life.”
The Third Brother
7:10After him the third was mocked. When asked for his tongue, he quickly put it out and fearlessly stretched forth his hands.
7:11He nobly said, “I received these from heaven, and for His laws I disregard them; from Him I hope to receive them again.”
7:12The king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his pains as nothing.
The Fourth and Fifth Brothers
7:13When he too had departed, they tortured the fourth in the same manner, tormenting him.
7:14As he was about to die, he said, “It is preferable, when dying at human hands, to look for the hopes given by God, to be raised again by Him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life.”
7:15Next they brought forward the fifth and tormented him.
7:16Looking at the king, he said, “Although mortal, you have authority among human beings and do what you wish. But do not suppose our people have been abandoned by God.
7:17Wait and behold His majestic might, how He will torment you and your offspring.”
The Sixth Brother
7:18After him they brought the sixth, and as he was about to die he said, “Do not deceive yourself vainly. We suffer these things because of ourselves, having sinned against our own God; astonishing things have happened.
7:19But do not imagine that you will go unpunished after attempting to fight against God.”
The Courage of the Mother
7:20Their mother was exceedingly admirable and worthy of a good remembrance. Although she saw seven sons perish within the span of a single day, she bore it courageously because of her hopes in the Lord.
7:21Filled with a noble resolve, she encouraged each of them in their ancestral language, rousing her womanly reasoning with a man’s courage, and said to them,
7:22“I do not know how you appeared in my womb. It was not I who granted you spirit and life, nor did I arrange the composition of each of you.
7:23Therefore the Creator of the world, who fashioned humanity’s beginning and devised the beginning of all things, will mercifully give you back both spirit and life, since you now disregard yourselves for the sake of His laws.”
The Youngest Brother
7:24Antiochus thought himself despised and suspected her words were reproaches. As the youngest was still alive, he not only urged him with words but assured him with oaths that, if he turned away from his ancestral ways, he would make him rich and enviable, regard him as a friend, and entrust him with public responsibilities.
7:25When the young man paid no attention at all, the king summoned the mother and urged her to advise the boy to save himself.
7:26After he had urged her at length, she agreed to persuade her son.
7:27Bending toward him, she mocked the cruel tyrant by speaking in their ancestral language: “Son, have mercy on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, nourished you, brought you to this age, and sustained you.
7:28I beg you, child, look up at heaven and earth and see everything in them. Recognize that God made them not from existing things, and that the human race comes into being in the same way.
7:29Do not fear this executioner. Prove worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in mercy I may receive you back with your brothers.”
7:30While she was still finishing, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s ordinance; I obey the ordinance of the law given to our fathers through Moses.
7:31But you, who have devised every evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape God’s hands.
7:32For we are suffering because of our own sins.
7:33Although our living Lord has been angered briefly for rebuke and discipline, He will again be reconciled to His own servants.
7:34But you, unholy and most defiled of all human beings, do not be vainly exalted, raging with uncertain hopes as you raise your hand against Heaven’s children.
7:35For you have not yet escaped the judgment of the Almighty, the all-seeing God.
7:36Our brothers, after enduring a short pain, have now fallen under God’s covenant of everlasting life; but you, by God’s judgment, will bear the just penalties of your arrogance.
7:37I, like my brothers, give up both body and soul for our ancestral laws, calling upon God to become merciful quickly to the nation, and that through trials and scourges you may confess that He alone is God.
7:38May the Almighty’s anger, justly brought upon our whole people, come to rest in me and my brothers.”
7:39The king became furious and treated this one more cruelly than the others, bitterly resenting the mockery.
7:40Thus he too departed undefiled, trusting entirely in the Lord.
The Death of the Mother
7:41Last of all, after her sons, the mother died.
7:42Let this much have been related concerning the sacrificial eating and the surpassing tortures.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.