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But Seleucus dying, his successor on the throne was his son Antiochus Epiphanes, an overweening terrible man; who dismissed Onias from his sacred office, and made his brother Jason high-priest instead, the condition being that in return for the appointment Jason should pay him three thousand six hundred and sixty talents yearly.

But he found all his decrees of no avail to break down the constancy of our people to the Law, and he beheld all his threats and penalties utterly despised, so that even women for circumcising their sons, though they knew beforehand what would be their fate, were flung, together with their offspring, headlong from the rocks.

And when many had been taken by force, one man first from among the company was brought before Antiochus, a Hebrew whose name was Eleazar, a priest by birth, trained in knowledge of the law, a man advanced in years and well known to many of the tyrant's court for his philosophy.

Will you not awake from your preposterous philosophy? Will you not fling aside the nonsense of your calculations and, adopting another frame of mind befitting your mature years, learn the true philosophy of expediency, and how to my charitable counsel, and have pity on your own venerable age?

And it is right that we should admit that the mastery lies with Reason, in cases at least where it conquers pains that come from outside ourselves; for it were ridiculous to deny it.

And even the divine justice will have mercy on us, if compelled by necessity we yield to the king in fear. Why should we cast away from us this dear life and rob ourselves of this sweet world?

Thou wouldst terrify us with thy threats of death under torture, as if a little while ago thou hadst learned nothing from Eleazar.

And when the guards said to him, 'Consent to eat, that so you may be released from your tortures,' he said to them, 'Your method, O miserable minions, is not strong enough to lead captive my Reason. Cut off my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints; through all the torments I will show you that in behalf of virtue the sons of the Hebrews alone are unconquerable.'

But when they heard his noble resolve in answer to their question, 'Would he eat rather than he tortured?' these panther-like beasts tore at his sinews with claws of iron, and rent away all the flesh from his cheeks, and tore off the skin from his head.

But when they heard his noble resolve in answer to their question, 'Would he eat rather than he tortured?' these panther-like beasts tore at his sinews with claws of iron, and rent away all the flesh from his cheeks, and tore off the skin from his head.

And in no wise being able to strangle his spirit they stripped off his skin, taking the points of the fingers with it, and tore in Scythian fashion the scalp from his head, and straightway brought him to the wheel.

And on this they twisted his spine till he saw his own flesh hanging in strips and great gouts of blood pouring down from his entrails.

But when this man also was put to a death of agony with the tortures, the fifth sprang forward saying, 'I shrink not, O tyrant, from demanding the torture for virtue's sake.

Art thou not ashamed, being a man, O wretch with the heart of a wild beast, to take men of like feelings with thyself, made from the same elements, and tear out their tongues, and scourge and torture them in this manner?

You are not ignorant of the love of brethren, whereof the divine and all-wise Providence has given an inheritance to those who are begotten though their fathers, implanting it in them even through the mother's womb; wherein brethren do dwell the like period, and take their form during the same time, and are nourished from the same blood, and are quickened with the same soul, and are brought into the world after the same space, and they draw milk from the same founts, whereby their fraternal souls are nursed together in arms at the breast; and they are knit yet closer through a common nurture and daily companionship and other education, and through our discipline under the Law of God.

You are not ignorant of the love of brethren, whereof the divine and all-wise Providence has given an inheritance to those who are begotten though their fathers, implanting it in them even through the mother's womb; wherein brethren do dwell the like period, and take their form during the same time, and are nourished from the same blood, and are quickened with the same soul, and are brought into the world after the same space, and they draw milk from the same founts, whereby their fraternal souls are nursed together in arms at the breast; and they are knit yet closer through a common nurture and daily companionship and other education, and through our discipline under the Law of God.

But she, the mother of those young men, with a soul like Abraham, was not moved from her purpose by her affection for her children.

She saw the flesh of her sons being consumed in the fire, and the extremities of their hands and feet scattered on the ground, and the flesh-covering, torn off from their heads right to their cheeks, strewn about like masks.

Not the melodies of the sirens nor the songs of swans with sweet sound do so charm the hearer's ears, as sounded the voices of the sons, speaking to the mother from amid the torments.

For thy child-bearing was from the son of Abraham.

O Israelites, children born of the seed of Abraham, obey this Law, and be righteous in all ways, recognizing that Inspired Reason is lord over the passions, and over pains, not only from within, but from without ourselves; by which means those men, delivering up their bodies to the torture for righteousness' sake, not only won the admiration of mankind, but were deemed worthy of a divine inheritance.

O Israelites, children born of the seed of Abraham, obey this Law, and be righteous in all ways, recognizing that Inspired Reason is lord over the passions, and over pains, not only from within, but from without ourselves; by which means those men, delivering up their bodies to the torture for righteousness' sake, not only won the admiration of mankind, but were deemed worthy of a divine inheritance.

And through them the nation obtained peace and restoring the observance of the Law in our country hath captured the city from the enemy.

'I was a pure maiden, and I strayed not from my father's house, and I kept guard over the rib that was builded into Eve.

But the sons of Abraham, with their victorious mother, are gathered together unto the place of their ancestors, having received pure and immortal souls from God, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

For all was revealed before thee as God, and ordered from the beginning before thee: and thou, O God, hast made all things. Hallelujah.

For thus it was from the beginning and will be to the end, that nothing should be His adversary, and nothing should stand up against Him.

And thirst was relieved and quenched: for from the Most High the draught was given.

And souls that were near departing they have caught back from death:

Like my nature He became that I might learn Him and like my form, that I might not turn back from Him:

Wherefore He pitied me in His abundant grace: and granted me to ask from Him and to receive from His sacrifice:

Wherefore He pitied me in His abundant grace: and granted me to ask from Him and to receive from His sacrifice:

And set over it the traces of His light, and I walked therein from the beginning even to the end.

And hatred shall be taken from the earth, and along with jealousy it shall be drowned:

And let your love be multiplied from the heart and even to the lips,

For I do not turn away my face from them that are mine;

From the beginning and even to the end I acquired His knowledge:

And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord plenteously:

And I was enriched by His bounty, and I forsook the folly which is diffused over the earth; and I stripped it off and cast it from me:

And the Lord renewed me in His raiment, and possessed me by His light, and from above He gave me rest in incorruption;

And they grow by the fruits of the trees. And they have changed from darkness to light.

Behold! all thy servants are fair, who do good works, and turn away from wickedness to the pleasantness that is thine:

And they have turned back the bitterness of the trees from them, when they were planted in thy, land;

And like the flow of waters flows truth from my mouth, and my lips show forth His fruit.

And from it came love and concord; and they spake one to the other whatever was theirs; and they were penetrated by the Word;

And tell forth praise to His spirit: and wipe off the filth from your face: and love His holiness and clothe yourselves therewith:

Turn not away thy mercies from me, O Lord: and take not thy kindness from me.

Turn not away thy mercies from me, O Lord: and take not thy kindness from me.

Let me be preserved from evil, and let thy meekness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits of thy love.

Because He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up; and His light hath dispelled all darkness from my face.

The way of error I have left, and have walked towards Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging.

And He rested from His works:

I was loosed from vanity, and I was not condemned:

And from thence He gave me the way of His precepts and I opened the doors that were closed,

My members were strengthened that they might not fall from His strength.

Sicknesses removed from my body, and it stood to the Lord by His will. For His kingdom is true.

O Lord, for the sake of them that are deficient do not remove thy word from me!

Neither for the sake of their works do thou restrain from me thy perfection!

Let not the luminary be conquered by the darkness; nor let truth flee away from falsehood.

Thou wilt appoint me to victory; our Salvation is thy right hand. And thou wilt receive men from all quarters.

And they spake truth from the inspiration which the Most High breathed into them; Praise and great comeliness to His name Hallelujah.

And the Holy Spirit opened His bosom and mingled the milk from the two breasts of the Father; and gave the mixture to the world without their knowing:

But put on the grace of the Lord without stint; and come into His Paradise and make thee a garland from its tree,

My arms I lifted up to the Most High, even to the grace of the Lord: because He had cast off my bonds from me: and my Helper had lifted me up to His grace and to His salvation:

And my soul acquired a body free from sorrow or affliction or pains.

He who brought me down from on high, also brought me up from the regions below;

He who brought me down from on high, also brought me up from the regions below;

He who scattered my enemies had existed from ancient and my adversaries:

And thou didst choose them from the graves and didst separate them from the dead.

And thou didst choose them from the graves and didst separate them from the dead.

Grace is of the elect! and who shall receive it except those who trust in it from the beginning?

Love is of the elect? And who shall put it on except those who have possessed it from the beginning?

And His thought was like a letter; His will descended from on high, and it was sent like an arrow which is violently shot from the bow:

And His thought was like a letter; His will descended from on high, and it was sent like an arrow which is violently shot from the bow:

And there was seen at its head, the head which was revealed even the Son of Truth from the Most High Father,

And they sealed up the abysses with the seal of the Lord. And they perished, in the thought, those that had existed from ancient times;

For they were corrupt from the beginning; and the end of their corruption was life:

I was rescued from my bonds and unto thee, my God, I fled:

And strength was mine from thyself and help.

And I was clothed with the covering of thy Spirit, and thou didst remove from me my raiment of skin;

For thy right hand lifted me up and removed sickness from me:

I will cry unto him from my whole heart: I will praise and exalt Him with all my members.

For from the east and even to the west is His praise:

And from the south and even to the north is the confession of Him:

And from the top of the hills to their utmost bound is His perfection.

He has richly blessed me and my head is with Him: and the sword shall not divide me from Him, nor the scimitar;

And He showed me His sign: forth and given me to drink, and from that life is the spirit within me, and it cannot die, for it lives.

And brought me up out of the depths of Sheol: and from the mouth of death He drew me:

Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living fountain of the Lord, for it is opened to you:

For it flows forth from the lips of the Lord and from the heart of the Lord is its name.

For it flows forth from the lips of the Lord and from the heart of the Lord is its name.

To the blessed there is joy from their hearts, and light from Him that dwells in them:

To the blessed there is joy from their hearts, and light from Him that dwells in them:

And words from the Truth, who was self-originate: for He is strengthened by the holy power of the Most High: and He is unperturbed for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

And He destroyed perdition from before Him, and devastated all its order;

And He stood on a lofty summit and uttered His voice from one end of the earth to the other:

And forsake the ways of that corruption and draw near unto me, and I will enter into you, and will bring you forth from perdition,

And there came forth from them a smoke and a judgment; and I was keeping quiet in the order of the Lord:

For according to the greatness of the Most High, so He made me: and like His own newness He renewed me; and He anointed me from His own perfection:

And the Truth took me and led me: and carried me across pits and gulleys; and from the rocks and the waves it preserved me: