A Brave Mother

¹King Antiochus once arrested seven Jewish brothers and their mother. He had them beaten with heavy whips and tried to make them eat the meat of pigs, which is against our laws.[#4 Macc 8–13; He 11.35,36.]

²But one of the brothers spoke up and said, “Why are you torturing us like this? We will die before we disobey the laws of our ancestors!”

³This made the king so angry that he ordered his men to heat up big pots and pans,

⁴and they quickly did this. Meanwhile, the king forced the boy's family to watch him being tortured. Some soldiers cut out his tongue, then scalped him and chopped off his hands and feet,

⁵making him completely helpless. While the boy was still alive, the king told his soldiers, “Carry him to one of the big pans on the fire and fry him.”

When smoke from the pan started spreading everywhere, the brothers and their mother each said, “Let's die bravely!

⁶The Lord God will have pity on us, because he always takes care of his servants, just as Moses said in the song he wrote to correct our rebellious ancestors.”[#Dt 32.36.]

⁷When the first brother was dead, the soldiers grabbed the second brother. They made fun of him and scalped him. Then they asked, “Wouldn't you rather eat some meat from a pig than to be slowly tortured to death?”

⁸In his native language the boy replied, “No!” Then the soldiers tortured him, just as they had done to the first brother.[#7.8 Either Hebrew or Aramaic.]

⁹When the second brother was almost dead, he said to the king, “How can you be so cruel? Even if you kill us, the King of this world will raise us to life. And then we will live forever, because we died, rather than deny our faith.”

¹⁰When he died, they started torturing the third brother and shouted, “Stick out your tongue!”

He immediately obeyed and bravely stretched out his arms as well.

¹¹He had a lot of courage and said, “God in heaven gave these to me. But I will give them up to obey his laws, because I know God will give them back.”

¹²The king and his troops were amazed at the young man's courage. Here was someone willing to suffer.

¹³After he was dead, the king's troops beat and tortured the fourth brother in the same way.

¹⁴But just before he died, he told them, “God has promised to raise us to life! And so we are willing to die, but you have no hope for life after death.”

¹⁵As the fifth brother was being tortured,

¹⁶he looked straight at the king and said, “You order people around and make them obey you. But someday you will die. Don't think God has turned his back on our nation.

¹⁷Just wait! God will use his mighty power to make you and your family suffer.”

¹⁸Next, they tortured the sixth brother. He was almost dead when he told the men, “Don't fool yourselves! We're suffering all these terrible things because we have disobeyed our God.

¹⁹Now you're fighting against God, so don't think that you won't be punished too.”

²⁰The mother of these young men was a wonderful woman, and she deserves to be remembered with praise. She saw all seven of her sons die on the same day, but she was brave and never stopped trusting the Lord.

²¹She was a very special person, and with the feelings of a woman and the courage of a man, she encouraged each of her sons by telling them in their native language:[#7.21 See the note at 7.8.]

²⁴From the way the mother was talking, King Antiochus could tell she was insulting him and sneering at him. The youngest son was still alive. So Antiochus made all kinds of promises to the boy and tried to make him change his mind. He said, “If you will forget about the teachings of your ancestors, I will make you rich and respected. You will be one of my trusted friends and a government official.”[#7.24 See the note at 1.13,14.]

^25-26When the boy refused to listen, the king turned to the mother, urging her to make the boy change his mind. Finally, she agreed

²⁷and leaned toward her son. She spoke in her native language and mocked the cruel king:

³⁰While the mother was still speaking, the boy said to the king:

³⁹When Antiochus realized that the boy was mocking him, he became more furious than ever and tortured him worse than the others.

⁴⁰So the boy died, completely trusting the Lord and still faithful to his beliefs.

⁴¹Last of all, the king put their mother to death.[#4 Macc 17.1.]

⁴²Enough said about eating sacrifices and being tortured.