4 Maccabees 16

Revised Standard Version

16 If, then, a woman, advanced in years and mother of seven sons, endured seeing her children tortured to death, it must be admitted that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. ² Thus I have demonstrated not only that men have ruled over the emotions, but also that a woman has despised the fiercest tortures. ³ The lions surrounding Daniel were not so savage, nor was the raging fiery furnace of Mish′ael so intensely hot, as was her innate parental love, inflamed as she saw her seven sons tortured in such varied ways. ⁴ But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason.

⁵ Consider this also. If this woman, though a mother, had been fainthearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps have spoken as follows: ⁶ “O how wretched am I and many times unhappy! After bearing seven children, I am now the mother of none! ⁷ O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings! ⁸ In vain, my sons, I endured many birth-pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing. ⁹ Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring.^[a] I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother. ¹⁰ Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows.^{[b] 11} Nor when I die, shall I have any of my sons to bury me.”

¹² Yet the sacred and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying, ¹³ but, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion. ¹⁴ O mother, soldier of God in the cause of religion, elder and woman! By steadfastness you have conquered even a tyrant, and in word and deed you have proved more powerful than a man. ¹⁵ For when you and your sons were arrested together, you stood and watched Elea′zar being tortured, and said to your sons in the Hebrew language, ¹⁶ “My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear witness for the nation. Fight zealously for our ancestral law. ¹⁷ For it would be shameful if, while an aged man endures such agonies for the sake of religion, you young men were to be terrified by tortures. ¹⁸ Remember that it is through God that you have had a share in the world and have enjoyed life, ¹⁹ and therefore you ought to endure any suffering for the sake of God. ²⁰ For his sake also our father Abraham was zealous to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and when Isaac saw his father’s hand wielding a sword and descending upon him, he did not cower. ²¹ And Daniel the righteous was thrown to the lions, and Hana′niah, Azari′ah, and Mish′ael were hurled into the fiery furnace and endured it for the sake of God. ²² You too must have the same faith in God and not be grieved. ²³ It is unreasonable for people who have religious knowledge not to withstand pain.”

²⁴ By these words the mother of the seven encouraged and persuaded each of her sons to die rather than violate God’s commandment. ²⁵ They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live in God,^[c] as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.