4 Maccabees 18:6-24

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Mother’s Address to Her Children

⁶ The mother of seven sons expressed also these principles to her children:^{(A) 7} “I was a pure virgin and did not go outside my father’s house, but I guarded the rib from which woman was made.^{[a](B) 8} No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity.^{(C) 9} In the time of my maturity I remained with my husband, and when these sons had grown up their father died. A fortunate man was he, who lived out his life with good children and did not have the grief of bereavement. ¹⁰ While he was still with you, he taught you the Law and the Prophets. ¹¹ He read to you about Abel slain by Cain and Isaac who was offered as a burnt offering and about Joseph in prison.^{(D) 12} He told you of the zeal of Phinehas, and he taught you about Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fire.^{(E) 13} He praised Daniel in the den of the lions and blessed him.^{(F) 14} He reminded you of the scripture of Isaiah, which says, ‘Even though you go through the fire, the flame shall not consume you.’^{(G) 15} He sang to you songs of the psalmist David, who said, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous.’^{(H) 16} He recounted to you Solomon’s proverb, ‘There^[b] is a tree of life for those who do his will.’^{(I) 17} He confirmed the query of Ezekiel, ‘Shall these dry bones live?’^{(J) 18} For he did not forget to teach you the song that Moses taught, which says, ¹⁹ ‘I kill, and I make alive; this is your life and the length of your days.’ ”^(K)

²⁰ O bitter was that day—and yet not bitter—when that bitter tyrant of the Greeks quenched fire with fire in his cruel caldrons and in his burning rage brought those seven sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapult and back again to more^[c] tortures, ²¹ pierced the pupils of their eyes and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with various tortures. ²² For these crimes divine justice pursued and will pursue the accursed tyrant. ²³ But the sons of Abraham with their victorious mother are gathered together into the chorus of the fathers and have received pure and immortal souls from God, ²⁴ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.