10. For instance, they brought forward two women who had circumcised their sons, with their infants hanging from their breasts. They dragged them around the city publicly, then hurled them down from the city wall.
11. Others gathered secretly into caverns nearby to keep the seventh day, but they were betrayed to Philip. They were all burned together because they were reluctant to defend themselves, out of respect for the most sacred day.
12. So I urge those stumbling upon this scroll not to shrink back because of these misfortunes but to understand that these punishments weren’t for the destruction of our people but for their discipline.
13. It is a sign of great kindness that those Jews who acted immorally weren’t left alone for very long but experienced punishments immediately.
14. With other nations the Lord patiently delays punishment until they fill up the full measure of their sins, but with us he decided to deal differently, and is exacting retribution on us before
15. our sins reach their peak.
16. Therefore, he never withdraws his mercy from us. Although disciplining us with misfortunes, God doesn’t forsake his own people.
17. Only let this be said to us as a reminder. After this brief digression, it is necessary to go on with the narrative.
18. A certain Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, elderly in age and with a most dignified outward appearance, was being compelled to open his mouth and eat pork.
19. But preferring death with honor to life with religious defilement, he proceeded voluntarily to the torture instrument,
20. spitting out the meat. In this he showed how everyone ought to stand fast and reject what isn’t lawful to taste despite the intense desire to live.
21. But those in charge of the unlawful sacrifice, because they had known the man for a long time, took him aside in private and urged him to bring meat that was lawful, prepared beforehand by himself, and then pretend to eat the meat from the sacrifice that the king commanded.
22. By doing this he might escape death and attain friendly treatment because of his old friendship with them.