5. and the altar was illegally covered with offerings forbidden by the laws.
6. It was impossible to keep the Sabbath or the ancestral festivals, or even simply to profess to be a Jew.
7. Instead, out of bitter necessity, they had to observe the birthday of the king each month by eating the organs of sacrificial animals. When the Festival of Dionysus arrived, they were forced to take part in a procession honoring Dionysus, holding ivy wreaths.
8. At Ptolemais’ suggestion, a decision was announced to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy against the Jews and that they should be made to eat the sacrificial portions,
9. and that those who refused to change to Greek practices should be slaughtered. At that point it was easy to see the miserable state that had arrived.
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.