1 When Eleazar had in this manner answered the exhortations of the tyrant, the spearbearers came up, and rudely haled Eleazar to the instruments of torture. 2 And first, they…

1 The reasoning of our father Eleazar, like a first-rate pilot, steering the vessel of piety in the sea of passions, 2 and flouted by the threats of the tyrant,…

1 Then, indeed, vehemently swayed with passion, he commanded to bring others of the adult Hebrews, and if they would eat of the unclean thing, to let them go when…

1 Why delay you, O tyrant? for we are readier to die than to transgress the injunctions of our fathers. 2 And we should be disgracing our fathers if we…

1 Now this one, having endured this praiseworthy death, the third was brought along, and exhorted by many to taste and save his life. 2 But he cried out and…

1 And when he had died, disfigured in his torments, the fifth leaped forward, and said, 2 I intend not, O tyrant, to get excused from the torment which is…

1 When he, too, had undergone blessed martyrdom, and died in the caldron into which he had been thrown, the seventh, the youngest of all, came forward: 2 whom the…

1 If then, the seven brethren despised troubles even to death, it is confessed on all sides that righteous reasoning is absolute master over the passions. 2 For just as…

1 And more that this, they even urged them on to this ill-treatment; so that they not only despised pains themselves, but they even got the better of their affections…

1 O reasoning of the sons, lord over the passions, and religion more desirable to a mother than progeny! 2 The mother, when two things were set before here, religion…