world[1] will raise up us who die for His laws, in the resurrection of eternal life.”
The third brother offered his hands and feet to be cut off, saying: “These I have from heaven, but for the law of God I now despise them, because I hope to receive them again from Him.” Some minutes before his death he declared aloud his willingness to die for God, as his brothers had already done. When he was dead, the fourth brother, the fifth, and the sixth were all three subjected to the same torments as their elder brothers, but each one died in the same manner, having the same spirit. They made no account of pain and death, because they suffered all for God.
The king and his courtiers were amazed at the constancy of these young men, so* that when the seventh, a mere youth, was brought forward, the king told him, with an oath, that he would make him rich and happy[2] if he would obey his command. Seeing that his words had no effect on the courageous boy, Antiochus called on the mother to advise her son for his own good.
The mother agreed to do so. Then, addressing her son[3], she said with all a mother’s tender affection: “My son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them; and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also; so thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but, being made a worthy partner[4] with thy brethren, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren.”[5]
While she was yet speaking, the boy said[6]: “For whom do you stay? I will not obey the commandment of the king, but
- ↑ The King of the world. The expression has much force and beauty. It reminded the tyrannical king that there was a King of the whole world to whom also the kings of earth are subject, and that obedience to this King was true loyalty.
- ↑ Rich and happy. The king thought that by fair promises he would be able to induce the boy, as he was young and weak, to apostatise.
- ↑ Addressing her son. She spoke to him in her native Jewish tongue. She purposely made use of a language which the king could not understand, for, had he taken in what she was saying, he would not have suffered her to speak any more to him.
- ↑ Worthy partner. “Prove that you have as much fortitude and as great a fear of God as had your brothers!”
- ↑ With thy brethren. "For if you turn from your faith you will not attain to eternal life.”
- ↑ The boy said. “We suffer thus for our sins”, he also said, “and though the Lord our God is angry with us a little while, yet He will be reconciled again to His servants” (2 Mach. 7, 32 33). He was not alluding to their own particular sins, but to the sins of the Jews in general, on account of which God had subjected them to this long persecution. The brothers looked on their death as a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and hoped that it would turn God’s anger from the Jews, and that He would be gracious to them, and put an end to this persecution.
