Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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A Mother and Her Sons Die
for Their Faith
1 On another occasion a Jewish
mother and her seven sons were
arrested. The king was having them
beaten to force them to eat pork.
2 Then one of the young men said,
“What do you hope to gain by doing
this? We would rather die than
abandon the traditions of our ancestors.”
3 This made the king so furious
that he gave orders for huge pans
and kettles to be heated red hot,
4 and it was done immediately. Then
he told his men to cut off the tongue
of the one who had spoken and to
scalp him and chop off his hands and
feet, while his mother and six brothers
looked on.
5 After the young man
had been reduced to a helpless mass
of breathing flesh, the king gave orders
for him to be carried over and
thrown into one of the pans. As a
cloud of smoke streamed up from
the pan, the brothers and their
mother encouraged one another to
die bravely, saying,
6 “The Lord God
is looking on and understands our
suffering. Moses made this clear
when he wrote a song condemning
those who had abandoned the Lord.
He said, ‘The Lord will have mercy
on those who serve him.’” note
7 After the first brother had died
in this way, the soldiers started
amusing themselves with the second
one by tearing the hair and skin
from his head. Then they asked him,
“Now will you eat this pork, or do
you want us to chop off your hands
and feet one by one?”
8 He replied in his native language,
“I will never eat it!” So the
soldiers tortured him, just as they
had the first one,
9 but with his dying
breath he cried out to the king, “You
butcher! You may kill us, but the
King of the universe will raise us
from the dead and give us eternal
life, because we have obeyed his
laws.”
10 The soldiers began entertaining
themselves with the third brother.
When he was ordered to stick out
his tongue, he quickly did so. Then
he bravely held out his hands
11 and
courageously said, “God gave these
to me. But his laws mean more to
me than my hands, and I know God
will give them back to me again.”
12 The king and those with him were
amazed at his courage and at his
willingness to suffer.
13 After he had died, the soldiers
tortured the fourth one in the same
cruel way,
14 but his final words
were, “I am glad to die at your
hands, because we have the assurance
that God will raise us from
death. But there will be no resurrection
to life for you, Antiochus!”
15 When the soldiers took the fifth
boy and began torturing him,
16 he
looked the king squarely in the eye
and said, “You have the power to do
whatever you want with us, even
though you also are mortal. But do
not think that God has abandoned
-- --
our people.
17 Just wait. God will use
his great power to torture you and
your descendants.”
18 Then the soldiers took the sixth
boy, and just before he died he said,
“Make no mistake. We are suffering
what we deserve, because we have
sinned against our God. That's why
all these terrible things are happening
to us.
19 But don't think for a
minute that you will avoid being
punished for fighting against God.”
20 The mother was the most amazing
one of them all, and she deserves
a special place in our memory. Although
she saw her seven sons die in
a single day, she endured it with
great courage because she trusted in
the Lord.
21 She combined womanly
emotion with manly courage and
spoke words of encouragement to
each of her sons in their native language.
22 “I do not know how your
life began in my womb,” she would
say, “I was not the one who gave
you life and breath and put together
each part of your body.
23 It was God
who did it, God who created the universe,
the human race, and all that
exists. He is merciful and he will
give you back life and breath again,
because you love his laws more than
you love yourself.”
24 Antiochus was sure that the
mother was making fun of him, so
he did his best to convince her
youngest son to abandon the traditions
of his ancestors. He promised
not only to make the boy rich and
famous, but to place him in a position
of authority and to give him the
title “Friend of the King.”
25 But the
boy paid no attention to him, so Antiochus
tried to persuade the boy's
mother to talk him into saving his
life,
26 and after much persuasion she
agreed to do so.
27 Leaning over her
son, she fooled the cruel tyrant by
saying in her native language, “My
son, have pity on me. Remember
that I carried you in my womb for
nine months and nursed you for
three years. I have taken care of you
and looked after all your needs up to
the present day.
28 So I urge you, my
child, to look at the sky and the
earth. Consider everything you see
there, and realize that God made it
all from nothing, just as he made the
human race.
29 Don't be afraid of this
butcher. Give up your life willingly
and prove yourself worthy of your
brothers, so that by God's mercy I
may receive you back with them at
the resurrection.”
30 Before she could finish speaking,
the boy said, “King Antiochus,
what are you waiting for? I refuse to
obey your orders. I only obey the
commands in the Law which Moses
gave to our ancestors.
31 You have
thought up all kinds of cruel things
to do to our people, but you won't
escape the punishment that God has
in store for you.
32
33 It is true that
our living Lord is angry with us and
-- --
is making us suffer because of our
sins, in order to correct and discipline
us. But this will last only a
short while, for we are still his servants,
and he will forgive us.
34 But
you are the cruelest and most disgusting
thing that ever lived. So
don't fool yourself with illusions of
greatness while you punish God's
people.
35 There is no way for you to
escape punishment at the hands of
the almighty and all-seeing God.
36 My brothers suffered briefly because
of our faithfulness to God's
covenant, but now they have entered
eternal life. noteBut you will fall
under God's judgment and be punished
as you deserve for your arrogance.
37 I now give up my body and
my life for the laws of our ancestors,
just as my brothers did. But I also
beg God to show mercy to his people
quickly and to torture you until you
are forced to acknowledge that he
alone is God.
38 May my brothers
and I be the last to suffer the anger
of Almighty God, which he has justly
brought upon our entire nation.”
39 These words of ridicule made
Antiochus so furious that he had the
boy tortured even more cruelly than
his brothers.
40 And so the boy died,
with absolute trust in the Lord, never
unfaithful for a minute.
41 Last of all, the mother was put
to death.
42 But I have said enough about the
Jews being tortured and being
forced to eat the intestines of sacrificial
animals. note
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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