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15O reason of the children, tyrant over the emotions! O religion, more desirable to the mother than her children! ²Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised. ³She loved religion more, the religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God’s promise.^{* 4}In what manner might I express the emotions of parents who love their children? We impress upon the character of a small child a wondrous likeness both of mind and of form. Especially is this true of mothers, who because of their birth pangs have a deeper sympathy towards their offspring than do the fathers. ⁵Considering that mothers are the weaker sex and give birth to many, they are more devoted to their children.^{* 6}The mother of the seven boys, more than any other mother, loved her children. In seven pregnancies she had implanted in herself tender love towards them, ⁷and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had sympathy for them; ⁸yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of her children. ⁹Not only so, but also because of the nobility of her sons and their ready obedience to the law, she felt a greater tenderness towards them. ¹⁰For they were righteous and self-controlled and brave and magnanimous, and loved their brothers and their mother, so that they obeyed her even to death in keeping the ordinances.

11 Nevertheless, though so many factors influenced the mother to suffer with them out of love for her children, in the case of none of them were the various tortures strong enough to pervert her reason. ¹²But each child separately and all of them together the mother urged on to death for religion’s sake. ¹³O sacred nature and affection of parental love, yearning of parents towards offspring, nurture and indomitable suffering by mothers! ¹⁴This mother, who saw them tortured and burned one by one, because of religion did not change her attitude. ¹⁵She watched the flesh of her children being consumed by fire, their toes and fingers scattered^* on the ground, and the flesh of the head to the chin exposed like masks.

16 O mother, tried now by more bitter pains than even the birth pangs you suffered for them! ¹⁷O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion! ¹⁸When the firstborn breathed his last, it did not turn you aside, nor when the second in torments looked at you piteously nor when the third expired; ¹⁹nor did you weep when you looked at the eyes of each one in his tortures gazing boldly at the same agonies, and saw in their nostrils the signs of the approach of death. ²⁰When you saw the flesh of children burned upon the flesh of other children, severed hands upon hands, scalped heads upon heads, and corpses fallen on other corpses, and when you saw the place filled with many spectators of the torturings, you did not shed tears. ²¹Neither the melodies of sirens nor the songs of swans attract the attention of their hearers as did the voices of the children in torture calling to their mother. ²²How great and how many torments the mother then suffered as her sons were tortured on the wheel and with the hot irons! ²³But devout reason, giving her heart a man’s courage in the very midst of her emotions, strengthened her to disregard, for the time, her parental love.

24 Although she witnessed the destruction of seven children and the ingenious and various rackings, this noble mother disregarded all these^* because of faith in God. ²⁵For as in the council chamber of her own soul she saw mighty advocates—nature, family, parental love, and the rackings of her children— ²⁶this mother held two ballots, one bearing death and the other deliverance for her children. ²⁷She did not approve the deliverance that would preserve the seven sons for a short time, ²⁸but as the daughter of God-fearing Abraham she remembered his fortitude.

29 O mother of the nation, vindicator of the law and champion of religion, who carried away the prize of the contest in your heart! ³⁰O more noble than males in steadfastness, and more courageous than men in endurance! ³¹Just as Noah’s ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, ³²so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion.