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| [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. |
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| [2]And first, they stripped the old man, adorned as he was with the comeliness of piety. |
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| [3]Then tying back his arms and hands, they disdainfully used him with stripes; |
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| [4]a herald opposite crying out, Obey the commands of the king. |
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| [5]But Eleazar, the high-minded and truly noble, as one tortured in a dream, regarded it not all. |
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| [6]But raising his eyes on high to heaven, the old man's flesh was stripped off by the scourges, and his blood streamed down, and his sides were pierced through. |
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| [7]And falling upon the ground, from his body having no power to support the pains, he yet kept his reasoning upright and unbending. |
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| [8]then one of the harsh spearbearers leaped upon his belly as he was falling, to force him upright. |
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| [9]But he endured the pains, and despised the cruelty, and persevered through the indignities; |
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| [10]and like a noble athlete, the old man, when struck, vanquished his torturers. |
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| [11]His countenance sweating, and he panting for breath, he was admired by the very torturers for his courage. |
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| [12]Wherefore, partly in pity for his old age, |
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| [13]partly from the sympathy of acquaintance, and partly in admiration of his endurance, some of the attendants of the king said, Why do you unreasonably destroy yourself, O Eleazar, with these miseries? |
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| [15]We will bring you some meat cooked by yourself, and do you save yourself by pretending that you have eaten swine's flesh. |
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| [16]And Eleazar, as though the advice more painfully tortured him, cried out, |
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| [17]Let not us who are children of Abraham be so evil advised as by giving way to make use of an unbecoming pretence; |
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| [18]for it were irrational, if having lived up to old age in all truth, and having scrupulously guarded our character for it, we should now turn back, |
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| [19]and ourselves should become a pattern of impiety to the young, as being an example of pollution eating. |
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| [20]It would be disgraceful if we should live on some short time, and that scorned by all men for cowardice, |
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| [21]and be condemned by the tyrant for unmanliness, by not contending to the death for our divine law. |
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| [22]Wherefore do you, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion. |
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| [23]Ye spearbearers of the tyrant, why do ye linger? |
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| [24]Beholding him so high-minded against misery, and not changing at their pity, they led him to the fire: |
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| [25]then with their wickedly-contrived instruments they burnt him on the fire, and poured stinking fluids down into his nostrils. |
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| [26]And he being at length burnt down to the bones, and about to expire, raised his eyes Godward, and said, |
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| [27]Thou knowest, O God, that when I might have been saved, I am slain for the sake of the law by tortures of fire. |
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| [28]Be merciful to thy people, and be satisfied with the punishment of me on their account. |
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| [29]Let my blood be a purification for them, and take my life in recompense for theirs. |
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| [30]Thus speaking, the holy man departed, noble in his torments, and even to the agonies of death resisted in his reasoning for the sake of the law. |
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| [31]Confessedly, therefore, religious reasoning is master of the passions. |
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| [32]For had the passions been superior to reasoning, I would have given them the witness of this mastery. |
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| [33]But now, since reasoning conquered the passions, we befittingly awared it the authority of first place. |
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| [34]And it is but fair that we should allow, that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries. |
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| [35]Ridiculous would it be were it not so; and I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withstands them. |
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