II Maccabees excerpt: a martyrology -- posted in several sections (chapters 6 & 7)

6: 7 - 17; 18 - 31 (translated by Edgar Goodspeed)
On the monthly celebration of the king's birthday, they were taken by bitter necessity to taste the sacrifices, and when the festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and march in procession in his honor.  At Ptolemy's suggestion a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek towns, that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them taste the sacrifices, and that they should slay any who would not agree to adopt Greek customs.  So anyone could see how their misery was intensified.  For two women were brought in for circumcising their children, and they led them publicly about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts, and then threw them down from the top of the wall.  Others who had gathered in caves near by, to keep the seventh day in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned together, because they had scruples about defending themselves, in their respect for the dignity of that most holy day.
So I (narrator of II Maccabees) beseech those who read this book not to be cast down by such misfortunes but to consider that these punishments were meant not for the destruction of our people but for their correction.  For it is a mark of great benevolence not to let the impious alone for a long time but to punish them promptly.  For in the case of other nations, the Master is long-suffering and waits before He punishes them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but in our case He has decided differetnly, so that He may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height.  So He never withdraws His mercy from us, and although He disciplines us with misfortune, He does not abandon His own people.  This much let us say by way of reminder; after these few words we must resume our story.
Verses 18 - 31: Martyrology of Eleazar
Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, a man of advanced age and fine appearance, was being forced to open his mouth and eat pork.  But he, welcoming a glorious death in preference to a life of pollution went up of his own accord to the torture wheel, setting an example of how those should come forward who are steadfast enough to refuse food which it is wrong to taste even for the natural love of life.  Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrificial meal, because of their long-standing acquaintance with the man, took him aside, and privately urged him to bring meat provided by himself, which he could properly make us of, and pretend that he was eating the meat of the sacrifice, as the king had ordered, so that by doing this he might escape the death penalty, and on account of his lifelong friendship with them be kindly treated.  But he, making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his age and the hoary hair which he reached with such distinction, and his admirable life even from his childhood, and still more of the holy and divine legislation, declared himself in accord with these, telling them to send him down to Hades at once.
"For," said he, "it does not become our time of life to pretend, and so lead many young people to suppose that Eleazar when ninety years old has gone over to heathenism, and to be led astray through me, because of my pretense for the sake of this short and insignificant life, while I defile and disgrace my old age.  For even if for the present I escape the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty.  Therefore by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy of my great age, and leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and nobly for the sacred and holy laws."
With these words he went straight to the torture wheel, while those who so shortly before had felt kindly toward him became hostile to him, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion mere madness.  As he was about to die under the strokes, he said with a groan, "The Lord in His holy knowledge, knows that, though I might have escaped death, I endure dreadful pains in my body from being flogged; but in my heart I am glad to suffer this, because I fear Him."