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Friday, October 22, 2010

IV Maccabees chapter 18

18: 6 - 24 (NRSV Translation, 1989) -- the mother's last words and the entire book's conclusion
The mother of seven sons expressed also these principles to her children: "I was a pure virgin and did not go outside my father's house; but I guarded the rib from which woman was made/ the rib that was built.  No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity.  In the time of my maturity I remained with my husband, and when these sons had grown up their father died.  A happy man was he, who lived out his life with good children, and did not have the grief of bereavement.  While he was still with you, he taught you the Law and the Prophets.  He read to you about Abel slain by Cain, and Isaac who was offered as a burnt offering, and about Joseph in prison.  He told you of the zeal of Phinehas, and he taought you about Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fire.  He praised Daniel in the den of the lions and blessed him.  He reminded you of the scripture of Isaiah, which says, 'Even though you go through the fire, the flame shall not consume you' (Isaiah 43:2).  He sang to you songs of the psalmist David, who said, 'Many are the afflications of the righteous' (Psalm 34:19).  He recounted to you Solomon's proverb, 'There is a tree of life for those who do His will' (Proverbs 3:18 modified).  He confirmed the query of Ezekiel, 'Shall these dry bones live?' (Ezekiel 37:2-3)  For he did not forget to teach you the song that Moses taught, which says, 'I kill and I make alive: this is your life and the length of your days' (Deuteronomy 32:39)."
O bitter was that day -- and yet not bitter -- when that bitter tyrant of the Greeks quenched fire with fire in his cruel caldrons, and in his burning rage brought those seven sons of the daughter of Abraham to the catapult and back again to more/to all his tortures pierced the pupils of their eyes and cut out their tongues, and put them to death with various tortures.  For these crimes divine justice pursued and will pursue the accursed tyrant.  But the sons of Abraham with their victorious mother are gathered together into the chorus of the fathers, and have received pure and immortal/victorious souls from God, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

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