Persecution of the Jews
2 Maccabees 6, verse 1. Not long afterward, the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to leave behind the laws of their fathers and not to live by the laws of God. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 2. He also insisted they pollute the temple in Jerusalem by calling it the temple of Olympian Zeus, and to call the one in Gerizim the temple of Zeus the Hospitable, as did the people who lived at one time in that place. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 3. The intensity of evil was hard to deal with and extremely hateful, 2 Maccabees 6, verse 4. for the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the Gentiles, who relaxed with friends and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts, and still further brought unfitting things inside. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 5. The altar was filled with disgusting things forbidden by the laws. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 6. A man could neither keep the Sabbath, nor observe the feasts of his fathers, nor simply confess himself to be a Jew. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 7. When the month came for the king's birthday, the Jews were led by bitter constraint to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Dionysus came, they were forced to walk in procession for Dionysus wearing ivy wreaths. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 8. Moreover, a decree laid down by Ptolemy was sent to the nearby Greek cities that the same manner of conduct be imposed on the Jews to partake of the sacrifices; 2 Maccabees 6, verse 9. but they should slaughter those who chose not to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, their present misery. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 10. For instance, there were two women brought for circumcising their children. They publicly paraded these women around the city, with their babes hanging from their breasts, then they threw them down from the city wall. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 11. Others who came together in the nearby caves to keep the seventh day secretly were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because they piously kept themselves from crying out for help on account of their regard for the most holy day. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 12. Now I urge those who read this book not to be discouraged by these calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were for the discipline of our people, but not for their destruction. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 13. For it is an act of great kindness for the Lord not to allow our people to act ungodly for long, but to punish them immediately. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 14. But the Lord does not act the same way with other nations. He waits patiently until they attain the completion of their sins, then punishes them. Thus He does not judge us in this way, 2 Maccabees 6, verse 15. so as to take vengeance on us afterwards when we have reached the end of our sinning. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 16. For this very reason He never withdraws His mercy from us. Although He disciplines us with calamities, He does not abandon His own people. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 17. Let what I have said serve as a reminder, but we must continue the narrative.
Eleazar Is Martyred
2 Maccabees 6, verse 18. Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man already advanced in years and of a noble presence, was forced to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 19. But welcoming an honorable death rather than a defiled life, he spat out the flesh and approached the rack of his own accord. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 20. He did as men should do who refuse what is not lawful to eat, even for the love of life. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 21. Those in charge of the unlawful sacrifice, because of their longtime acquaintance with him, took the man aside privately and urged him to bring meat proper for him to use, pretending to prepare it for himself as though he were eating the flesh of the sacrifice commanded by the king. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 22. Thus by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his long friendship with them. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 23. But making an honorable resolve worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and gray hair, which he had reached through the distinction of his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given laws, he turned himself over to them quickly, telling them to send him immediately to Hades. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 24. “For to pretend such things,” he said, “is not worthy of our time of life, lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to a foreign religion, 2 Maccabees 6, verse 25. and because of my pretense for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray through me, while I earn only pollution and defilement in my old age. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 26. For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die, I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 27. Therefore by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age, 2 Maccabees 6, verse 28. and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and bravely for the venerable and holy laws.” After he said this, he went straight to the rack, 2 Maccabees 6, verse 29. and those who had just demonstrated good will toward him now showed hostility, because they took the words he had spoken to be madness. 2 Maccabees 6, verse 30. When he was about to die from the blows, he groaned and said, “It is evident to the Lord in His holy knowledge that, though I could have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body from this beating, but in my soul I gladly suffer these things because I fear Him.” 2 Maccabees 6, verse 31. So in this manner he died, leaving in his death an example of his noble character and a memorial of his virtue, not only to the young but to the many people of his nation.