1The tyrant Antiochus, therefore, sitting in public state with his assessors upon a certain lofty place, with his armed troops standing in a circle around him,
2commanded his spearbearers to seize every one of the Hebrews, and to compel them to taste swine's flesh, and things offered to idols.
3And should any of them be unwilling to eat the accursed food, they were to be tortured on the wheel, and so killed.
4And when many had been seized, a foremost man of the assembly, a Hebrew, by name Eleazar, a priest by family, by profession a lawyer, and advanced in years, and for this reason known to many of the king's followers, was brought near to him.
5And Antiochus seeing him, said,
6I would counsel you, old man, before your tortures begin, to taste the swine's flesh, and save your life; for I feel respect for your age and hoary head, which since you have had so long, you appear to me to be no philosopher in retaining the superstition of the Jews.
7For therefore, since nature has conferred upon you the most excellent flesh of this animal, do you loathe it?
8It seems senseless not to enjoy what is pleasant, yet not disgraceful; and from notions of sinfulness, to reject the boons of nature.
9And you will be acting, I think, still more senselessly, if you follow vain conceits about the truth.
10And you will, moreover, be despising me to your own punishment.
11Will you not awake from your trifling philosophy? and give up the folly of your notions; and, regaining understanding worthy of your age, search into the truth of an expedient course?
12and, reverencing my kindly admonition, have pity upon your own years?
13For, bear in mind, that if there be any power which watches over this religion of yours, it will pardon you for all transgressions of the law which you commit through compulsion.
14While the tyrant incited him in this manner to the unlawful eating of flesh, Eleazar begged permission to speak.
15And having received power to speak, he began thus to deliver himself:
16We, O Antiochus, who are persuaded that we live under a divine law, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to that law;
17therefore we consider that we ought not in any point to transgress the law.
18And indeed, were our law (as you suppose) not truly divine, and if we wrongly think it divine, we should have no right even in that case to destroy our sense of religion.
19think not eating the unclean, then, a trifling offence.
20For transgression of the law, whether in small or great matters, is of equal moment;
21for in either case the law is equally slighted.
22But you deride our philosophy, as though we lived irrationally in it.
23Yet it instructs us in temperance, so that we are superior to all pleasures and lusts; and it exercises us in manliness, so that we cheerfully undergo every grievance.
24And it instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we render what is due; and it teaches us piety, so that we worship the one only God becomingly.
25Therefore it is that we eat not the unclean; for believing that the law was established by God, we are convinced that the Creator of the world, in giving his laws, sympathises with our nature.
26Those things which are convenient to our souls, he has directed us to eat; but those which are repugnant to them, he has interdicted.
27But, tyrant-like, you not only force us to break the law, but also to eat, that you may ridicule us as we thus profanely eat:
28but you shall not have this cause of laughter against me;
29nor will I transgress the sacred oaths of my forefathers to keep the law.
30No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my entrails.
31I am not so old, and void of manliness, but that my rational powers are youthful in defence of my religion.
32Now then; prepare your wheels, and kindle a fiercer flame.
33I will not so compassionate my old age, as on my account to break the law of my country.
34I will not belie you, O law, my instructor! or forsake you, O beloved self-control!
35I will not put you to shame, O philosopher Reason; or deny you, O honoured priesthood, and science of the law.
36Mouth! you shall not pollute my old age, nor the full stature of a perfect life.
37My fathers shall receive me pure, not having quailed before your compulsion, though to death.
38For over the ungodly you shall tyrannize; but you shall not lord it over my thoughts about religion, either by your arguments, or through deeds.
