Josippon

Seven brothers and their mother were seized and sent to the king, for the king had not yet gotten far from Jerusalem; and for the sake of the abominable, stinking, and putrid flesh of swine, they were cruelly torn to pieces, their flesh flayed by a bull whip.

When the first was brought before the king, he said to the king: "Why do you keep on talking and trying to teach us? We have already learned from our forefathers. Behold, we have prepared ourselves to die for God and for His Torah." The king became furious and commanded to bring a copper pan, and they put it on the fire. He commanded to cut out his tongue and cut off his hands and feet and scalp and put them into the pan, which was on the fire, before his brothers' eyes; and the remainder of the body they threw into a big copper cauldron, which was over coals. As he was about to die, the king ordered to cool the cinder beneath the cauldron, lest he die too quickly, in order to frighten his brothers and mother. Now, these were encouraging one another, and each strengthened the other when they saw that their brother died for God and His Torah; and they said to each other: "This is what Moses, God's servant, said in his song: 'He will have compassion for His servants.' God will regret all the evil that he intended to do to His people, and he will have pity on them." Thus died the first son.

They brought the second son and said to him: "Take heed and obey the king's commandment! Why should you die in dire agony like your brother?" He replied: "Hasten the sword and quicken the fire. Do not do less to me than you did to my brother, for I do not fall short of my brother in piety and fear of God." The king ordered them to sever all his limbs and put him into the pan that was on the fire. He said to the king: "Hear me, you who are so cruel to God's creatures, did you give us the souls that you are now taking from us? Can you bind them in your clothing? Behold, they are going back to God, who gave them, and into the light that is with God, and we shall live long lives without termination or end, when He raises the dead of his people and the slain amongst his servants." Thus died the second.

The third was brought forth. He looked at the king, extended his right hand toward him, and said: "Why do you try to frighten us, O foe and enemy? All this has come upon us from heaven, but we will take it upon ourselves with love. You are contemptible in our eyes, and all your torments are as nothing to us, for it is from heaven that we hope for honor and grace, and he will reward us for our labors." The king and all his chiefs were astonished at the nobility of the lad's spirit. Thus died the third.

Then the fourth was brought, and he said to the king: "Why should I waste words with you, O wicked man? We shall die for God, and he will bring us back to life, yet for you there will never be resurrection or life." Thus died the fourth.

The fifth was brought, and he said: "Do not say in your heart that God has abandoned us, for out of his love for us He has brought us to this honor. Whereas you, who insult and profane, God has aroused you to do to us all that you do, because he hates you; for he will yet wreak great vengeance upon you and your seed, and his anger will burn against you and your entire household." The fifth died.

The sixth was brought before the king, and he said: "We know our faults, for we have sinned against God, and now, we who have given our souls unto death as an atonement for our people, behold we shall die; but you who have dared to do such things to the servants of our God and to wage war against God, he will wage war against you and uproot you from the land." Thus died the sixth.

There remained yet the seventh and he a young lad. The saintly mother who saw her seven sons killed in one day, her heart feared not, nor was her spirit shaken. She stood bravely over the corpses of her slain sons, and lifting up her voice, she cried out, saying: "My sons, O my sons. I know not how you were formed in my belly; I gave you neither spirit nor soul, nor did I bring you forth from my belly or rear and raise you. Your sacrificed flesh that you received from God, and all your bones he formed; he wove the sinews and covered them with flesh and made hair grow and breathed the spirit of life into your noses. All this you have given up for his sake, and he shall give it back to you and renew your bodies and reward you for your labors. Blessed are you for all this, my sons."

The king was very ashamed that the woman had bested him, and the king said: "Bring forth the seventh one: being a boy, we might be able to tempt him with words to do our will, lest the woman boast and say: 'I have defeated King Antiochus by encouraging my sons to die for our God.'" He commanded them to bring forth the seventh, the boy, and the king implored him, vowing to make him rich with silver and gold, with flocks and many slaves, and to make him his deputy and give him authority throughout his kingdom, but the boy spurned the words of the king.

The king summoned the boy's mother and said to her: "Good woman, take pity on this boy and have mercy upon the fruit of your womb; tempt him to do my will, and he will be left for you." The woman answered: "Give him to me, and I will tempt him with my words." He gave him to his mother, who led him aside somewhat, kissed him, and mocked the king's indignity and his shame. She said to her son: "My son, forget that I carried you in my belly for nine months and nursed you for three years, and after I nursed you, I have fed you bread to this day and taught you the fear of God. So now, my son, observe the heavens and look upon the land and the sea and the water and the fire, for by the word of God they were made, and man who is flesh and blood is as nothing compared to Him. Fear not, my son, this cruel man; die for God and follow your brothers. Would that you could now see your brothers' place and the grandeur of their glory before God. Go, my son, and join your brothers, and you will share their glorious destiny, and I will come there with you and rejoice with you as if on your wedding day, and I will be with you in your righteous destiny."

While she was still speaking, the boy answered, saying: "Why delay me and keep me from following my saintly brothers? I do not obey the king because our God's Torah, which he gave in the hands of his servant Moses to the people of Israel, whom you have cursed and blasphemed, you cruel enemy of God. Woe unto you, enemy, woe unto you! Where will you go, and where will you flee? Where will you run, and where will you hide from the hand of our God, you wicked foe and enemy? For He shall resurrect and glorify and exalt us above every nation, but you who have conspired to do this thing, to raise a hand against his servants, better for you if you had not been born, nor come forth from the filth of the stupid woman who bore this fool Antiochus who brought such evil upon himself, for you have done us only good. And if we suffer a little and bear these troubles in this world, behold, we are going to eternal life and everlasting light in which there is no darkness and to a life in which there is no death. But you, execrable to all mankind and abominable to our God, when our God wreaks vengeance upon you, you will die an unnatural death amid great afflictions and descend to the depth of Sheol into the darkness of hell, where there is no life and no light but darkness and the shadow of death, and there is no rest there or relief, only torment and oppression, fire and brimstone; this will be your portion from God and your fate from our Lord, O wicked and blood-stained man. And our God will have mercy upon His people. Until now He has shown His anger, but from now on He will no longer be angry at His people, for He regrets all that He has done to us before, for He has acted in truth and righteousness and we have acted wickedly, He will once again have mercy on us and will raise us to eternal life."

King Antiochus was furious that the boy did not obey him and so added tortures more cruel than those that he had inflicted upon his brothers. The seventh died as well. Then their saintly mother stood over their corpses and raised her palms to heaven and said: "O my sublime God, Lord of the world, let me, your maidservant, come with my sons to the place that you have prepared for them." And as she was saying this, she returned her soul, her spirit left her body, and she fell upon the corpses of her sons and went with them.