14. With other nations the Lord patiently delays punishment until they fill up the full measure of their sins, but with us he decided to deal differently, and is exacting retribution on us before
15. our sins reach their peak.
16. Therefore, he never withdraws his mercy from us. Although disciplining us with misfortunes, God doesn’t forsake his own people.
17. Only let this be said to us as a reminder. After this brief digression, it is necessary to go on with the narrative.
18. A certain Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, elderly in age and with a most dignified outward appearance, was being compelled to open his mouth and eat pork.
19. But preferring death with honor to life with religious defilement, he proceeded voluntarily to the torture instrument,
20. spitting out the meat. In this he showed how everyone ought to stand fast and reject what isn’t lawful to taste despite the intense desire to live.
21. But those in charge of the unlawful sacrifice, because they had known the man for a long time, took him aside in private and urged him to bring meat that was lawful, prepared beforehand by himself, and then pretend to eat the meat from the sacrifice that the king commanded.
22. By doing this he might escape death and attain friendly treatment because of his old friendship with them.
23. But adopting a dignified perspective worthy of his seniority, his distinguished old age and the gray hair he had acquired, and worthy of his excellent conduct from childhood, and, moreover, worthy of the holy and God-created laws, he declared to them to send him to the grave immediately:
24. "It’s not worthy of our old age to act out such a role. Otherwise, many of the young would assume wrongly that Eleazar the 90-year-old had changed to a foreign way of life.
25. If I acted out this charade for the sake of living a moment longer, I would mislead them, and I would be defiled and dishonored in my old age.