Quotes from 2 Maccabees

Quotations follow the King James Version translation (Oxford University Press, 1611) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise.

2. 3

   Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life.

3. 4

   The mother was marvellous above all, and worthy of honourable memory: for when she saw her seven sons slain within the space of one day, she bare it with a good courage, because of the hope that she had in the Lord.

4. 5

   We are ready to die, rather than to transgress the laws of our fathers.

5. 6

   But he, choosing rather to die gloriously, than to live stained with such an abomination, spit it forth, and came of his own accord to the torment.

6. 7

   It is a foolish thing to make a long prologue, and to be short in the story itself.

7. 8

   And leave a notable example to such as be young to die willingly and courageously for the honourable and holy laws.

8. 9

   Choosing rather to die manfully, than to come into the hands of the wicked, to be abused otherwise than beseemed his noble birth.

9. 10

   For as it is hurtful to drink wine or water alone; and as wine mingled with water is pleasant, and delighteth the taste: even so speech finely framed delighteth the ears of them that read the story.