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[389]
NOW as Eleazar was proceeding on in this exhortation, they all cut
him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of an unconquerable
ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So they went their ways,
as one still endeavoring to be before another, and as thinking that this
eagerness would be a demonstration of their courage and good conduct, if
they could avoid appearing in the last class; so great was the zeal they
were in to slay their wives and children, and themselves also! Nor indeed,
when they came to the work itself, did their courage fail them, as one
might imagine it would have done, but they then held fast the same resolution,
without wavering, which they had upon the hearing of Eleazar's speech,
while yet every one of them still retained the natural passion of love
to themselves and their families, because the reasoning they went upon
appeared to them to be very just, even with regard to those that were dearest
to them; for the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their
children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them,
with tears in their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they
had resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers;
and they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were
in of doing this execution, to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries
they were to suffer from their enemies. Nor was there at length any one
of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terrible execution,
but every one of them despatched his dearest relations. Miserable men indeed
were they! whose distress forced them to slay their own wives and children
with their own hands, as the lightest of those evils that were before them.
So they being not able to bear the grief they were under for what they
had done any longer, and esteeming it an injury to those they had slain,
to live even the shortest space of time after them, they presently laid
all they had upon a heap, and set fire to it. They then chose ten men by
lot out of them to slay all the rest; every one of whom laid himself down
by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them,
and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed
that melancholy office; and when these ten had, without fear, slain them
all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose
lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill
himself. Accordingly, all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind
one another in doing or suffering; so, for a conclusion, the nine offered
their necks to the executioner, and he who was the last of all took a view
of all the other bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that
were slain should want his assistance to be quite despatched, and when
he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with
the great force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and
fell down dead near to his own relations. So these people died with this
intention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them all
alive to be subject to the Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman, and
another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in prudence
and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselves in caverns
under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden
there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another. Those
others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being
withal included in that computation. This calamitous slaughter was made
on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan].
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