1When Eleazar in this manner had made eloquent response to the exhortations of the tyrant, the guards who were standing by dragged him violently to the instruments of torture.
2First they stripped the old man, though he remained adorned with the gracefulness of his piety.
3After they had tied his arms behind him, they flogged him from both sides,
4while a herald who faced him cried out, “Obey the king’s commands!”
5But the courageous and noble man, like a true Eleazar, was unmoved, as though being tortured in a dream,
6yet while the old man’s eyes were raised to heaven, his flesh was being torn by scourges, his blood flowing, and his sides were being cut to pieces.
7Although he fell to the ground because his body could not endure the agonies, he kept his reason upright and unswerving.
8One of the cruel guards rushed at him and began to kick him in the side to make him get up again after he fell.
9But he bore the pains and scorned the punishment and endured the tortures.
10Like a noble athlete the old man, while being beaten, was victorious over his torturers;
11in fact, with his face bathed in sweat and gasping heavily for breath, he amazed even his torturers by his courageous spirit.
12
35I have proved not only that reason has mastered agonies but also that it masters pleasures and in no respect yields to them.
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