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1. 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].
2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought
in the morning, when, accordingly, they put on their armor, and
laid bridges of planks upon their ladders from their banks, to
make an assault upon the fortress, which they did; but saw nobody
as an enemy, but a terrible solitude on every side, with a fire
within the place, as well as a perfect silence. So they were at a
loss to guess at what had happened. At length they made a shout,
as if it had been at a blow given by the battering ram, to try
whether they could bring any one out that was within; the women
heard this noise, and came out of their under-ground cavern, and
informed the Romans what had been done, as it was done; and the
second of them clearly described all both what was said and what
was done, and this manner of it; yet did they not easily give
their attention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not
believe it could be as they said; they also attempted to put the
fire out, and quickly cutting themselves a way through it, they
came within the palace, and so met with the multitude of the
slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were
done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the
courage of their resolution, and the immovable contempt of death
which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through
with such an action as that was.
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