It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law.

Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork.

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.

[From the descendants of Alexander’s officers] there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome.

Brothers and sisters: You know how one must imitate us.

Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen?

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,/ when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,/ and the day that is coming will set them on fire,/ leaving them neither root nor branch,/ says the Lord of hosts./ But for you who fear my name, there will arise/ the sun of justice with its healing rays.

When peaceful stillness compassed everything/ and the night in its swift course was half spent,/ Your all-­powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne/ bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,/ bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree./ And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;/ he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.