衣索比亞馬加比二書 第 13 章

And as for them.

And they yielded up their souls to the fire, that they might be saved from the fire which is in the heavens, knowing that this world of mine passes away.

And they said: Let there not be lasting delight; for they knew that the chastisement of the Lord is worse than the chastisement of the son of man, and the wrath of the Lord is worse than the wrath of the king.

And one day of rejoicing in the courts of the garden is better than ten thousand years of life upon the earth; and one hour of Your mercy, O Lord, is better than length of days.

Good men of a noble stock, who together yielded up their souls to death, knowing that their latter life is better than this passing earthly one.

But You, O Lord, abide for ever, and Your years fail not, and Your remembrance is unto generation after generation.

All this and the like the children of Meqabis pondered; and they preferred—they preferred to trust in the Lord, and they refused to eat the defiled sacrifice.

And therefore they yielded up their bodies to martyrdom for the sake of the Lord, knowing that the dead shall rise, and knowing that there shall be judgment after the resurrection.

And you who do not know and do not believe in the resurrection of the dead—know now from this.

And seeing that all things pass away, they yielded up their souls to death, that they might receive a reward from the Lord because they believed in Him and did not bow down to the idol and did not eat the dead and defiled sacrifice.

And therefore, knowing that He shall make them glad in the last day, in soul and in body—for though they had wife and children, they did not regard the savor of this world or the bitterness of death—they yielded up their souls to death, knowing that there shall be a resurrection in the last day, in soul and in body.

And knowing that those who keep the ordinance of the Lord shall reign in the world to come, unto generation after generation, and for length of days where there is no sickness or sorrow.

Where there is no sickness or sorrow, and there is no death; and together with those who believed in the word of the Lord—good kings and princes—they yielded up their souls to death, like martyrs in the midst of the fire, while they beheld with the inward thought of their hearts that which is to come.

And they hope that their faces shall shine seven times brighter than the sun, and that they shall be made perfect in His love at the resurrection of all, in soul and in body.