10 What could possibly be more painful than this? The power of fire is strong and fast. It destroys bodies quickly.
11 Don’t think it’s surprising that clear thinking had full control over these men during their torture, since even a woman’s mind held contempt for even more varied suffering.
12 The mother of these seven young men endured the torture of each one of her children.
13 You see how a mother’s love for her children is a very complex feeling. Everything is focused on a sympathy that she feels for them deep down inside.
14 Even animals without understanding have sympathy and love for their young, just as human beings do.
15 For example, birds do this. The tame ones protect their young by building their nests on the roof of a house.
16 Other birds build their nests on mountain peaks, in steep canyons, and in the holes of trees or treetops, so they can hatch the baby birds and stop anything from coming too close.