56 Antiochus' soldiers tore up and burned any copies of the Jewish Scriptures that they found.
57 They obeyed Antiochus and murdered everyone they caught obeying God's Law. These troops also killed any Jew who owned a copy of the Scriptures.
58 Month after month and in town after town, his soldiers tortured every faithful Jew they captured.
59 On the twenty-fifth day of each month, the king's followers offered sacrifices on the altar they had put on top of the temple altar.
60 They followed orders and murdered any Jewish mother who let her son be circumcised.
61 Antiochus even told these troops, “Hang the baby around his mother's neck, and kill the whole family, as well as the man who circumcised the baby.”
62 Many Jews firmly made up their minds never to eat what their religion said was unclean.