7 Each month, the foreigners celebrated the king's birthday. And during the ceremony they cruelly forced our people to eat the insides of sacrificed animals. Besides this, they made us wear sprigs of ivy in our hair and walk in parades whenever they celebrated a festival to honor the god Dionysus.
8 About this time, the citizens of Ptolemais suggested that the same law be made for some nearby Greek towns, and it was done. The law required these towns to force Jews to eat the meat of sacrifices.
9 Death would be the penalty for refusing to live like a Greek.Our people now realized that a time of dreadful suffering had arrived.
10 For example, some soldiers arrested two Jewish mothers whose baby boys had been circumcised. They hung each child from its mother's breasts, then led the women in broad daylight through the town, before throwing them from the city wall.
11 One Sabbath a group of Jews gathered secretly to worship in caves not far from Jerusalem. But someone informed Philip the governor, who then had everyone burned alive. These Jews respected this most holy day so much, that they did not even try to defend themselves.
12 My dear readers, please don't be depressed by these sad stories. Remember that these sufferings were not to destroy us, but to instruct us.
13 In fact, God shows his kindness by punishing sinners as soon as they disobey him, rather than waiting until later.