Note that CHANAH is the Hebrew name for the English name, HANNAH.
The story of CHANAH and HER SEVEN SONS can be found in the Second Book of the Maccabees. It is about TRUE MARTYRDOM which is about dying for the sake of standing up firm for the TRUTH which is found in YAHUSHUA HA MASHIACH (a.k.a JESUS CHRIST/YESHUA)!
According to Wikipedia, The woman with seven sons was a Jewish martyr described in 2 Maccabees 7 and other sources. Although unnamed in 2 Maccabees, she is known variously as Hannah, Miriam, and Solomonia.
The Second Book of Maccabees reveals that Shortly before the revolt of Judas Maccabeus (2 Maccabees 8), Antiochus IV Epiphanes arrested a mother and her seven sons, and tried to force them to eat pork. When they refused, he tortured and killed the sons one by one. The narrator mentions that the mother “was the most remarkable of all, and deserves to be remembered with special honour. She watched her seven sons die in the space of a single day, yet she bore it bravely because she put her trust in the Lord.” Each of the sons makes a speech as he dies, and the last one says that his brothers are “dead under God’s covenant of everlasting life”.
The following is the ACCOUNT OF THE STORY OF CHANAH & HER SEVEN SONS beginning with the persecution of the Jews for their faith:
The Jews Are Persecuted Because of Their Faith
6 Not long after that, the king sent an elderly Athenian[a] to force the Jews to abandon their religion and the customs of their ancestors. 2 He was also to defile their Temple by dedicating it to the Olympian god Zeus.[b] The temple on Mount Gerizim was to be officially named
Temple of Zeus the God of Hospitality, as the people who lived there had requested.
3 The oppression was harsh and almost intolerable. 4 Gentiles filled the Temple with drinking parties and all sorts of immorality. They even had intercourse with prostitutes there. Forbidden objects were brought into the Temple, 5 and the altar was covered with detestable sacrifices prohibited by our Law. 6 It was impossible to observe the Sabbath, to celebrate any of the traditional festivals, or even so much as to admit to being a Jew. 7 Each month when the king’s birthday was celebrated, the Jews were compelled by brute force to eat the intestines of sacrificial animals. Then, during the festival in honor of the wine god Dionysus, they were required to wear ivy wreaths on their heads and march in procession. 8 On the advice of Ptolemy,[c] the neighboring Greek cities were also instructed to require Jews to eat the sacrifices; 9 they were told to put to death every Jew who refused to adopt the Greek way of life. It was easy to see that hard times were ahead. 10 For example, two women were arrested for having their babies circumcised. They were paraded around the city with their babies hung from their breasts; then they were thrown down from the city wall. 11 On another occasion, Philip was told that some Jews had gathered in a nearby cave to observe the Sabbath in secret. Philip attacked and burned them all alive. They had such respect for the Sabbath that they would not fight to defend themselves.
The Lord Punishes and Shows Mercy
12 I beg you not to become discouraged as you read about the terrible things that happened. Consider that this was the Lord’s way of punishing his people, not of destroying them. 13 In fact, it is a sign of kindness to punish a person immediately for his sins, rather than to wait a long time.14 The Lord does not treat us as he does other nations: he waits patiently until they have become deeply involved in sin before he punishes them,15 but he punishes us before we have sinned too much. 16 So the Lord is always merciful to us, his own people. Although he punishes us with disasters, he never abandons us. 17 I have made these few observations by way of reminder. We will now get on with the story.
Eleazar Dies for His Faith
18 There was an elderly and highly respected teacher of the Law by the name of Eleazar, whose mouth was being forced open to make him eat pork. 19-20 But he preferred an honorable death rather than a life of disgrace. So he spit out the meat and went willingly to the place of torture, showing how people should have courage to refuse unclean food, even if it costs them their lives. 21-22 Those in charge of the sacrifice had been friends of Eleazar for a long time, and because of this friendship they told him privately to bring meat that was lawful for him to eat. He need only pretend to eat the pork, they said, and in this way he would not be put to death.
23 But Eleazar made a decision worthy of his gray hair and advanced age. All his life he had lived in perfect obedience to God’s holy laws, so he replied,
Kill me, here and now. 24 Such deception is not worthy of a man of my years. Many young people would think that I had denied my faith after I was ninety years old. 25 If I pretended to eat this meat, just to live a little while longer, it would bring shame and disgrace on me and lead many young people astray. 26 For the present I might be able to escape what you could do to me, but whether I live or die, I cannot escape Almighty God. 27 If I die bravely now, it will show that I deserved my long life. 28 It will also set a good example of the way young people should be willing and glad to die for our sacred and respected laws.
As soon as he said these things, he went[d] off to be tortured, 29 and the very people who had treated him kindly a few minutes before, now turned against him, because they thought he had spoken like a madman. 30 When they had beaten him almost to the point of death, he groaned and said,
The Lord possesses all holy knowledge. He knows I could have escaped these terrible sufferings and death, yet he also knows that I gladly suffer these things, because I fear him.
31 So Eleazar died. But his courageous death was remembered as a glorious example, not only by young people, but by the entire nation as well.
A Mother and Her Sons Die for Their Faith
7 On another occasion a Jewish mother and her seven sons were arrested. The king was having them beaten to force them to eat pork.2 Then one of the young men said,
What do you hope to gain by doing this? We would rather die than abandon the traditions of our ancestors.
3 This made the king so furious that he gave orders for huge pans and kettles to be heated red hot, 4 and it was done immediately. Then he told his men to cut off the tongue of the one who had spoken and to scalp him and chop off his hands and feet, while his mother and six brothers looked on. 5 After the young man had been reduced to a helpless mass of breathing flesh, the king gave orders for him to be carried over and thrown into one of the pans. As a cloud of smoke streamed up from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die bravely, saying, 6
The Lord God is looking on and understands our suffering. Moses made this clear when he wrote a song condemning those who had abandoned the Lord. He said,
The Lord will have mercy on those who serve him.
7 After the first brother had died in this way, the soldiers started amusing themselves with the second one by tearing the hair and skin from his head. Then they asked him,
Now will you eat this pork, or do you want us to chop off your hands and feet one by one?
8 He replied in his native language,
I will never eat it! So the soldiers tortured him, just as they had the first one, 9 but with his dying breath he cried out to the king,
You butcher! You may kill us, but the King of the universe will raise us from the dead and give us eternal life, because we have obeyed his laws.
10 The soldiers began entertaining themselves with the third brother. When he was ordered to stick out his tongue, he quickly did so. Then he bravely held out his hands 11 and courageously said,
God gave these to me. But his laws mean more to me than my hands, and I know God will give them back to me again. 12 The king and those with him were amazed at his courage and at his willingness to suffer.
13 After he had died, the soldiers tortured the fourth one in the same cruel way, 14 but his final words were,
I am glad to die at your hands, because we have the assurance that God will raise us from death. But there will be no resurrection to life for you, Antiochus!
15 When the soldiers took the fifth boy and began torturing him, 16 he looked the king squarely in the eye and said,
You have the power to do whatever you want with us, even though you also are mortal. But do not think that God has abandoned our people. 17 Just wait. God will use his great power to torture you and your descendants.
18 Then the soldiers took the sixth boy, and just before he died he said,
Make no mistake. We are suffering what we deserve, because we have sinned against our God. That’s why all these terrible things are happening to us. 19 But don’t think for a minute that you will avoid being punished for fighting against God.
20 The mother was the most amazing one of them all, and she deserves a special place in our memory. Although she saw her seven sons die in a single day, she endured it with great courage because she trusted in the Lord. 21 She combined womanly emotion with manly courage and spoke words of encouragement to each of her sons in their native language.
22 I do not know how your life began in my womb, she would say,
I was not the one who gave you life and breath and put together each part of your body. 23 It was God who did it, God who created the universe, the human race, and all that exists. He is merciful and he will give you back life and breath again, because you love his laws more than you love yourself.
24 Antiochus was sure that the mother was making fun of him, so he did his best to convince her youngest son to abandon the traditions of his ancestors. He promised not only to make the boy rich and famous, but to place him in a position of authority and to give him the title
Friend of the King. 25 But the boy paid no attention to him, so Antiochus tried to persuade the boy’s mother to talk him into saving his life, 26 and after much persuasion she agreed to do so.27 Leaning over her son, she fooled the cruel tyrant by saying in her native language,
My son, have pity on me. Remember that I carried you in my womb for nine months and nursed you for three years. I have taken care of you and looked after all your needs up to the present day. 28 So I urge you, my child, to look at the sky and the earth. Consider everything you see there, and realize that God made it all from nothing, just as he made the human race. 29 Don’t be afraid of this butcher. Give up your life willingly and prove yourself worthy of your brothers, so that by God’s mercy I may receive you back with them at the resurrection.
30 Before she could finish speaking, the boy said,
King Antiochus, what are you waiting for? I refuse to obey your orders. I only obey the commands in the Law which Moses gave to our ancestors. 31 You have thought up all kinds of cruel things to do to our people, but you won’t escape the punishment that God has in store for you. 32-33 It is true that our living Lord is angry with us and is making us suffer because of our sins, in order to correct and discipline us. But this will last only a short while, for we are still his servants, and he will forgive us. 34 But you are the cruelest and most disgusting thing that ever lived. So don’t fool yourself with illusions of greatness while you punish God’s people.35 There is no way for you to escape punishment at the hands of the almighty and all-seeing God. 36 My brothers suffered briefly because of our faithfulness to God’s covenant, but now they have entered eternal life.[a] But you will fall under God’s judgment and be punished as you deserve for your arrogance. 37 I now give up my body and my life for the laws of our ancestors, just as my brothers did. But I also beg God to show mercy to his people quickly and to torture you until you are forced to acknowledge that he alone is God. 38 May my brothers and I be the last to suffer the anger of Almighty God, which he has justly brought upon our entire nation.
39 These words of ridicule made Antiochus so furious that he had the boy tortured even more cruelly than his brothers. 40 And so the boy died, with absolute trust in the Lord, never unfaithful for a minute.
41 Last of all, the mother was put to death.
42 But I have said enough about the Jews being tortured and being forced to eat the intestines of sacrificial animals.
A summary of the account can be found here.
When the Israelite Jews stood firm against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his subjects, YAHUVEH/YAHWEH GOD Almighty intervened by sending him judgement upon him. The judgement affected him so badly that none of his subjects could attend to him because he was disgusting to be around. We learn here that even we fight against and persecute those that truly belong to YAH (a.k.a GOD) Almighty, we may seem to be getting away with but we should keep it in mind that if we don’t stop and repent, a time will come when it will be too late for us. We will end up being judged by YAHUVEH GOD! Read the account as follows:
The Lord Punishes Antiochus
9 About this time Antiochus was retreating in disorder from Persia,2 where he had entered the city of Persepolis and had attempted to rob a temple and take control of the city. The people took up arms and attacked Antiochus, forcing his army to retreat in disgrace. 3 When he reached Ecbatana, he was told what had happened to the forces of Nicanor and Timothy. 4 He became furious and decided to make the Jews pay for the defeat he had suffered. So he ordered his chariot driver not to stop until they reached Jerusalem. With great arrogance he said,
I will turn Jerusalem into a graveyard full of Jews.
But he did not know that he was heading straight for God’s judgment.5 In fact, as soon as he had said these words, the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him down with an invisible but fatal blow. He was seized with sharp intestinal pains for which there was no relief— 6 a fitting punishment for the man who had tortured others in so many terrible ways! 7 But this in no way caused him to give up his pride. Instead he became more arrogant than ever, and breathing out fiery threats against the Jews, he gave orders to drive even faster. As a result he fell out of his chariot with such a thud that it made every bone in his body ache. 8 His arrogant pride made him think he had the superhuman strength to make ocean waves obey him and to weigh high mountains on a pair of scales. But suddenly he fell flat on the ground and had to be carried off on a stretcher, a clear sign to everyone of God’s power. 9 Even the eyes of this godless man were crawling with worms and he lived in terrible pain and agony. The stink was so bad that his entire army was sickened, 10 and no one was able to come close enough to carry him around. Yet only a short while before, he thought he could take hold of the stars.
Antiochus Makes a Promise to God
11 Antiochus was deeply depressed and suffered constant pain because of the punishment that God had brought on him, so he finally came to his senses and gave up his arrogant pride. 12 Then, when he could no longer endure his own stink, he said,
It is right that all mortals should be subject to God and not think that they are his equal. 13 The time of the Lord’s mercy had come to an end for Antiochus, but this worthless man made the Lord a promise: 14
I once intended to level Jerusalem to the ground and make that holy city a graveyard full of Jews, he said,
but now I declare it a free city. 15 I had planned to throw out the dead bodies of the Jews and their children for the wild animals and the birds to eat, for I did not consider them worth burying. But now I intend to grant them the same privileges as the citizens of Athens enjoy. 16 I once looted the Temple and took its sacred utensils, but I will fill it with splendid gifts and with better utensils than before, and I will pay the cost of the sacrifices from my own resources. 17 Besides all this, I will become a Jew myself and go wherever people live, telling them of God’s power.
Antiochus’ Letter to the Jews
18 Antiochus was in despair and could find no relief from his pain, because God was punishing him as he deserved, so he wrote the following letter to the Jews:
19 King Antiochus to the Jews, my most distinguished subjects. Warm greetings and best wishes for your health and prosperity.
20 I hope that you and your families are in good health and that all goes well with you. My hope is in God, 21 and I remember with a deep sense of joy the respect and kindness that you have shown me.
On my way home from Persia I fell violently ill, and so I thought it best to begin making plans for the general welfare of the people. 22 I have not given up hopes of getting well; in fact I am fully confident that I will recover. 23 But I recall that my father used to appoint a successor whenever he went on a military campaign east of the Euphrates. 24 He did this so that if something unexpected happened, or if some bad news came back, then his subjects would not be afraid, for they knew who had been left in command. 25 Also, I know how the rulers along the frontiers of my kingdom are constantly on the lookout for any opportunity that may come along. That is why I have appointed my son Antiochus to succeed me as king. I have frequently entrusted him to your care and recommended him to you when I went on my regular visits to the provinces east of the Euphrates. (He is receiving a copy of the letter which follows.) 26 Now I strongly urge each of you to keep in mind the good things that I have done for you, both individually and as a nation, and to continue in your good will toward me and my son. 27 I am confident that he will treat you with fairness and kindness, just as I have always done.
28 And so, this murderer, who had cursed God, suffered the same terrible agonies he had brought on others, and then died a miserable death in the mountains of a foreign land. 29 One of his close friends, Philip, took his body home; but, because he was afraid of Antiochus’ son, he went on to King Ptolemy Philometor of Egypt.
- For more information on martyrdom and end times, click here.
- For information on the Anti-Messiah/Anti-Christ, click here.