4 Maccabees 3

1 That argument is altogether ridiculous. Reason plainly does not get the upper hand over its own passions, but over the passions of the body. [a] 2 No one can cut desire out of us; but reason can bring it about that we are not made slaves to desire. 3 No one can cut anger out of your soul; but reason can come to your help with anger. [b] 4 No one can cut malice out of us; but reason can fight on our side, so that we are not bent by malice. 5 For reason is not an uprooter of the passions, but their opponent.

6 This can be seen more clearly from the thirst of king David. 7 David had gone at the Philistines the whole day long, and with the soldiers of his nation he killed many of them. [c] 8 Then, when evening came, sweating and utterly worn out, he came to the royal tent, and around it the whole army of our ancestors was encamped. 9 All the rest of them were at supper, 10 but the king was desperately thirsty, and though he had springs in plenty he could not cure his thirst from them. 11 Instead an unreasoning desire for the water over in the enemy’s camp came over him: as it tightened it parched him, and as it slackened it set him on fire.

12 So while his shield-bearers were in distress at the king’s desire, two strong young soldiers, out of respect for the king’s desire, armed themselves in full armor, took a water jar, and went over the enemy’s palisade. 13 They slipped past the sentries at the gates and went hunting through the whole camp of the enemy, 14 and when they had found the spring, they boldly brought the king his drink out of it. 15 But he, on fire as he was with thirst, reasoned that a drink counted equal to blood would be a terrible danger to his soul. 16 So he set reason against his desire, and poured the drink out to God. [d]

17 For the self-controlled mind is able to defeat the force of the passions, and to quench the burning of their goads, 18 and to wrestle down the agonies of the body, however extreme they are, and by the goodness of reason to spit in the face of the passions wherever they have the upper hand.

19 And now the time calls us to the proof of self-controlled reason from history. 20 Our fathers had deep peace, because of their good order under the law, and things went well with them — so well that even Seleucus Nicanor, the king of Asia, set money aside for them for the service of the temple and accepted the way they governed themselves. [e] 21 Then certain men started a revolution against the harmony they all shared, and met with disasters of every kind.