Chapter 26

¹ “And it came to pass on the next day, when the people gathered to her husband Jehoiakim, that the two elders also came, full of their lawless design against Susanna, to put her to death, and they said before the people: Send now for Susanna the daughter of Helkias, who is the wife of Jehoiakim. So they sent, and she came, and her parents and her children and all her kindred.”

² This is seen even now; for whenever one of the saints is seized and led to a tribunal, all run together there to see what the outcome for him will be.

³ Now Susanna was delicate in form and very beautiful to behold. For beauty clothed her—not a beauty about the body that is harlot-like, in the manner that it clothed Jezebel, nor a countenance puffed up with varied paints, but she had the beauty of faith and chastity and holiness.

⁴ But the lawless men ordered that she be unveiled, for she was veiled, so that they might glut themselves on her beauty. Let us consider, beloved, whose this wicked working is. For when the apostle said, “A woman ought to have a covering on her head because of the angels,” these men did the opposite: they ordered her to be unveiled before the people, and that without shame.

⁵ And standing up in the midst of the people, they laid their hands on her head, so that even in touching her they might bring to its full measure the satiety of their own lust.

⁶ But she, weeping, looked up to heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord. For through her tears she drew down the Word from the heavens, the One who was to raise the dead Lazarus through tears.