Exile itself is to be understood as a sacrifice. This understanding of Israel’s own sufferings, or those of a representative or group, as somehow redemptive, effective to deliver the rest of the nation from the time of the divine wrath, is picked up most clearly in the language attributed to the Maccabaean martyrs: For we are suffering because of our own sins. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants … I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our ancestors, appealing to God to show mercy
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