Gittin 57b tells a story that Jewish liturgy still refuses to round off. Four hundred boys and four hundred girls were once kidnapped from their families by Roman captors. As the ships carried them toward Rome, the children began to understand the purpose of their capture — they were to be forced into lives of degradation.
The eldest boy gathered them and opened a Psalm. "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring again from the depths of the sea (Psalms 68:22)." He explained the verse. From Bashan means from the teeth of the lion — the ones who die by violence. From the depths of the sea means those who drown rather than consent to what would drown their souls. Both will be raised up. Both belong to God.
The girls heard the teaching and understood. Without hesitation they threw themselves, all of them together, into the sea. The boys came after them, and the waves closed over eight hundred children.
The sages applied to them the verse, For Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter (Psalms 44:22). This is the martyr's Psalm. It is said over every Jewish generation that has refused to trade soul for survival.
The Hebrew Bible never flinches from the cost of holiness. Neither do these children.