4 Maccabees 9

¹“Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are more ready to die than to transgress the injunctions of our fathers. ²We would be disgracing our fathers if we didn’t obey the law, and take knowledge for our guide. ³O tyrant, counselor of law-breaking, do not, hating us as you do, pity us more than we pity ourselves. ⁴For we consider your escape to be worse than death. ⁵You try to scare us by threatening us with death by tortures, as though you had learned nothing by the death of Eleazar. ⁶But if aged men of the Hebrews have died in the cause of religion after enduring torture, more rightly should we younger men die, scorning your cruel tortures, which our aged instructor overcame. ⁷Make the attempt, then, O tyrant. If you put us to death for our religion, don’t think that you harm us by torturing us. ⁸For we through this ill-treatment and endurance will gain the rewards of virtue. ⁹But you, for the wicked and despotic slaughter of us, will, from the Divine vengeance, endure eternal torture by fire.”

¹⁰When they had said this, the tyrant was not only exasperated against them for being disobedient, but enraged with them for being ungrateful. ¹¹So, at his bidding, the torturers brought the oldest of them, and tearing through his tunic, bound his hands and arms on each side with straps. ¹²When they had labored hard in scourging him without effect, they hurled him on the wheel. ¹³The noble youth, extended upon this, became dislocated. ¹⁴With every member disjointed, he denounced the tyrant, saying, ¹⁵“O most accursed tyrant, and enemy of heavenly justice, and cruel-hearted, I am no murderer, nor sacrilegious man, whom you torture, but a defender of the Divine law.”

¹⁶And when the spearmen said, “Consent to eat, that you may be released from your tortures,” ¹⁷he answered, “Not so powerful, O accursed lackeys, is your wheel, as to stifle my reasoning. Cut my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints. ¹⁸For through all my torments I will convince you that the children of the Hebrews are alone unconquered on behalf of virtue.”

¹⁹While he was saying this, they heaped up fuel, and setting fire to it, strained him on the wheel still more. ²⁰The wheel was defiled all over with blood. The hot ashes were quenched by the droppings of gore, and pieces of flesh were scattered about the axles of the machine. ²¹Although the framework of his bones was now destroyed, the high-minded and Abrahamic youth didn’t groan. ²²But, as though transformed by fire into immortality, he nobly endured the rackings, saying, ²³“Imitate me, O kindred. Never desert your station, nor renounce my brotherhood in courage. Fight the holy and honorable fight of religion, ²⁴by which means our just and paternal Providence, becoming merciful to the nation, will punish the pestilent tyrant.” ²⁵Saying this, the revered youth abruptly closed his life.

²⁶When all admired his courageous soul, the spearmen brought forward him who was second oldest, and having put on iron gauntlets with sharp hooks, bound him to the rack. ²⁷When, on enquiring whether he would eat before he was tortured, they heard his noble sentiment. ²⁸After they with the iron gauntlets had violently dragged all the flesh from the neck to the chin, the panther-like animals tore off the very skin of his head, but he, bearing with firmness this misery, said, ²⁹“How sweet is every form of death for the religion of our fathers!” Then he said to the tyrant, ³⁰“Don’t you think, most cruel of all tyrants, that you are now tortured more than I, finding your arrogant conception of tyranny conquered by our perseverance in behalf of our religion? ³¹For I lighten my suffering by the pleasures which are connected with virtue. ³²But you are tortured with threatenings for impiety. You won’t escape, most corrupt tyrant, the vengeance of Divine wrath.”