4 Maccabees 10

1And after he had endured this death, worthy to be sung of, the third was led in, being urged much by many to save himself by tasting it.

2But he cried out and said, “Do you not know that the same father sowed me among those who die, and the same mother gave birth to me, and I was brought up in the same principles?”

3I will not renounce the noble kinship of our brotherhood.

4In response to this, if you have any instrument of punishment, bring it against my body; for my soul, even if you wish it, you will not touch.

5But bitterly resenting the man's boldness, they dislocated his hands and feet with joint-wrenching instruments, and prying them out of their sockets, they dismembered him.

6and they tore away the fingers and the arms and the legs and the elbows.

7And since they were in no way able to strangle him, they dragged off the skin with the very tips of his fingers and flayed him, and immediately they led him to the wheel.

8around which, as he was being dislocated from his vertebrae, he saw his own flesh being torn all around and drops of blood flowing down his inward parts.

9And as he was about to die, he said,

10But we, O most defiled tyrant, suffer these things for the sake of the discipline and virtue of God.

11But because of your ungodliness and blood-guilt, you will endure unending torments.

12And when this one had died in a manner worthy of his brothers, they dragged forward the fourth, saying,

13Do not be as insane as your brothers with the same madness, but be persuaded by the king and save yourself.

14But he said to them, “The fire you have against me is not so scorching as to make me a coward.”

15By the blessed death of my brothers, and by the tyrant’s eternal destruction, and by the everlasting life of the godly, I will not renounce my noble brotherhood.

16Go on, tyrant, with your tortures, so that even through these you may learn that I am a brother of those who have been tortured before.

17When bloodthirsty and murderous and most savage Antiochus heard these things, he ordered his tongue to be cut out.

18But he said, “Even if you take away the instrument of speech, God hears those who are silent.”

19Look, my tongue has been broken; cut it off. For not even by this will you cut out our reasoned judgment.

20For the sake of God, we gladly have the limbs of our body mutilated.

21But God will swiftly pursue you, for you are cutting out the tongue that sings the melodies of divine hymns.

22I am not about to refuse, tyrant, the torture for the sake of virtue.

23But I myself came forward of my own accord, so that by killing me also, you may incur punishment from heavenly justice for still more acts of wrongdoing.

24O hateful and misanthropic man, what are you doing by exposing us in this way?

25Or does it not seem evil to you that we worship the Creator of all and live according to his virtuous law?

26But these things from you are not worthy even of tortures,

27if indeed you had human feelings, and had hope from God for deliverance.

28Now look, being alien to God, you are making war against those who are reverent toward God.