4 Maccabees 11

1And when this one also had died under torture, the fifth came forward, saying,

2I am not about to shrink back, tyrant, from the torture for the sake of virtue.

3But I came forward of my own accord, so that, after killing me also, you might incur punishment from heavenly justice for still more acts of wrongdoing.

4O hateful and misanthropic man, what have we done that you are ravaging us in this way?

5Or does it not seem evil that we worship the Creator of all things and live according to his virtuous law?

6But these things from you are not worthy of tortures,

7if indeed you had any human awareness of desires, and had hope from God for deliverance.

8Now look, being alien to God, you are making war against those who are devout toward God.

9As he was saying such things, the bodyguards bound him and dragged him to the wheel.

10Binding him to it on his knees, and fastening these with iron shackles, they bent his waist down over the wheel's wedge; around which, entirely bent back upon the wheel like a scorpion, he was being dismembered.

11in this way also, with his spirit being constricted and his body being choked,

12“Good,” said the tyrant, though unwillingly, “he grants us favors—good indeed—by giving us the opportunity, through nobler sufferings, to display our endurance for our law.”

13And after this one had died, the sixth youth was brought forward. When the tyrant asked whether he wanted to be released if he ate, he said,

14I am younger than my brothers in age, but in understanding I am their equal.

15For since we were both born and brought up for the same things, we likewise ought to die for the same things.

16So if it seems good to you to torture those who do not eat defiling food, torture us.

17After he said these things, they led him to the wheel.

18On it, while being stretched out with measured care and disjointed, he was being burned underneath.

19And after heating sharp spits, they applied them to his back; and after piercing his sides, they burned his entrails from it.

20But while he was being tortured, as one belonging to a holy age, he said, “For the sake of godliness, when so many brothers were called into training in sufferings, we were not conquered.”

21For godly understanding is unconquerable, O tyrant.

22I too, armed with noble virtue, will be laid to rest with my brothers,

23By bringing against yourself a great avenger as well, you innovator of tortures and enemy of those who are truly reverent.

24Six young men have overthrown your tyranny.

25For your not being able to persuade our reason, nor to compel us to eat defiled food—is that not your defeat?

26Your fire is cold to us, your catapults are painless, and your violence is powerless.

27For our guards stand over us not for a tyrant, but for divine law; for this reason we have undefeated reason.