And when this man had died worthily of his brothers, they brought up the fourth, and said to him, 'Be not thou also mad with the same madness as thy brethren, but obey the king and save thyself.'
2But he said unto them, 'For me ye have no fire so exceeding hot as to make me a coward.
3By the blessed death of my brethren, by the eternal doom of the tyrant, and by the glorious life of the righteous, I will not deny my noble brotherhood.
4Invent tortures, O tyrant, in order that thou mayest learn thereby that I am brother of those who have been already tortured.'
5When he heard this the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly abominable Antiochus bade them cut out his tongue.
6But he said, 'Even if thou dost remove my organ of speech, God is a hearer also of the speechless.
7Lo, I put out my tongue ready: cut it out, for thou shalt not thereby silence my Reason.
8Gladly do we give our bodily members to be mutilated for the cause of God.
9But God will speedily pursue after thee; for thou cuttest out the tongue that sang songs of praise unto him.'
10But when this man also was put to a death of agony with the tortures, the fifth sprang forward saying, 'I shrink not, O tyrant, from demanding the torture for virtue's sake.
11Yea, of myself I come forward, in order that, slaying me also, thou mayest by yet more misdeeds increase the penalty thou owest to the justice of Heaven.
12O enemy of virtue and enemy of man, for what crime dost thou destroy us in this way?
13Doth it seem evil to thee that we worship the Creator of all and live according to his virtuous Law?
14But these things are worthy of honours not of tortures, if thou didst understand human aspirations and hadst hope of salvation before God.
15Lo, now thou art God's enemy and makest war on those that worship God.'
16As he spake thus the guards bound him and brought him before the catapult; and they tied him thereto on his knees, and, fastening them there with iron clamps, they wrenched his loins over the rolling 'wedge' so that he was completely curled back like a scorpion and every joint was disjointed.
17And thus in grievous strait for breath and anguish of body he exclaimed, 'Glorious, O tyrant, glorious against thy will are the boons that thou bestowest on me, enabling me to show my fidelity to the Law through yet more honourable tortures.'
18And when this man also was dead, the sixth was brought, a mere boy, who in answer to the tyrant's inquiry whether he was willing to eat and be released, said:
19'I am not so old in years as my brethren, but I am as old in mind. For we were born and reared for the same purpose and are equally bound also to die for the same cause; so if thou chooseth to torture us for not eating unclean meat, torture.'
20As he spake these words they brought him to the wheel, and with care they stretched him out and dislocated the bones of his back and set fire under him.
21And they made sharp skewers red-hot and ran them into his back, and piercing through his sides they burned away his entrails also.
22But he in the midst of his tortures exclaimed, 'O contest worthy of saints, wherein so many of us brethren, in the cause of righteousness, have been entered for a competition in torments, and have not been conquered!
23For the righteous understanding, O tyrant, is unconquerable.
24In the armour of virtue I go to join my brothers in death, and to add in myself one strong avenger more to punish thee, O deviser of the tortures and enemy of the truly righteous.
25We six youths have overthrown thy tyranny. 'For is not thine impotence to alter our Reason or force us to eat unclean meat an overthrow for thee?
26Thy fire is cool for us, thy engines of torture torment not, and thy violence is impotent.
27For the guards have been officers for us, not of a tyrant, but of the Divine Law; and therefore have we our Reason yet unconquered.'