The Death of the Third Brother

1 When he too had endured a death worthy of praise, the third was brought forward, and many people urged him to taste the meat and save himself. 2 But he shouted, “Don’t you know that the same father who fathered those who died fathered me, that the same mother bore me, and that I was brought up in the same teachings? 3 I do not renounce the noble kinship of my brothers.” 5 Angered by the man’s boldness of speech, they dislocated his hands and feet⁠a with instruments made for wrenching joints, and prying his limbs out of their sockets, they dismembered him. 6 They broke his fingers, his arms, his legs, and his elbows. 7 When they could not break him in any way, they removed the instruments and tore away his skin along with the tips of his fingers. 8 Then they immediately took him to the wheel, where his spine was pulled out of joint, and he saw his own flesh torn to pieces and drops of blood flowing from his insides. 9 As he was about to die, he said, 10 “We, wicked tyrant, are suffering this for the sake of God’s teaching and virtue, 11 but you, for your impiety and bloody murder, will endure torments without end.”

The Death of the Fourth Brother

12 When he too had died in a way worthy of his brothers, they dragged forward the fourth, saying, 13 “Don’t share the madness of your brothers, but obey the king and save yourself.” 14 But he said to them, “You don’t have a fire hot enough to make me a coward. 15 By the blessed death of my brothers, the eternal destruction of the tyrant, and the everlasting life of the pious, I will not deny our noble brotherhood. 16 Devise tortures, tyrant, so that through them you may learn that I am the brother of those tortured before me.” 17 When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly wicked Antiochus ordered his tongue to be cut out. 18 But he said, “Even if you take away my organ of speech, God still hears the silent. 19 Look, I am holding out my tongue; cut it off, for that will not cut out the tongue of our reasoning. 20 We gladly let the limbs of our bodies be cut off for God’s sake. 21 But God will soon come after you, for you are cutting out a tongue that sings hymns to God.”