The Brothers Defend Their Ancestral Torah

1 “Tyrant, why are you waiting? We are ready to die rather than break the commandments of our ancestors. 2 We would rightly be disgracing our ancestors if we did not obey the law and take Moses as our counselor. 3 Tyrant, counselor of lawbreaking, you hate us, so do not pity us more than we pity ourselves. 4 For we consider your mercy, which offers us safety at the price of breaking the law, harder to bear than death itself. 5 You try to frighten us by threatening us with death by torture, as though you had learned nothing from Eleazar a short time ago. 6 If the old man of the Hebrews died piously for the sake of piety after enduring torture, it would be even more right for us young men to die despising the tortures you force on us, which our aged teacher also defeated. 7 So make your attempt, tyrant. If you put us to death for the sake of piety, don’t think that you harm us by torturing us. 8 For through this suffering and endurance we will have the prize of virtue,⁠a and we will be with God, for whose sake we suffer. 9 But for your bloody murder of us, you will suffer from divine justice the eternal torment by fire that you deserve.”

The Death of the First Brother

10 When they had said this, the tyrant was not only angry with them for disobeying, but furious with them for being ungrateful. 11 So at his command the guards brought forward the eldest, tore off his tunic, and tied his hands and arms on each side with straps. 12 When they had worn themselves out whipping him without achieving anything,⁠b they threw him onto the wheel. 13 Stretched out on it, the noble young man had his joints dislocated. 14 With every limb broken, he denounced the tyrant, saying, 15 “Wicked tyrant, enemy of heavenly justice, cruel-hearted man, you are torturing me in this way not because I have killed anyone or committed sacrilege, but because I defend the divine law.” 16 When the guards said, “Agree to eat, so that you may be released from the tortures,” 17 he answered, “Your wheel is not so strong, you wicked servants, that it can choke my reasoning. Cut off my limbs, burn my flesh, and twist my joints. 18 Through all these tortures I will convince you that the children of the Hebrews alone are unconquerable for the sake of virtue.” 19 While he was saying this, they spread fire under him, stoked it, and stretched him tighter on the wheel. 20 The wheel was smeared with blood on every side, the heap of coals was put out by the dripping fluids, and flesh hung around the axles of the machine. 21 Although the frame of his bones was already broken apart, the high-minded young son of Abraham did not groan. 22 Instead, as though he were being changed by the fire into immortality, he nobly endured the rack. 23 “Brothers, follow my example,” he said. “Do not desert me in the struggle, and do not renounce our brotherhood of courage. 24 Fight the holy and noble fight for piety, so that the just Providence of our ancestors may be merciful to our nation and punish the cursed tyrant.” 25 When he had said this, the saintly young man breathed his last.

The Death of the Second Brother

26 While everyone was marveling at his courage, the guards brought forward the next eldest. They fitted on iron gauntlets with sharp claws and bound him to the torture machine. 27 When they asked him whether he would eat before he was tortured, they heard his noble decision. 28 Then those men, like wild leopards, tore away with the iron claws all the flesh from his neck to his chin and the skin of his head. But he endured the pain steadfastly and said, 29 “How sweet is every kind of death for the piety of our ancestors!” And he said to the tyrant, 30 “Most cruel of all tyrants, don’t you think you are suffering more torment than I am, as you see the arrogant reasoning of your tyranny defeated by our endurance for the sake of piety? 31 For I lighten my pain with the joys that come from virtue, 32 but you are tormented by the threats that come with impiety. And you will not escape, most wicked tyrant, the punishments of divine anger.”