The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Maccabees 09
1 “Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we
are more ready to die than to transgress
the injunctions of our fathers.
2 We would be disgracing our fathers if
we didn’t obey the law, and take knowledge
for our guide.
3 O tyrant, counselor of law-breaking, do
not, hating us as you do, pity us more than
we pity ourselves.
4 For we consider your escape to be
worse than death.
5 You try to scare us by threatening us
with death by tortures, as though you had
learned nothing by the death of Eleazar.
6 But if aged men of the Hebrews have
died in the cause of religion after enduring
torture, more rightly should we younger
men die, scorning your cruel tortures,
which our aged instructor overcame.
7 Make the attempt, then, O tyrant. If you
put us to death for our religion, don’t think
that you harm us by torturing us.
8 For we through this ill-treatment and
endurance will gain the rewards of virtue.
9 But you, for the wicked and despotic
slaughter of us, will, from the Divine
vengeance, endure eternaltorture byfire.”
10 When they had said this, the tyrant
was not only exasperated against them for
being disobedient, but enraged with them
for being ungrateful.
11 So, at his bidding, the torturers
brought the oldest of them, and tearing
through his tunic, bound his hands and
arms on each side with straps.
12 When they had labored hard without
effect in scourging him, they hurled him
on the wheel.
13 The noble youth, extended upon this,
became dislocated.
14 With every member disjointed, he
denounced the tyrant, saying,
15 “O most accursed tyrant, and enemy of
heavenly justice, and cruel-hearted, I am
no murderer, nor sacrilegious man, whom
you torture, but a defender of the Divine law.
16 And when the spearmen said, “Consent to
eat, that you may be released from
your tortures,
17 he answered, “Not so powerful,
O accursed lackeys, is your wheel, as to stifle
my reasoning. Cut my limbs, and burn my
flesh, and twist my joints.
18 For through all my torments I will
convince you that the children of the
Hebrews are alone unconquered on behalf of
virtue.
19 While he was saying this, they heaped
up fuel, and setting fire to it, strained him
on the wheel still more.
20 The wheel was defiled all over with
blood. Thehot ashes werequenchedby the
droppings of gore, and pieces of flesh were
scattered about the axles of the machine.
21 Although the framework of his bones
was now destroyed, the high-minded and
Abrahamic youth didn’t groan.
22 But, as thoughtransformed byfire into
immortality, he nobly endured the
rackings, saying,
23 “Imitate me, O kindred. Never desert
your station, nor renounce my brotherhood
in courage. Fight the holy and honorable
fight of religion,
24 by which means our just and paternal
Providence, becoming merciful to the
nation, will punish the pestilent tyrant.”
25 Saying this, the revered youth
abruptly closed his life.
26 When all admired his courageous
soul, the spearmen brought forward him
who was second oldest, and having put
on iron gauntlets with sharp hooks, bound
him to the rack.
27 When, on enquiring whether he
would eat before he was tortured, they
heard his noble sentiment.
28 After they with the iron gauntlets had
violently dragged all the flesh from the
neck to the chin, the panther-like animals
tore off the very skin of his head, but he,
bearing with firmness this misery, said,
29 “How sweet is every form of death for
the religion of our fathers!” Then he said
to the tyrant,
30 “Don’t you think, most cruel of all
tyrants, that you are now tortured more
than I, finding your arrogant conception of
tyranny conquered by our perseverance in
behalf of our religion?
31 For I lighten my suffering by the pleasures
which are connected with virtue.
32 But you are tortured with threatenings
for impiety. You won’t escape, most
corrupt tyrant, the vengeance of Divine wrath.