7
Since they were not able in any way to break his spirit, they abandoned the instruments and scalped him with their fingernails in a Scythian fashion.
8
They immediately brought him to the wheel, and while his vertebrae were being dislocated by this, he saw his own flesh torn all around and drops of blood flowing from his entrails.
9
When he was about to die, he said,
10
"We, most abominable tyrant, are suffering because of our godly training and virtue,
11
but you, because of your impiety and bloodthirstiness, will undergo unceasing torments."
12
When he too had died in a manner worthy of his brothers, they dragged in the fourth, saying,
13
"As for you, do not give way to the same insanity as your brothers, but obey the king and save yourself."
14
But he said to them, "You do not have a fire hot enough to make me play the coward.
15
No—by the blessed death of my brothers, by the eternal destruction of the tyrant, and by the everlasting life of the pious, I will not renounce our noble family ties.
16
Contrive tortures, tyrant, so that you may learn from them that I am a brother to those who have just now been tortured."
17
When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous, and utterly abominable Antiochus gave orders to cut out his tongue.