1
"Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are ready to die rather than transgress our ancestral commandments;
2
we are obviously putting our forebears to shame unless we should practice ready obedience to the law and to Moses our counselor.
3
Tyrant and counselor of lawlessness, in your hatred for us do not pity us more than we pity ourselves.
4
For we consider this pity of yours, which insures our safety through transgression of the law, to be more grievous than death itself.
5
You are trying to terrify us by threatening us with death by torture, as though a short time ago you learned nothing from Eleazar.
6
And if the aged men of the Hebrews because of their religion lived piously while enduring torture, it would be even more fitting that we young men should die despising your coercive tortures, which our aged instructor also overcame.
7
Therefore, tyrant, put us to the test; and if you take our lives because of our religion, do not suppose that you can injure us by torturing us.
8
For we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the prize of virtue and shall be with God, on whose account we suffer;
9
but you, because of your bloodthirstiness toward us, will deservedly undergo from the divine justice eternal torment by fire."
10
When they had said these things, the tyrant was not only indignant, as at those who are disobedient, but also infuriated, as at those who are ungrateful.