4 Maccabees 6:1-7

1 When Eleazar in this manner had made eloquent response to the exhortations of the tyrant, the guards who were standing by dragged him violently to the instruments of torture.

2 First they stripped the old man, who remained adorned with the gracefulness of his piety.

3 And after they had tied his arms on each side they scourged him,

4 while a herald opposite him cried out, "Obey the king's commands!"

5 But the courageous and noble man, as a true Eleazar, was unmoved, as though being tortured in a dream;

6 yet while the old man's eyes were raised to heaven, his flesh was being torn by scourges, his blood flowing, and his sides were being cut to pieces.

7 And though he fell to the ground because his body could not endure the agonies, he kept his reason upright and unswerving.