20
It would be shameful if we should survive for a little while and during that time be a laughingstock to all for our cowardice,
21
and be despised by the tyrant as unmanly by not contending even to death for our divine law.
22
Therefore, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion!
23
And you, guards of the tyrant, why do you delay?"
24
When they saw that he was so courageous in the face of the afflictions, and that he had not been changed by their compassion, the guards brought him to the fire.
25
There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils.
26
When he was now burned to his very bones and about to expire, he lifted up his eyes to God and said,
27
"You know, O God, that though I might have saved myself, I am dying in burning torments for the sake of the law.
28
Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them.
29
Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs."
30
After he said this, the holy man died nobly in his tortures; even in the tortures of death he resisted, by virtue of reason, for the sake of the law.