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“Why do you delay, O tyrant? For we are more ready to die than to transgress the injunctions of our fathers.
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We would be disgracing our fathers if we didn’t obey the Torah, and take knowledge for our guide.
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O tyrant, counsellor of Torah-breaking, do not, hating us as you do, pity us more than we pity ourselves.
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For we consider your escape to be worse than death.
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You try to scare us by threatening us with death by tortures, as though you had learnt nothing by the death of Elazar.
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But if aged men of the Ivrim have died in the cause of covenantal Way after enduring torture, more rightly should we younger men die, scorning your cruel tortures, which our aged instructor overcame.
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Make the attempt, then, O tyrant. If you put us to death for our covenantal Way, don’t think that you harm us by torturing us.
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For we through this ill-treatment and endurance will gain the rewards of uprightness.
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But you, for the wicked and despotic slaughter of us, will, through judgment from Elohim, endure eternal torture by fire.”
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When they had said this, the tyrant was not only exasperated against them for being disobedient, but enraged with them for being ungrateful.
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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.
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When they had laboured hard in scourging him without effect, they hurled him on the wheel.
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The noble youth, extended upon this, became dislocated.
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With every member disjointed, he denounced the tyrant, saying,
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“O most accursed tyrant, and enemy of heavenly righteousness, and cruel-hearted, I am no murderer, nor sacrilegious man, whom you torture, but a defender of the Torah established by Elohim.”
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And when the spearmen said, “Consent to eat, that you may be released from your tortures,”
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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.
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For through all my torments I will convince you that the children of the Ivrim are alone unconquered on behalf of uprightness.”
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While he was saying this, they heaped up fuel, and setting fire to it, strained him on the wheel still more.
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The wheel was defiled all over with blood. The hot ashes were quenched by the droppings of gore, and pieces of flesh were scattered about the axles of the machine.
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Although the framework of his bones was now destroyed, the high-minded and Abrahamic youth didn’t groan.
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But, as though transformed by fire into immortality, he nobly endured the rackings, saying,
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“Imitate me, O kindred. Never desert your station, nor renounce my brotherhood in courage. Fight the set-apart and honourable fight of covenantal Way,
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by which means our just and paternal providential rule, becoming merciful to the people, will punish the pestilent tyrant.”
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Saying this, the revered youth abruptly closed his life.
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When all admired his courageous inner life, the spearmen brought forward him who was second oldest, and having put on iron gauntlets with sharp hooks, bound him to the rack.
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When, on enquiring whether he would eat before he was tortured, they heard his noble sentiment.
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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,
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“How sweet is every form of death for the covenantal Way of our fathers!” Then he said to the tyrant,
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“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 covenantal Way?
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For I lighten my suffering by the pleasures which are connected with uprightness.
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But you are tortured with threatenings for covenant treachery. You won’t escape, most corrupt tyrant, the vengeance of wrath from Elohim.”