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These words of the youths redoubled the wrath of the tyrant, not at their disobedience only but at what he considered their ingratitude.

'O thou most abominable tyrant, thou enemy of the justice of heaven and bloody-minded, thou dost torment me in this fashion not for manslaying nor for impiety but for defending the Law of God.'

And when the guards said to him, 'Consent to eat, that so you may be released from your tortures,' he said to them, 'Your method, O miserable minions, is not strong enough to lead captive my Reason. Cut off my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints; through all the torments I will show you that in behalf of virtue the sons of the Hebrews alone are unconquerable.'

And with his bodily frame already in dissolution this great-souled youth, like a true son of Abraham, groaned not at all; but as if he were suffering a change by fire to incorruption, he nobly endured the torment, saying:

'Follow my example, O brothers. Do not for ever desert me, and forswear not our brotherhood in nobility of soul.

'Follow my example, O brothers. Do not for ever desert me, and forswear not our brotherhood in nobility of soul.

And to the tyrant he said, 'O most ruthless of tyrants, doth not it seem to thee that at this moment thou thyself sufferest tortures worse than mine in seeing thy tyranny's arrogant intention overcome by my endurance for righteousness' sake?

I do not forswear the noble bond of brotherhood.

Therefore if ye have any engine of torment, apply it to this body of mine; for my soul ye cannot reach, not if ye would.'

And when' this man had died worthily of his brothers, they brought up the fourth, and said to him, 'Be not thou also mad with the same madness as thy brethren, but obey the king and save thyself.'

By the blessed death of my brethren, by the eternal doom of the tyrant, and by the glorious life of the righteous, I will not deny my noble brotherhood.

Lo, I put out my tongue ready: cut it out, for thou shalt not thereby silence my Reason.

But when this man also was put to a death of agony with the tortures, the fifth sprang forward saying, 'I shrink not, O tyrant, from demanding the torture for virtue's sake.

But these things are worthy of honours not of tortures, if thou didst understand human aspirations and hadst hope of salvation before God.

'I am not so old in years as my brethren, but I am as old in mind. For we were born and reared for the same purpose and are equally bound also to die for the same cause; so if thou chooseth to torture us for not eating unclean meat, torture.'

'I am not so old in years as my brethren, but I am as old in mind. For we were born and reared for the same purpose and are equally bound also to die for the same cause; so if thou chooseth to torture us for not eating unclean meat, torture.'

But he in the midst of his tortures exclaimed, 'O contest worthy of saints, wherein so many of us brethren, in the cause of righteousness, have been entered for a competition in torments, and have not been conquered!

We six youths have overthrown thy tyranny. 'For is not thine impotence to alter our Reason or force us to eat unclean meat an overthrow for thee?

Thy fire is cool for us, thy engines of torture torment not, and thy violence is impotent. 61 For the guards have been officers for us, not of a tyrant, but of the Divine Law; and therefore have we our Reason yet unconquered.'

Thy fire is cool for us, thy engines of torture torment not, and thy violence is impotent. 61 For the guards have been officers for us, not of a tyrant, but of the Divine Law; and therefore have we our Reason yet unconquered.'

But the tyrant, although fiercely exasperated by his brethren, felt pity for the boy, and seeing him there already bound he had him brought near, and sought to persuade him, saying: 'Thou seest the end of the folly of thy brethren; for through their disobedience they have been racked to death. Thou, too, if thou dost not obey, wilt thyself also be miserably tortured and put to death before thy time; but if thou dost obey thou shalt be my friend, and thou shalt be advanced to high office in the business of the kingdom.'

And running up to the red-hot brazier, 'O impious tyrant,' he cried, 'and most ungodly of all sinners, art thou not ashamed to take thy blessings and thy kingship at the hands of God, and to slay his servants and torture the followers of righteousness?

For which things the divine justice delivers thee unto a more rapid and an eternal fire and torments which shall not leave hold on thee to all eternity.

Art thou not ashamed, being a man, O wretch with the heart of a wild beast, to take men of like feelings with thyself, made from the same elements, and tear out their tongues, and scourge and torture them in this manner?

But in this cam it was not so; on the contrary by their Reason, which was commended in the sight of God, they rose superior to their passions.

And it is impossible to deny the supremacy of the mind; for they won the victory over their passions and their pains. 19 How can we do otherwise than admit right Reason's mastery over passion with these men who shrank not before the agonies of burning?

Let us not turn cravens before the proof of righteousness.'

Let us not fear him who thinketh he kills; for a great struggle and peril of the soul awaits in eternal torment those who transgress the ordinance of God.

And to each separate one of the brothers, as they were dragged off, those whose turn was yet to come said, 'Do not disgrace us, brother, nor be false to our brethren already dead.'

You are not ignorant of the love of brethren, whereof the divine and all-wise Providence has given an inheritance to those who are begotten though their fathers, implanting it in them even through the mother's womb; wherein brethren do dwell the like period, and take their form during the same time, and are nourished from the same blood, and are quickened with the same soul, and are brought into the world after the same space, and they draw milk from the same founts, whereby their fraternal souls are nursed together in arms at the breast; and they are knit yet closer through a common nurture and daily companionship and other education, and through our discipline under the Law of God.

But though nature, companionship, and their virtuous disposition increased the ardour of their brotherly love, nevertheless the surviving sons through their religion supported the sight of their brethren, who were on the rack, being tortured to death; nay more, they even encouraged them to face the agony, so as not only to despise their own tortures, but also to conquer their passion of brotherly affection for their brethren. 34 O Reasoning minds, more kingly than kings, than freemen more free, of the harmony of the seven brethren, holy and well attuned to the keynote of piety!

We now shudder when we hear of the suffering of those youths; but they, not only seeing it with their eyes, nor merely hearing the spoken, imminent threat, but actually feeling the pang, endured it through; and that in the torture by fire, than which what greater agony can be found?

And think it not wonderful if with those men Reason triumphed over the tortures, when even a woman's soul despised a yet greater diversity of pains; for the mother of the seven youths endured the torments inflicted on each several one of her children.

But she, the mother of those young men, with a soul like Abraham, was not moved from her purpose by her affection for her children.

Thy firstborn, giving up the ghost, did not alter thy resolution, nor thy second, looking with eyes of pity on thee under his tortures, nor thy third, breathing out his spirit.

When thou sawest the flesh of one son being severed after the flesh of another, and hand after hand being cut off, and head after head being flayed, and corpse cast upon corpse, and the place crowded with spectators on account of the tortures of thy children, thou sheddest not a tear.

Not the melodies of the sirens nor the songs of swans with sweet sound do so charm the hearer's ears, as sounded the voices of the sons, speaking to the mother from amid the torments.

And although she saw the destruction of her seven children and the many and varied forms of their torments, the noble mother willingly surrendered them through faith in God. 20 For she beheld in her own mind, even as it had been cunning advocates in a council-chamber, nature, and parenthood, and mother-love, and her children on the rack, and it was as if she, the mother, having the choice between two votes in the case of her children, one for their death and one to save them alive, thereupon regarded not the saving of her seven sons for a little time, but, as a true daughter of Abraham, called to mind his God-fearing courage.

I have proved, accordingly, that not only have men triumphed over their sufferings, but that a woman also has despised the most dreadful tortures.

And not so fierce were the lions around Daniel, not so hot was the burning fiery furnace of Mishael, as burned in her the instinct of motherhood at the sight of her seven sons being tortured.

And not so fierce were the lions around Daniel, not so hot was the burning fiery furnace of Mishael, as burned in her the instinct of motherhood at the sight of her seven sons being tortured.

But the holy and God-fearing mother wailed not with this lamentation over any one of them, neither besought she any to escape death, nor lamented over them as dying men; but, as though she had a soul of adamant and were bringing forth the number of her sons, for a second time, into immortal life, she besought rather and entreated of them that they should die for religion's sake.

Remember that for the sake of God ye have come into the world, and have enjoyed life, and that therefore ye owe it to God to endure all pain for his sake; for whom also our father Abraham made haste to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and Isaac, seeing his father's hand lifting the knife against him, did not shrink.

And ye also, having the same faith unto God, be not troubled; for it were against Reason that ye, knowing righteousness, should not withstand the pains.'

And ye also, having the same faith unto God, be not troubled; for it were against Reason that ye, knowing righteousness, should not withstand the pains.'

Thou wert nobly set as a roof upon thy sons as pillars, and the earthquake of the torments shook thee not at all.

Not so majestic stands the moon amid the stars in heaven as thou, having lit the path of thy seven starlike sons unto righteousness, standest in honour with God; and thou art set in heaven with them.

And had it been lawful for us to paint, as might some artist, the tale of thy piety, would not the spectators have shuddered at the mother of seven sons suffering for righteousness' sake multitudinous tortures even unto death?

Who were not amazed at them? The tyrant himself and his whole council admired their endurance, whereby they now do both Stand beside the throne of God and live the blessed age.

And these men, therefore, having sanctified themselves for God's sake, not only have received this honour, but also the honour that through them the enemy had no more power over our people, and the tyrant suffered punishment, and our country was purified, they having as it were become a ransom for our nation's sin; and through the blood of these righteous men and the propitiation of their death, the divine Providence delivered Israel that before was evil entreated.

O Israelites, children born of the seed of Abraham, obey this Law, and be righteous in all ways, recognizing that Inspired Reason is lord over the passions, and over pains, not only from within, but from without ourselves; by which means those men, delivering up their bodies to the torture for righteousness' sake, not only won the admiration of mankind, but were deemed worthy of a divine inheritance.

O Israelites, children born of the seed of Abraham, obey this Law, and be righteous in all ways, recognizing that Inspired Reason is lord over the passions, and over pains, not only from within, but from without ourselves; by which means those men, delivering up their bodies to the torture for righteousness' sake, not only won the admiration of mankind, but were deemed worthy of a divine inheritance.

'I was a pure maiden, and I strayed not from my father's house, and I kept guard over the rib that was builded into Eve.

"Yea even though thou pass through the fire, the flame shall not hurt thee."

He confirmed the words of Ezekiel, "Shall these dry bones live?" For he forgat not the song that Moses taught, which teaches, "I will slay and I will make alive. This is your life and the blessedness of your days."'

Ah, cruel was the day, and yet not cruel, when the cruel tyrant of the Greeks set the fire blazing for his barbarous braziers, and with his passions boiling brought to the catapult and back again to his tortures the seven sons of the daughter of Abraham, and blinded the eyeballs of their eyes, and cut out their tongues, and slew them with many kinds of torment.

The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall not be without Him.

For it is not like a withered crown which buddeth not: but thou livest upon my head, and thou hast blossomed upon my head.

For it is not like a withered crown which buddeth not: but thou livest upon my head, and thou hast blossomed upon my head.

For I should not have known how to love the Lord, if He had not loved me.

For I should not have known how to love the Lord, if He had not loved me.

This is the Spirit of the Lord, which doth not lie, which teacheth the sons of men to know His ways.

And it is not (possible) that he should change it and put it in another place: because he hath no power over it:

That which is the older shall not be altered by those that are younger than itself.

Thou hast given us thy fellowship: it was not that thou wast in need of us: but that we are in need of thee:

So that thou mayest, not draw them back and take them again:

O Most High, thou wilt not forsake me, for thou art my hope:

My persecutors will come and not see me:

And they shall have no light to see: they may not take hold upon me.

For they have devised a counsel, and it did not succeed:

For my hope is upon the Lord, and I will not fear, and because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear:

For my hope is upon the Lord, and I will not fear, and because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear:

And He is as a garland on my head and I shall not be moved; even if everything should be shaken, I stand firm;

And if all things visible should perish, I shall not die; because the Lord is with me and I am with Him. Hallelujah.

And the restrainers of the children of men were not able to restrain it, nor the arts of those whose business it is to restrain waters;

And I trembled not when I saw Him: because He was gracious to me:

Like my nature He became that I might learn Him and like my form, that I might not turn back from Him:

And He who created me when yet I was not knew what I should do when I came into being:

He hath given Him to be seen of them that are His, in order that they may recognize Him that made them: and that they might not suppose that they came of themselves:

Your flesh has not known what I am saying to you neither have your hearts known what I am showing to you.

For I do not turn away my face from them that are mine;

Who then shall rise up against my handiwork, or who is there that is not subject to them?

And my righteousness goeth before them and they shall not be deprived of my name, for it is with them.

took pleasure in them and am not ashamed of them:

That none of those who hear may fall in war, and that those again who have known Him may not perish, and that those who receive may not be ashamed.

That none of those who hear may fall in war, and that those again who have known Him may not perish, and that those who receive may not be ashamed.

And I drank and was inebriated with the living water that doth not die;

And my inebriation was not one without knowledge, but I forsook vanity and turned to the Most High my God,

And its course knows no limit. Never doth it fail, but it stands sure, and it knows not descent nor the way of it.

Turn not away thy mercies from me, O Lord: and take not thy kindness from me.

Turn not away thy mercies from me, O Lord: and take not thy kindness from me.

And they know not how to stand and be idle; and His heavenly hosts are subject to His word.

I was loosed from vanity, and I was not condemned:

And the thought of truth led me on. And I walked after it and did not wander:

And I went over all my bondmen to loose them; that I might not leave any man bound or binding:

My members were strengthened that they might not fall from His strength.

O Lord, for the sake of them that are deficient do not remove thy word from me!

Let not the luminary be conquered by the darkness; nor let truth flee away from falsehood.

Thou art my God. Falsehood and death are not in thy mouth:

For thy will is perfection; and vanity thou knowest not,