The Martyrdom of Seven Brothers

¹Another time seven brothers, together with their mother, were arrested by the king. They were tortured with whips to make them violate the law of Moses by eating pork.

²One of them, speaking for all of them, asked, “What are you trying to find out from us? We are ready to die rather than sin against the laws of our ancestors.”

³The king became enraged, and he ordered that pans and cauldrons be heated.

⁴When they were hot, he ordered that the tongue of the spokesman be cut out, that he be scalped, and that his hands and feet be cut off. His brothers and his mother were forced to watch all this.

⁵When the young man was completely helpless, the king commanded that he should be fried alive in the pan. As smoke rose from the sizzling pan, his brothers and his mother strongly urged each other to die bravely.

⁶They said, “The Lord God is watching over us, and he will surely have compassion on us. As Moses declared in the hymn that he sang before the people, ‘He will have compassion on his servants.’”[#7:6 See Deut 32:36.]

⁷After the first brother died this way, they brought forward the second to continue their cruel sport. When they had scalped him, they asked him, “Will you eat pork, or do we have to tear you apart limb from limb?”

⁸He replied in Hebrew, the language of his ancestors, “Never!” So he suffered the same torment as his brother.

⁹And with his last breath, he said, “You wicked tormentor! You may be sending us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up again to live forever because we have died for his laws.”

¹⁰After him the third brother was sent to the same torture. When he was ordered to do so, he quickly stuck out his tongue and courageously stretched out his hands.

¹¹Then he said with boldness, “I received these hands from God, but for his laws I will gladly give them up, for I hope to receive them again from him.”[#7:11 Greek from heaven.]

¹²The king and his men were amazed at the young man’s courage because he regarded his suffering as nothing.

¹³After he was dead, they tortured the fourth brother in the same way.

¹⁴When he was near death, he said, “It is better to die by human hands while clinging to the hope that God will raise us up again. But for you, there will be no resurrection to life!”

¹⁵Then they brought the fifth brother and tortured him as well. But he looked at the king

¹⁶and said, “You have power among mortals, even though you are also mortal, so do whatever you want. But do not think that God has forsaken our people.

¹⁷Wait, and you will see how his great power will torment you and your descendants.”

¹⁸After him they brought the sixth brother. Just before he died, he declared, “Do not deceive yourself. It is our own fault that we suffer these things, for we have sinned against our God. Appalling things have happened to us.

¹⁹But do not think that you will escape unpunished for trying to fight against God.”

²⁰The mother was particularly admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons killed in the space of one day, she bore it with great courage because of her hope in the Lord.

²¹She bravely encouraged each of them in Hebrew, the language of their ancestors. Joining a man’s courage to a woman’s insight, she said to them,

²²“I do not know how you were formed in my womb. I wasn’t the one who gave you breath and life, nor did I shape any part of you.

²³But the Creator of the world, who formed the human race, devised the origin of us all. In his mercy, he will restore both breath and life to you because you are obeying his laws and showing no concern for yourselves.”

²⁴Antiochus, suspecting insult in her tone of voice, thought she was mocking him. The youngest brother was still alive, so Antiochus assured him with an oath that he would make him a rich and happy man if he would abandon the traditions of his ancestors. Antiochus said he would make him one of his favored leaders and give him a high office.

²⁵But the young man was not moved by these offers, so the king called for the mother and told her to persuade the youth to save his life.

²⁶After Antiochus had argued with her for a long time, she said that she would try to persuade her son.

²⁷Then, bending over him, she made a fool of the cruel tyrant and spoke to her son in their native language. “My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, nursed you three years, nourished you, and raised you to this age.

²⁸I urge you, my child, look at heaven and earth and all that is in them, and remember that God made them out of nothing. He made all human beings in this way as well.

²⁹So do not fear this butcher, but show yourself worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that by God’s mercy I may receive you back again along with your brothers.”

³⁰While the mother was still speaking, the young man said to his tormentors, “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command but only the law that was given to our ancestors by Moses.

³¹Antiochus, you have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, but you will never escape the hand of God.

³²We are suffering for our own sins.

³³Though the living Lord is angry with us for a little while and punishes us, we, his servants, will be reconciled to him in the end.

³⁴But you are wicked and most unmerciful. Do not let your vain hopes make you proud because you have the power to torture God’s people,[#7:34 Greek the children of heaven.]

³⁵for you have not yet escaped the judgment of the sovereign God who sees all things.

³⁶My brothers suffered briefly for the sake of the covenant, and now they have drunk of eternal life. But God will justly punish you for your arrogance.

³⁷But I, like my brothers, offer my body and my life for the laws of our ancestors. And I call upon God to show mercy to our nation quickly. And may you be tormented and filled with pain until you confess that he alone is God.

³⁸Perhaps because of my brothers and myself, the just wrath of the Almighty against our nation will cease.”

³⁹This made the king extremely angry, and he tortured him more cruelly than he had the others, for he bitterly resented his ridicule.

⁴⁰So the youth died without being defiled, trusting wholly in the Lord.

⁴¹Last of all, after her sons, the mother died.

⁴²But this is enough about the eating of pagan sacrifices and of the extreme cruelties.