2 Maccabees 7:1–42

¹ It came to pass that seven brothers and their mother were at the king’s command taken and shamefully handled with scourges and cords, to compel them to taste of the abominable swine’s flesh. (WEB) ² One of them made himself the spokesman and said, “What would you ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” (WEB) ³ The king fell into a rage, and commanded that pans and caldrons be heated. (WEB) ⁴ When these were immediately heated, he gave orders to cut out the tongue of him who had been their spokesman, and to scalp him, and to cut off his extremities, with the rest of his brothers and his mother looking on. (WEB) ⁵ And when he was utterly maimed, the king gave orders to bring him to the fire, being yet alive, and to fry him in the pan. And as the smoke from the pan spread far, they and their mother also exhorted one another to die nobly, saying this: (WEB) ⁶ “The Lord God sees, and in truth is entreated for us, as Moses declared in his song, which witnesses against the people to their faces, saying, ‘And he will have compassion on his servants.’” (WEB) ⁷ And when the first had died like this, they brought the second to the mocking; and they pulled off the skin of his head with the hair and asked him, “Will you eat, before your body is punished in every limb?” (WEB) ⁸ But he answered in the language of his ancestors and said to them, “No.” Therefore he also underwent the next torture in succession, as the first had done. (WEB) ⁹ When he was at the last gasp, he said, “You, miscreant, release us out of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us who have died for his laws up to an everlasting renewal of life.” (WEB) ¹⁰ After him, the third was made a victim of their mocking. When he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched out his hands courageously, (WEB) ¹¹ and nobly said, “I got these from heaven. For his laws’ sake I treat these with contempt. From him, I hope to receive these back again.” (WEB) ¹² As a result, the king himself and those who were with him were astonished at the young man’s soul, for he regarded the pains as nothing. (WEB) ¹³ When he too was dead, they shamefully handled and tortured the fourth in the same way. (WEB) ¹⁴ Being near to death he said this: “It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hope which is given by God, that we will be raised up again by him. For as for you, you will have no resurrection to life.” (WEB) ¹⁵ Next after him, they brought the fifth and shamefully handled him. (WEB) ¹⁶ But he looked toward the king and said, “Because you have authority among men, though you are corruptible, you do what you please. But don’t think that our race has been forsaken… (WEB)