4. The tyrant looked at them as they stood grouped around their mother like a chorus, and was pleased with them. He was struck by their physical appearance and obvious dignified character, and so he smiled at them and invited them to come closer. He said,
5. "Young men, I feel nothing but admiration and favor for each and every one of you, and I have great respect for the size and beauty of your family. Not only would I counsel you not to express the same insanity as that old man who was just tortured, but I would encourage you to obey me now and so enjoy the privileged life I can offer you.
6. I can be generous to those who obey me in the same way as I can punish those who disobey me.
7. Trust me! Abandon your traditional way of life, and I will give you positions in my government.
8. Enjoy your youth by changing your customs and adopting the Greek way of life.
9. However, if you disobey me and make me angry, you will force me to destroy each and every one of you with terrible punishments and tortures.
10. So take pity on yourselves, since I feel sympathy for your youth and handsome appearance even though I am your enemy.
11. Bear in mind that if you disobey, you have nothing to look forward to except to die on these devices of torture!"
12. As he said these things, he gave orders for the instruments to be brought forward in order to frighten them into eating the polluting food.
13. The guards laid out the instruments in front of them: wheels and machines for pulling joints apart, racks, clubs, and instruments for applying heavy tension, grills and extremely large frying pans, tools to crush fingers, iron claws, wedges, and burning coals. The tyrant continued:
14. "Young men, be afraid. Whatever justice you respect will have mercy on you, since you are being forced to break the Law."
15. The brothers heard the promises and saw the terrible instruments, but they weren’t afraid. Instead, they resisted the tyrant’s arguments with their own philosophy and defeated the power of his tyranny through clear thinking.
16. But let’s think about what arguments they might have used if they had been cowardly and unmanly. Wouldn’t they have argued like this?
17. "What pitiful and stupid people we must be! When the king has invited and urged us to accept his favor,
18. why are we happy to make useless resolutions? Why should we dare to disobey when death will be the outcome?
19. Men and brothers, shouldn’t we be afraid of what these instruments can do and carefully consider the threats of torture? We should run away from our useless beliefs and from our pride that will lead to our destruction!
20. Let’s have compassion on our youth, and show pity for our mother’s old age as well.