The Fifth and Sixth Brothers
4 Maccabees 11
The fifth brother willingly submits to torture on the catapelt, declaring that his suffering will bring further judgment on the tyrant. The sixth, though tortured on the wheel and roasted, tells Antiochus that the brothers already keep their reasoning unconquered and so have overcome him.
About these editions
The Septuagint (LXX) in Greek, with Charles Thomson’s 1808 and Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 English translations, set beside the King James Version and the Jewish Masoretic text (JPS 1917) where they align, so you can compare the Greek and the Hebrew. All public domain; choose which to show with the controls above.
Brenton 1851Septuagint
Greek · BrentonSeptuagint
1
BrentonAnd when he had died, disfigured in his torments, the fifth leaped forward, and said,
GreekὩς δὲ καὶ οὗτος ταῖς βασάνοις καταικισθεὶς ἐναπέθανεν, ὁ πέμπτος παρεπήδησεν, λέγων,
2
BrentonI intend not, O tyrant, to get excused from the torment which is in behalf of virtue.
GreekΟὐ μέλλω, τύραννε, πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀρετῆς βασανισμὸν παραιτεῖσθαι.
3
BrentonBut I have come of my own accord, that by the death of me, you may owe heavenly vengeance a punishment for more crimes.
GreekΑὐτὸς δʼ ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ παρῆλθον, ὅπως κᾀμὲ κατακτείνας, περὶ πλειόνων ἀδικημάτων ὀφειλήσῃς τῇ οὐρανίῳ δίκῃ τιμωρίαν.
4
BrentonO thou hater of virtue and of men, what have we done that thou thus revellest in our blood?
GreekὮ μισάρετε καὶ μισάνθρωπε, τὶ δράσαντας ἡμᾶς τοῦτον πορθεῖς τὸν τρόπον;
5
BrentonDoes it seem evil to thee that we worship the Founder of all things, and live according to his surpassing law?
GreekἪ κακόν σοι δοκεῖ, ὅτι τὸν πάντων κτιστὴν εὐσεβοῦμεν, καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἐνάρετον αὐτοῦ ζῶμεν νόμον;
6
BrentonBut this is worthy of honours, not of torments;
GreekἈλλὰ ταῦτα τιμῶν, οὐ βασάνων ἐστὶν ἄξια.
6a
Brentonhadst thou been capable of the higher feelings of men, and possessed the hope of salvation from God.
GreekΕἴπερ ᾐσθάνου ἀνθρώπου πόθων, καὶ ἐλπίδα εἶχες παρὰ Θεῷ σωτηρίου·
6b
BrentonBehold, now, being alien from God, thou makest war against those who are religious toward God.
Greekνῦν ἰδὲ ἀλλότριος ὢν Θεοῦ, πολεμεῖς τοὺς εὐσεβοῦντας εἰς τὸν Θεόν.
9
BrentonAs he said this, the spearbearers bound him, and drew him to the catapelt:
GreekΤοιαῦτα λέγοντα οἱ δορυφόροι δήσαντες, αὐτὸν εἷλκον ἐπὶ τὸν καταπέλτην·
10
Brentonto which binding him at his knees, and fastening them with iron fetters, they bent down his loins upon the wedge of the wheel; and his body was then dismembered, scorpion-fashion.
Greekἐφʼ ὃ δήσαντες αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ γόνατα, καὶ ταῦτα ποδάγραις σιδηραῖς ἐφορμάσαντες τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν τροχιαῖον σφῆνα κατέκαμψαν· περὶ ὃν ὅλος ἐπὶ τὸν τρονὸν σκορπίου τρόπον ἀνακλώμενος ἐξεμελίζετο.
11
BrentonWith his breath thus confined, and his body strangled, he said,
GreekΚατὰ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα στενοχωρούμενος, καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἀγχόμενος, καλὰς, ἔλεγεν, ἄκων,
12
BrentonA great favour thou bestowest upon us, O tyrant, by enabling us to manifest our adherence to the law by means of nobler sufferings.
Greekὦ τύραννε, χάριτας ἡμῖν χαρίζῃ διὰ γενναιοτέρων πόνων ἐπιδείξασθαι παρέχων τὴν εἰς τὸν νόμον ἡμῶν καρτερίαν.
13
BrentonHe also being dead, the sixth, quite a youth, was brought out; and on the tyrant asking him whether he would eat and be delivered, he said,
GreekΤελευτήσαντος δὲ καὶ τούτου, ὁ ἕκτος ἤγετο μειρακίσκος· ὃς πυνθανομένου τοῦ τύραννου εἰ βούλοιτο φαγὼν ἀπολύεσθαι, ὁ δὲ ἔφη,
14
BrentonI am indeed younger than my brothers, but in understanding I am as old;
GreekἘγὼ τῇ μὲν ἡλικίᾳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου εἰμὶ νεώτερος, τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ ἡλικιώτης·
15
Brentonfor having been born and reared unto the same end, we are bound to die also in behalf of the same cause.
GreekΕἰς τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ καὶ γεννηθέντες καὶ τραφέντες, ὑπὲρ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἀποθνήσκειν ὀφείλομεν ὁμοίως.
16
BrentonSo that if thou think proper to torment us for not eating the unclean;—torment!
GreekὭστε εἰ σοὶ δοκεῖ βασανίξειν, μὴ μιαιροφαγοῦτας βασάνιζε.
17
BrentonAs he said this, they brought him to the wheel.
GreekΤαῦτα αὐτὸν εἰπόντα παρῆγον ἐπὶ τὸν τροχόν.
18
BrentonExtended upon which, with limbs racked and dislocated, he was gradually roasted from beneath.
GreekἘφʼ οὗ κατατεινόμενος εὐμελῶς καὶ ἐκσφονοδυλιζόμενος ὑπεκαίετο.
19
BrentonAnd having heated sharp spits, they approached them to his back; and having transfixed his sides, they burned away his entrails.
GreekΚαὶ ὀβελίσκους ὀξεῖς πυρώσαντες, τοῖς νότοις προσέφερον· καὶ τὰ πλευπὰ διαπείραντες, ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ σπλάγχνα διέκαιον.
20
BrentonAnd he, while tormented, said, O period good and holy, in which, for the sake of religion, we brothers have been called to the contest of pain, and have not been conquered.
GreekὉ δὲ βασανιζόμενος, ὦ ἱεροπρεποῦς αἰῶνος, ἔλεγεν, ἐφʼ ὃν διὰ τὴν εὐσέβειαν εἰς γυμνασίαν πόνων ἀδελφοὶ τοσοῦτοι κληθέντες οὐκ ἐνικήθημεν.
21
BrentonFor religious understanding, O tyrant, is unconquered.
GreekἈνίκητος γάρ ἐστιν, ὦ τύραννε, ἡ εὐσεβὴς ἐπιστήμη.
22
BrentonArmed with upright virtue, I also shall depart with my brethren.
GreekΚαλοκᾳγαθίᾳ καθωπλισμένος τεθνήξομαι κἀγὼ μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μοῦ.
23
BrentonI, too, bearing with me a great avenger, O deviser of tortures, and enemy of the truly pious.
GreekΜέγαν σοὶ προσβάλλων καὶ αὐτὸς ἀλάστορα, καινουργὲ τῶν βασάνων, καὶ πολέμιε τῶν ἀληθῶς εὐσεβούντων.
24
BrentonWe six youths have destroyed thy tyranny.
GreekἛξ μειράκια κατελύσαμέν σου τὴν τυραννίδα.
25
BrentonFor is not your inability to overrule our reasoning, and to compel us to eat the unclean, thy destruction?
GreekΤὸ γὰρ μὴ δυνηθῆναί σε μεταπεῖσαι τὸν λογισμὸν ἡμῶν, μήτε βιάσασθαι πρὸς τὴν μιαιροφαγίαν, οὐ κατάλυσίς ἐστιν σοῦ;
26
BrentonYour fire is cold to us, your catapelts are painless, and your violence harmless.
GreekΤὸ πῦρ σου ψυχρὸν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἄπονοι οἱ καταπέλται, καὶ ἀδύνατος ἡ βία σου.
27
BrentonFor the guards not of a tyrant but of a divine law are our defenders: through this we keep our reasoning unconquered.
GreekΟὐ γὰρ τυράννου, ἀλλὰ θείου νόμου προεστήκασιν ἡμῶν οἱ δορυφίροι· διὰ τοῦτο ἀνίκητον ἕχομεν τὸν λογι σμόν.