4 Maccabees · Brenton's Greek Septuagint
4 Maccabees 11 Brenton's Greek Septuagint
Notes on this text (1)
- Ezra and Nehemiah form one book (2 Esdras) in this edition; the reader shows them as Ezra 1–10 and Nehemiah 1–13.
1 Ὡς δὲ καὶ οὗτος ταῖς βασάνοις καταικισθεὶς ἐναπέθανεν, ὁ πέμπτος παρεπήδησεν, λέγων,
1 When he had died, disfigured in his torments, the fifth leaped forward, and said,
2 Οὐ μέλλω, τύραννε, πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀρετῆς βασανισμὸν παραιτεῖσθαι.
2 “I don’t intend, O tyrant, to get excused from the torment which is on behalf of virtue.
3 Αὐτὸς δʼ ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ παρῆλθον, ὅπως κᾀμὲ κατακτείνας, περὶ πλειόνων ἀδικημάτων ὀφειλήσῃς τῇ οὐρανίῳ δίκῃ τιμωρίαν.
3 But I have come of my own accord, that by my death you may owe heavenly vengeance and punishment for more crimes.
4 Ὦ μισάρετε καὶ μισάνθρωπε, τὶ δράσαντας ἡμᾶς τοῦτον πορθεῖς τὸν τρόπον;
4 O you hater of virtue and of men, what have we done that you thus revel in our blood?
5 Ἢ κακόν σοι δοκεῖ, ὅτι τὸν πάντων κτιστὴν εὐσεβοῦμεν, καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἐνάρετον αὐτοῦ ζῶμεν νόμον;
5 Does it seem evil to you that we worship the Founder of all things, and live according to his surpassing law?
6 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα τιμῶν, οὐ βασάνων ἐστὶν ἄξια.
6 But this is worthy of honors, not torments, 7 if you had been capable of the higher feelings of men, and possessed the hope of salvation from God. 8 Behold now, being alien from God, you make war against those who are religious toward God.”
6a Εἴπερ ᾐσθάνου ἀνθρώπου πόθων, καὶ ἐλπίδα εἶχες παρὰ Θεῷ σωτηρίου·
·
6b νῦν ἰδὲ ἀλλότριος ὢν Θεοῦ, πολεμεῖς τοὺς εὐσεβοῦντας εἰς τὸν Θεόν.
·
9 Τοιαῦτα λέγοντα οἱ δορυφόροι δήσαντες, αὐτὸν εἷλκον ἐπὶ τὸν καταπέλτην·
9 As he said this, the spearbearers bound him and drew him to the rack,
10 ἐφʼ 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.
10 to 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.
11 Κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα στενοχωρούμενος, καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἀγχόμενος, καλὰς, ἔλεγεν, ἄκων,
11 With his breath thus confined, and his body strangled, he said,
12 ὦ τύραννε, χάριτας ἡμῖν χαρίζῃ διὰ γενναιοτέρων πόνων ἐπιδείξασθαι παρέχων τὴν εἰς τὸν νόμον ἡμῶν καρτερίαν.
12 “A great favor you bestow upon us, O tyrant, by enabling us to manifest our adherence to the law by means of nobler sufferings.”
13 Τελευτήσαντος δὲ καὶ τούτου, ὁ ἕκτος ἤγετο μειρακίσκος· ὃς πυνθανομένου τοῦ τύραννου εἰ βούλοιτο φαγὼν ἀπολύεσθαι, ὁ δὲ ἔφη,
13 He also being dead, the sixth, quite a youth, was brought out. On the tyrant asking him whether he would eat and be delivered, he said,
14 Ἐγὼ τῇ μὲν ἡλικίᾳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου εἰμὶ νεώτερος, τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ ἡλικιώτης·
14 “I am indeed younger than my brothers, but in understanding I am as old.
15 Εἰς τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ καὶ γεννηθέντες καὶ τραφέντες, ὑπὲρ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἀποθνήσκειν ὀφείλομεν ὁμοίως.
15 I was born and reared to the same end. We are bound to die also on behalf of the same cause.
16 Ὥστε εἰ σοὶ δοκεῖ βασανίξειν, μὴ μιαιροφαγοῦτας βασάνιζε.
16 So if you think it is proper to torment us for not eating the unclean, then torment!”
17 Ταῦτα αὐτὸν εἰπόντα παρῆγον ἐπὶ τὸν τροχόν.
17 As he said this, they brought him to the wheel.
18 Ἐφʼ οὗ κατατεινόμενος εὐμελῶς καὶ ἐκσφονοδυλιζόμενος ὑπεκαίετο.
18 Extended upon this, with limbs racked and dislocated, he was gradually roasted from beneath.
19 Καὶ ὀβελίσκους ὀξεῖς πυρώσαντες, τοῖς νότοις προσέφερον· καὶ τὰ πλευπὰ διαπείραντες, ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ σπλάγχνα διέκαιον.
19 Having heated sharp spits, they stabbed them into his back; and having pierced his sides, they burned away his entrails.
20 Ὁ δὲ βασανιζόμενος, ὦ ἱεροπρεποῦς αἰῶνος, ἔλεγεν, ἐφʼ ὃν διὰ τὴν εὐσέβειαν εἰς γυμνασίαν πόνων ἀδελφοὶ τοσοῦτοι κληθέντες οὐκ ἐνικήθημεν.
20 He, while tormented, said, “O good and holy contest, in which for the sake of religion, we kindred have been called to the arena of pain, and have not been conquered.
21 Ἀνίκητος γάρ ἐστιν, ὦ τύραννε, ἡ εὐσεβὴς ἐπιστήμη.
21 For religious understanding, O tyrant, is unconquered.
22 Καλοκᾳγαθίᾳ καθωπλισμένος τεθνήξομαι κἀγὼ μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μοῦ.
22 Armed with upright virtue, I also will depart with my kindred.
23 Μέγαν σοὶ προσβάλλων καὶ αὐτὸς ἀλάστορα, καινουργὲ τῶν βασάνων, καὶ πολέμιε τῶν ἀληθῶς εὐσεβούντων.
23 I, too, bearing with me a great avenger, O inventor of tortures, and enemy of the truly pious.
24 Ἓξ μειράκια κατελύσαμέν σου τὴν τυραννίδα.
24 We six youths have destroyed your tyranny.
25 Τὸ γὰρ μὴ δυνηθῆναί σε μεταπεῖσαι τὸν λογισμὸν ἡμῶν, μήτε βιάσασθαι πρὸς τὴν μιαιροφαγίαν, οὐ κατάλυσίς ἐστιν σοῦ;
25 For isn’t your inability to overrule our reasoning, and to compel us to eat the unclean, your destruction?
26 Τὸ πῦρ σου ψυχρὸν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἄπονοι οἱ καταπέλται, καὶ ἀδύνατος ἡ βία σου.
26 Your fire is cold to us. Your racks are painless, and your violence harmless.
27 Οὐ γὰρ τυράννου, ἀλλὰ θείου νόμου προεστήκασιν ἡμῶν οἱ δορυφίροι· διὰ τοῦτο ἀνίκητον ἕχομεν τὸν λογι σμόν.
27 For the guards not of a tyrant but of a divine law are our defenders. Through this we keep our reasoning unconquered.”