2 Maccabees 7:30–40

Ere she had finished, the young man cried, What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command, I will obey the command of the law given by Moses to our fathers. But thou, who hast devised all manner of evil against the Hebrews, thou shalt not escape the hands of God. We are suffering for our own sins, and though our living Lord is angry for a little, in order to rebuke and chasten us, he will again be reconciled to his own servants. But thou, thou impious wretch, vilest of all men, be not vainly uplifted with thy proud, uncertain hopes, raising thy hand against the heavenly children; thou hast not yet escaped the judgement of the Almighty God who seeth all. These our brothers, after enduring a brief pain, have now drunk of everflowing life, in terms of God’s covenant, but thou shalt receive by God’s judgement the just penalty of thine arrogance. I, like my brothers, give up body and soul for our fathers’ laws, calling on God to show favour to our nation soon, and to make thee acknowledge, in torment and plagues, that he alone is God, and to let the Almighty’s wrath, justly fallen on the whole of our nation, end in me and in my brothers. Then the king fell into a passion and had him handled worse than the others, so exasperated was he at being mocked. Thus he also died unpolluted, trusting absolutely in the Lord.