26. He has allowed us to eat what is most appropriate for our lives, but he has forbidden us to eat meat that would interfere with our welfare.
27. You are acting like a tyrant, trying not only to force us to break our Law but you are trying also to make us eat forbidden food that we hate just so you can make fun of us.
28. You won’t have a chance to laugh at me.
29. I’m not going to break the sacred promises my ancestors made to keep the Law,
30. not even if you dig out my eyes and set my guts on fire.
31. I’m not so old and cowardly that I can’t exhibit youthful strength in my mind out of respect for God.
32. Get your torture devices ready, and build up the fires to make them burn hotter.
33. I don’t pity my old age so much that I will tear down the Law of my ancestors by my actions.
34. I won’t prove disloyal to the Law that made me who I am today. I won’t renounce the virtue of self-control that I value so dearly.
35. I won’t put my own philosophical principle to shame, nor renounce the honor of my priestly office or my knowledge of the Law.
36. But as for you, King, you won’t pollute my mouth that I have kept pure all of my life nor my long life of living under the Law.