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.
21. Let’s take seriously the fact that, if we disobey, we are dead men!
22. Divine justice will not blame us because we were afraid of the king and his power over us.
23. So why should we deprive ourselves of this pleasant life and cheat ourselves out of this sweet world?
24. Let’s not fight against fate or take hollow pride in being tortured.
25. The Law itself would have difficulty giving us the death penalty since we sin out of fear of these instruments.
26. Why are we eager to fight a losing battle or so interested in being stubborn when we know it will kill us? We can enjoy a trouble-free life if we just obey the king!"
27. Even though these young men were about to be tortured, they didn’t say or even think about such things.
28. They held their emotions in check and had full control over their pain.
29. Therefore, as soon as the tyrant finished giving them advice about eating the forbidden food, they said together with one voice and with the same mind: