4 Maccabees 17:7-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

The Effect of the Martyrdoms

⁷ If it were possible for us to paint the history of your religion as an artist might, would not those who first beheld it have shuddered as they saw the mother of the seven children enduring their varied tortures to death for the sake of religion? ⁸ Indeed it would be proper to inscribe on their tomb these words as a reminder to the people of our nation:^[a]

⁹ ‘Here lie buried an aged priest and an aged woman and seven sons, because of the violence of the tyrant who wished to destroy the way of life of the Hebrews.