4 Maccabees 8:15-17

Revised Standard Version

¹⁵ But when they had heard the inducements and saw the dreadful devices, not only were they not afraid, but they also opposed the tyrant with their own philosophy, and by their right reasoning nullified his tyranny. ¹⁶ Let us consider, on the other hand, what arguments might have been used if some of them had been cowardly and unmanly. Would they not have been these? ¹⁷ “O wretches that we are and so senseless! Since the king has summoned and exhorted us to accept kind treatment if we obey him,