4 Maccabees 11:18-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ He was carefully stretched tight upon it, his back was broken, and he was roasted from underneath. ¹⁹ To his back they applied sharp spits that had been heated in the fire and pierced his ribs so that his entrails were burned through. ²⁰ While being tortured he said, “O contest befitting holiness, in which so many of us brothers have been summoned to an arena of sufferings for the sake of piety and in which we have not been defeated!