1 Maccabees 4:45-47

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁴⁵ And they thought it best to tear it down, lest it bring reproach upon them, for the Gentiles had defiled it. So they tore down the altar, ⁴⁶ and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them. ⁴⁷ Then they took unhewn^[a] stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one.