2 Maccabees 6:12-14

Revised Standard Version

Providential Significance of the Persecution

¹² Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people. ¹³ In fact, not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness. ¹⁴ For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but he does not deal in this way with us,