3 Maccabees 4:16-18

Common English Bible

¹⁶ Filled with constant joy, the king organized banquets at the sites of all his idols. With a mind that had strayed far from the truth and with a polluted mouth, he praised objects that were deaf and unable to speak or give aid, but he spoke improper words against the supreme God. ¹⁷ At the end of the forty days, the clerks reported to the king that they were no longer able to complete the task of drawing up a list of all the Jews because of their countless number. ¹⁸ Though the majority were still in the country, some still in their homes, and some even on-site,^[a] the job had become impossible for all the generals in Egypt.