3 Maccabees 5:27-29

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

²⁷ But he, on receiving the report and being struck by the unusual invitation to come out—since he had been completely overcome by incomprehension—inquired what the matter was for which this had been so zealously completed for him. ²⁸ This was the act of God who rules over all things, for he had implanted in the king’s mind a forgetfulness of the things he had previously devised. ²⁹ Then Hermon and all the king’s Friends^[a] pointed out that the animals and the armed forces were ready, ‘O king, according to your eager purpose.’^[b]