3 Maccabees 5:31-33

Revised Standard Version

³¹ “Were your parents or children present, I would have prepared them to be a rich feast for the savage beasts instead of the Jews, who give me no ground for complaint and have exhibited to an extraordinary degree a full and firm loyalty to my ancestors. ³² In fact you would have been deprived of life instead of these, were it not for an affection arising from our nurture in common and your usefulness.” ³³ So Hermon suffered an unexpected and dangerous threat, and his eyes wavered and his face fell.