3 Maccabees 1:16-18

Common English Bible

The Jews’ reaction

¹⁶ But the priests fell to the ground, still in their sacred robes. They filled the temple with crying and tears, praying to the supreme God to help them and to change the mind of the one who was wrongly imposing himself. ¹⁷ Those who were left in the city were troubled and hurried out, thinking something mysterious was happening. ¹⁸ The young girls who had been kept secluded at home rushed out with their mothers. They sprinkled their hair with dust and began to fill the streets with weeping and groaning.