3 Maccabees 5:30-32

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

³⁰ But at these words he was filled with an overpowering wrath, because by the providence of God his whole mind had been deranged concerning these matters; and with a threatening look he said, ³¹ ‘If your parents or children were present, I would have prepared them to be a rich feast for the savage animals 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, if it were not for an affection arising from our nurture in common and your usefulness.’