3 Maccabees 5:30-32

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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, were it not for the affection arising from our common upbringing and lifelong association.”^(A)