3 Maccabees 5:32-34

Revised Standard Version

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. ³⁴ The king’s friends one by one sullenly slipped away and dismissed^[a] the assembled people, each to his own occupation.