3 Maccabees 6:29-31

Common English Bible

²⁹ So the king said these things, and the Jews, who were released immediately, praised their holy God and savior, since they had just now escaped death.

Celebration of deliverance

³⁰ Then the king went back into the city and called for the official in charge of the treasury. He ordered him to supply the Jews with wines and everything else needed for a seven-day festival. The king decided that the Jews should celebrate their rescue with all joy in the same place where they thought they would meet destruction. ³¹ So the people who previously had been disgraced and stood near death—at its very brink!—prepared for a festival of deliverance instead of a bitter and most mournful fate. The place that had been prepared for their ruin and burial was joyfully divided up among people in celebration.