4 Maccabees 13:17-19

Revised Standard Version

¹⁷ For if we so die,^[a] Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us.” ¹⁸ Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, “Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us.”

¹⁹ You are not ignorant of the affection of brotherhood, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother’s womb.