4 Maccabees 17:20-22

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁰ These, then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God are honored not only with this honor but also by the fact that because of them our enemies did not rule over our nation, ²¹ the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation.^{(A) 22} And through the blood of those pious ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated.