2 Maccabees 15:17-19

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

¹⁷ Encouraged by the words of Judas, so noble and so effective in arousing valour and awaking courage in the souls of the young, they determined not to carry on a campaign^[a] but to attack bravely, and to decide the matter by fighting hand to hand with all courage, because the city and the sanctuary and the temple were in danger. ¹⁸ Their concern for wives and children, and also for brothers and sisters^[b] and relatives, lay upon them less heavily; their greatest and first fear was for the consecrated sanctuary. ¹⁹ And those who had to remain in the city were in no little distress, being anxious over the encounter in the open country.