2 Maccabees 15:18-20

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

¹⁸ Their concern for wives and children, and also for brothers and sisters^[a] 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.

The Defeat and Death of Nicanor

²⁰ When all were now looking forward to the coming issue, and the enemy was already close at hand with their army drawn up for battle, the elephants^[b] strategically stationed and the cavalry deployed on the flanks,