2 Maccabees 1:17-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ Blessed in every way be our God, who has delivered up those who have behaved impiously.

Fire Consumes Nehemiah’s Sacrifice

¹⁸ Since on the twenty-fifth day of Chislev we shall celebrate the purification of the temple, we thought it necessary to notify you, in order that you also may celebrate the Festival of Booths^[a] and the fire given when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.^(A)

¹⁹ For when our ancestors were being led captive to Persia, the pious priests of that time took some of the fire of the altar and secretly hid it in the hollow of a dry cistern, where they took such precautions that the place was unknown to anyone.^(B)