2 Maccabees 5:18-20

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁸ But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been scourged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodor′us was, whom Seleu′cus the king sent to inspect the treasury. ¹⁹ But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation. ²⁰ Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.