2 Maccabees 7:22-24

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.^{(A) 23} Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, in his mercy gives life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”^(B)

²⁴ Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus^[a] not only appealed to him in words but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his ancestors and that he would take him for his Friend and entrust him with public affairs.^(C)