2 Maccabees 8:16-18

New Catholic Bible

¹⁶ Maccabeus assembled his forces, who numbered about six thousand, and exhorted them not to succumb to panic when confronted by the enemy, nor to fear the vast horde of Gentiles who were advancing to attack them unjustly, but to fight bravely, ¹⁷ keeping ever before their eyes the outrages unlawfully perpetrated by the Gentiles against the holy place and the cruel indignities inflicted on the city as well as the subversion of their ancestral way of life. ¹⁸ “They may place their trust in their weapons and their acts of daring,” he said, “but we trust in almighty God who is able with a mere nod to strike down both those who are marching against us and, if necessary, the entire world.”