2 Maccabees 8:9-11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁹ Then Ptolemy^[a] promptly appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king’s First^[b] Friends, and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand men of various nations, to wipe out the entire people of Judea. He associated with him Gorgias, a general and a man of experience in military service.^{(A) 10} Nicanor determined to make up for the king the tribute due to the Romans, two thousand talents, by selling the captured Jews into slavery.^{(B) 11} So he immediately sent to the towns on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the Almighty that was about to overtake him.^(C)