3 Maccabees 5:24-26

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁴ The crowds of the city had been assembled for this most pitiful spectacle and were eagerly waiting for daybreak. ²⁵ But the Jews, being at that very moment at their last gasp, stretched their hands toward heaven and with most tearful supplication and mournful dirges implored the supreme God to help them again at once.^{(A) 26} The rays of the sun were not yet shed abroad, and while the king was receiving his Friends, Hermon arrived and invited him to come out, indicating that what the king desired was ready for action.