3 Maccabees 5:48-50

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴⁸ When the Jews saw the dust raised by the elephants going out at the gate and by the following armed forces, as well as by the trampling of the crowd, and heard the loud and tumultuous noise, ⁴⁹ they thought that this was their last moment of life, the end of their most miserable suspense, and giving way to lamentation and groans they kissed each other, embracing relatives and falling into one another’s arms^[a]—parents and children, mothers and daughters, and others with babies at their breasts who were drawing their last milk. ⁵⁰ Nevertheless, when they considered the help that they had received before from heaven, they prostrated themselves with one accord on the ground, removing the babies from their breasts,