3 Maccabees 5:49-51

Common English Bible

⁴⁹ Thinking that this was their final moment of life, the fulfillment of their most wretched fear, they gave themselves over to pitiful wailing and weeping. They began to kiss each other, embracing their families and throwing themselves upon each other’s shoulders, parents to children and mothers to daughters. Other women had their newborn infants at their breasts drawing their last milk. ⁵⁰ Nevertheless, when they took into consideration the assistance that they had previously received from heaven, they took their infants away from their breasts and all together bowed down. ⁵¹ They cried out with a very loud voice, pleading with the Lord of all power to have mercy on them by intervening, since they now stood at the gates of death.