3 Maccabees 6:35-37

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

³⁵ The Jews, as we have said before, arranged the aforementioned choral group^[a] and passed the time in feasting to the accompaniment of joyous thanksgiving and psalms. ³⁶ And when they had ordained a public rite for these things in their whole community and for their descendants, they instituted the observance of the aforesaid days as a festival, not for drinking and gluttony, but because of the deliverance that had come to them through God. ³⁷ Then they petitioned the king, asking for dismissal to their homes.