3 Maccabees 6:35-37

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.^{(A) 36} And when they had ordained a public rite for these things for their whole community for generations to come, 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.^{(B) 37} Then they petitioned the king, asking for dismissal to their homes.