3 Maccabees 7:9-11

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁹ For you should know that if we devise any evil against them or cause them any grief at all, we always shall have not a mortal but the Ruler over every power, the Most High God, in everything and inescapably as an antagonist to avenge such acts. Farewell.’

The Jews Return Home with Joy

¹⁰ On receiving this letter the Jews^[a] did not immediately hurry to make their departure, but they requested of the king that at their own hands those of the Jewish nation who had wilfully transgressed against the holy God and the law of God should receive the punishment they deserved. ¹¹ They declared that those who for the belly’s sake had transgressed the divine commandments would never be favourably disposed towards the king’s government.