4 Maccabees 17:19-21

Revised Standard Version

¹⁹ For Moses says, “All who are consecrated are under your hands.” ²⁰ These, then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God,^[a] are honored, not only with this honor, but also by the fact that because of them our enemies did not rule over our nation, ²¹ the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation.