4 Maccabees 17:21-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²¹ the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation.^{(A) 22} And through the blood of those pious ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated.

²³ For the tyrant Antiochus, when he saw the courage of their virtue and their endurance under the tortures, proclaimed their endurance to his soldiers as an example,