4 Maccabees 4:22-24

Revised Standard Version

²² For when he was warring against Ptol′emy in Egypt, he heard that a rumor of his death had spread and that the people of Jerusalem had rejoiced greatly. He speedily marched against them, ²³ and after he had plundered them he issued a decree that if any of them should be found observing the ancestral law they should die. ²⁴ When, by means of his decrees, he had not been able in any way to put an end to the people’s observance of the law, but saw that all his threats and punishments were being disregarded,