4 Maccabees 14:18-20

Revised Standard Version

¹⁸ And why is it necessary to demonstrate sympathy for children by the example of unreasoning animals, ¹⁹ since even bees at the time for making honeycombs defend themselves against intruders as though with an iron dart sting those who approach their hive and defend it even to the death? ²⁰ But sympathy for her children did not sway the mother of the young men; she was of the same mind as Abraham.