4 Maccabees 17:19-21

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

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 honoured, not only with this honour, 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.