4 Maccabees 18:3-5

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³ Therefore those who gave over their bodies in suffering for the sake of piety were not only admired by mortals but also were deemed worthy to share in a divine inheritance. ⁴ Because of them the nation gained peace, and by reviving observance of the law in the homeland they ravaged the enemy. ⁵ The tyrant Antiochus was both punished on earth and is being chastised after his death. Since in no way whatever was he able to compel the Israelites to adopt foreign ways and to abandon their ancestral customs, he left Jerusalem and marched against the Persians.^(A)