2 Maccabees 9:16

¹⁴That the holy city (to the which he was going in haste, to lay it even with the ground, and to make it a common burying place) he would set at liberty:

¹⁵and as touching the Jews, whom he had judged not worthy so much as to be buried, but to be cast out with their children to be devoured of the fowls and wild beasts, he would make them all equals to the citizens of Athens:

— 2 Maccabees 9:16 —

¹⁷yea, and that also he would become a Jew himself, and go through all the world that was inhabited, and declare the power of God.

¹⁸But for all this his pains would not cease: for the just judgment of God was come upon him: therefore despairing of his health, he wrote unto the Jews the letter underwritten, containing the form of a supplication, after this manner: