3 Maccabees 6

1A certain Eleazar, a distinguished man among the Jews of the country, already advanced in age and adorned with every virtue in life, quieted the elders around him to call upon the holy God, and prayed as follows:

2O King, mighty in power, Most High, almighty God, governing all creation with mercies,

3Look upon the offspring of Abraham, the children of Jacob who has been sanctified, your sanctified allotted people, perishing unjustly as strangers in a foreign land.

4Father, you who destroyed Pharaoh—the former ruler of this Egypt—when he was exalted with lawless arrogance and boastful speech, increasing in reckless acts, together with his proud army, drowning them in the sea, and who shone forth the light of mercy upon the people of Israel,

5You shattered Sennacherib, the mighty king of the Assyrians, who had become arrogant because of his innumerable forces, who had already brought the whole land under his hand by the spear, and who had exalted himself against your holy city, speaking grievous things with boasting and insolence—you, Master, making your power plain to many nations.

6You rescued the three companions in Babylonia, who had willingly given up their lives to the fire so as not to worship empty things; after cooling the blazing furnace, you delivered them all unharmed, and sent a flame upon all their adversaries.

7You brought Daniel up into the light unharmed, when he had been thrown to the lions on the ground as food for the beasts through the slanders of envy.

8and Jonah, who was wasting away in the belly of the sea-fed monster, you brought forth unharmed in abundance to all his own people, Father,

9And now, hater of insolence, abundant in mercy, judge of all, quickly appear to the holy ones of Israel’s race, who are being mistreated by the abominable, lawless nations.

10But if our way of life in the place of our exile has been caught up in ungodliness, then, after rescuing us from the hand of our enemies, destroy us by whatever death you choose, Master.

11Let not the empty-headed bless the empty things over the destruction of those beloved by you, saying, “Not even their God rescued them.”

12But you, who possess all might and dominion, unceasing One, eternal One, look now; have mercy on us, who through the insolent violence of lawless men are being irrationally removed from life in the manner of plotters.

13But let the nations cower today before your invincible power, O honored one, having power for the salvation of the race of Jacob.

14The whole multitude of the little children and their parents entreats you with tears.

15Let it be shown to all the nations that you are with us, Lord, and that you have not turned your face away from us; but just as you said, ‘Not even when they were in the land of their enemies did I disregard them,’ so accomplish it, Lord.

16But just as Eleazar was finishing his prayer, the king came along by the hippodrome with the beasts and all the tumult of his forces.

17And when the Jews saw it, they cried out loudly to heaven, so that even the neighboring courtyards, echoing with them, produced uncontrollable terror throughout the whole camp.

18Then the greatly glorious, almighty, and true God, revealing his holy face, opened the gates of heaven, from which two glorious angels of fearful appearance came down, visible to everyone except the Jews,

19And they rose up, and filled the force of their adversaries with confusion and cowardice, and bound them with immovable fetters.

20And even the king’s body became seized with shuddering, and his heavy-hearted boldness was overcome by forgetfulness.

21And the beasts turned against the armed forces following them, and they trampled them and destroyed them.

22And the king’s anger was turned into grief and tears over those things that had previously been devised before him.

23For when he heard the outcry, and saw all of them prostrate for destruction, he wept in anger and threatened his friends, saying,

24You have exceeded kings and surpassed tyrants in cruelty; and you are now even attempting to remove me myself, your benefactor, from power and from life, secretly plotting what is not advantageous to the kingdom.

25Who was it that removed each one from the secure strongholds of our homeland and household, where they had held us in faith, and gathered them here without reason?

26Who has so lawlessly surrounded with cruelties those who from the beginning have surpassed all nations in goodwill toward us in every respect, and who have repeatedly shown themselves to face the worst dangers among men?

27Release, release the unjust bonds; send them away to their own homes in peace, setting aside what has been ordered.

28Release the sons of the almighty, heavenly, living God, who from the time of our ancestors until now has brought unimpeded stability with glory to our affairs.

29So he said these things; but they, having been released in a moment, blessed their holy Savior God, having just escaped death.

30Then the king, after summoning to the city the one in charge of the revenues, ordered that wine and the other provisions suitable for feasting be supplied to the Jews for seven days, deciding that in the very place where they had expected to meet destruction, in that place they should celebrate their deliverance with all rejoicing.

31Then those who had formerly been disgraced and were near Hades—or rather, had already stepped onto it—in place of a bitter and hard-to-drink fate, prepared a saving drinking-bout, divided up as dining-couches, full of joy, the place prepared for them for downfall and a grave.

32And when they had ended their utterly mournful song of lamentation, they took up the song of their fathers, praising God, the savior of Israel and worker of wonders; and having cast off every cry of grief and wailing, they formed dances as a sign of peaceful rejoicing.

33Likewise, the king also, holding a great banquet because of these things, was continually offering exalted thanksgiving to heaven for their astonishing deliverance that had taken place.

34And those who had previously been reckoning them for destruction and to be devoured by birds, and had registered them with joy, groaned deeply, clothing themselves with shame, and their fire-breathing boldness was vigorously quenched.

35And the Jews, as we said before, having formed the previously mentioned chorus, spent their time with feasting, in joyful thanksgivings and psalms,

36And having established a common ordinance concerning these things for all their community throughout their generations, they decreed that the previously mentioned days should be observed as days of rejoicing, not for the sake of drinking and gluttony, but because of the deliverance that had come to them through God.

37And they approached the king, asking for their release to their own homes.

38Copies were made for them from the twenty-fifth of Pachon until the fourth of Epiphi, over forty days; and they appointed their destruction from the fifth of Epiphi until the seventh, in three days.

39In these things also, after gloriously revealing his mercy, the Sovereign of all rescued them all together without stumbling.

40And they all feasted, being supplied by the king, until the fourteenth day, on which they also made their petition concerning their release.

41And when the king agreed with them, he wrote them the following letter to the generals in each city, magnanimously setting out the full account: