2 Maccabees 5:17-19

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

¹⁷ Antiochus was elated in spirit, and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who lived in the city, and that this was the reason he was disregarding the holy place. ¹⁸ But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been flogged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodorus had been, whom King Seleucus sent to inspect the treasury. ¹⁹ But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation.