2 Maccabees 8:1-3

Revised Standard Version

The Revolt of Judas Maccabeus

8 But Judas, who was also called Maccabe′us, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kinsmen and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith, and so they gathered about six thousand men. ² They besought the Lord to look upon the people who were oppressed by all, and to have pity on the temple which had been profaned by ungodly men, ³ and to have mercy on the city which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground, and to hearken to the blood that cried out to him,