2 Maccabees 6:12–17

Now I beseech the readers of this book not to be discouraged by such calamities, but to reflect that our people were being punished by way of chastening and not for their destruction. For indeed it is a mark of great kindness when the impious are not let alone for a long time, but punished at once. In the case of other nations, the Sovereign Lord in his forbearance refrains from punishing them till they have filled up their sins to the full, but in our case he has determined otherwise, that his vengeance may not fall on us in after-days when our sins have reached their height. Wherefore he never withdraweth his mercy from us; and though he chasteneth his own people with calamity, he forsaketh them not. So much by way of a reminder to ourselves; after these few words we must come back to our story.