2 Maccabees 9:11–17

¹¹And by this means, being brought from his great pride, he began to come to the knowledge of himself, being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment.

¹²And when he himself could not now abide his own stench, he spoke thus: It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal man should not equal himself to God.

¹³Then this wicked man prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not like to obtain mercy.

¹⁴And the city, to which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground, and to make it a common burying place, he now desireth to make free:

¹⁵And the Jews, whom he said he would not account worthy to be so much as buried, but would give them up to be devoured by the birds and wild beasts, and would utterly destroy them with their children, he now promiseth to make equal with the Athenians.

¹⁶The holy temple also, which before he had spoiled, he promised to adorn with goodly gifts, and to multiply the holy vessels, and to allow out of his revenues the charges pertaining to the sacrifices.

¹⁷Yea also, that he would become a Jew himself, and would go through every place of the earth, and declare the power of God.