32. As they declared under oath that they did not know where the man they sought was,
33. he stretched out his right arm toward the temple and swore this oath: “If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I will level this shrine of God to the ground; I will tear down the altar, and erect here a splendid temple to Dionysus.”
34. With these words he went away. The priests stretched out their hands toward heaven, calling upon the unfailing defender of our nation in these words:
35. “Lord of all, though you are in need of nothing, you were pleased to have a temple for your dwelling place among us.
36. Therefore, Holy One, Lord of all holiness, preserve forever undefiled this house, which has been so recently purified.”
37. A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a patriot. A man highly regarded, he was called a father of the Jews because of his goodwill toward them.
38. In the days before the revolt, he had been convicted of being a Jew, and had risked body and soul in his ardent zeal for Judaism.
39. Nicanor, to show his disdain for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him.