2 Maccabees 1:19

19 For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests who were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water where they kept it secure, so that the place was unknown to all men.

2 Maccabees 1:19 In-Context

17 Blessed be our God in all things, who hath delivered up the ungodly!

18 "Therefore, whereas we are now purposed to keep the purification of the temple upon the five and twentieth day of the month of Chislev,we thought it necessary to certify you thereof, that ye also might keep it as the Feast of the Tabernacles, and of the fire which was given us when Nehemiah offered sacrifice after he had built the temple and the altar.

19 For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests who were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water where they kept it secure, so that the place was unknown to all men.

20 Now after many years, when it pleased God, Nehemiah, being sent from the king of Persia, sent the descend-ants of those priests, who had hid the fire, to it. But when they told us they found no fire, but thick liquid,

21 then he commanded them to draw it up and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid on, Nehemiah commanded the priests to sprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the liquid.