31
"Were your parents or children present, I would have prepared them to be a rich feast for the savage beasts instead of the Jews, who give me no ground for complaint and have exhibited to an extraordinary degree a full and firm loyalty to my ancestors.
32
In fact you would have been deprived of life instead of these, were it not for an affection arising from our nurture in common and your usefulness."
33
So Hermon suffered an unexpected and dangerous threat, and his eyes wavered and his face fell.
34
The king's friends one by one sullenly slipped away and dismissed the assembled people, each to his own occupation.
35
Then the Jews, upon hearing what the king had said, praised the manifest Lord God, King of kings, since this also was his aid which they had received.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.