2macc 9:21
King James Version
“As for me, I was weak, or else I would have remembered kindly your honour and good will returning out of Persia, and being taken with a grievous disease, I thought it necessary to care for the common safety of all:”
Context
18But for all this his pains would not cease: for the just judgment of God was come upon him: therefore despairing of his health, he wrote unto the Jews the letter underwritten, containing the form of a supplication, after this manner:
19Antiochus, king and governor, to the good Jews his citizens wisheth much joy, health, and prosperity:
20If ye and your children fare well, and your affairs be to your contentment, I give very great thanks to God, having my hope in heaven.
21As for me, I was weak, or else I would have remembered kindly your honour and good will returning out of Persia, and being taken with a grievous disease, I thought it necessary to care for the common safety of all:
22Not distrusting mine health, but having great hope to escape this sickness.
23But considering that even my father, at what time he led an army into the high countries. appointed a successor,
24To the end that, if any thing fell out contrary to expectation, or if any tidings were brought that were grievous, they of the land, knowing to whom the state was left, might not be troubled: