1 Maccabees 2:29-31

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

²⁹ Then many who were seeking righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to dwell there, ³⁰ they, their sons, their wives, and their cattle, because evils pressed heavily upon them. ³¹ And it was reported to the king’s officers, and to the troops in Jerusalem the city of David, that men who had rejected the king’s command had gone down to the hiding places in the wilderness.