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2 Machabees 1:19

For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that then were worshippers of God took privately the fire from the altar, and hid it in a valley where there was a deep pit without water, and there they kept it safe, so that the place was unknown to all men.

Challoner: PersiaBabylonia, called here Persia, from being afterwards a part of the Persian empire.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Nam cum in Persidem ducerentur patres nostri, sacerdotes qui tunc cultores Dei erant, acceptum ignem de altari occulte absconderunt in valle, ubi erat puteus altus et siccus, et in eo contutati sunt eum, ita ut omnibus ignotus esset locus.
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ γὰρ ὅτε εἰς τὴν Περσικὴν ἤγοντο ἡμῶν οἱ πατέρες, οἵ τε εὐσεβεῖς ἱερεῖς λαβόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου λαθραίως, κατέκρυψαν ἐν κοιλώματι φρέατος τάξιν ἔχοντος ἄνυδρον, ἐν ᾧ κατησφαλίσαντο, ὥστε πᾶσιν ἄγνωστον εἶναι τὸν τόπον.

Haydock's commentary

Persia. Babylonia, called here Persia, from being afterwards a part of the Persian empire. (Challoner)

Thus St. Chrysostom (H. 6. in Mat.) says, the Jews were delivered from "the Persian captivity." (Worthington)

All beyond the Euphrates [River] was now called Persia.

Valley of Topheth, where (Calmet) it is still shewn. (Doubdan.)

The miraculous pit was enclosed by Artaxerxes, chap. v. 33. (Haydock)

Four miracles occurred respecting this fire, ver. 20, 22, 32. (Worthington)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XVII. With what virtuous feelings the fathers of old hid the sacred fires when on the point of going into captivity

99. For when our fathers were carried away into Persia, certain priests, who then were in the service of Almighty God, secretly buried in the valley the fire taken from the altar of the Lord. There was there an open pit, with no water in it, and not accessible for the wants of the people, in a spot unknown and free from intruders. There they sealed the hidden fire with the sacred mark and in secret. They were not anxious to bury gold or to hide up silver to preserve it for their children, but in their own great peril, thinking of all that was virtuous, they thought the sacred fire ought to be preserved so that impure men might not defile it, nor the blood of the slain extinguish it, nor the heaps of miserable ruins cover it.