2 Maccabees 10:10-13:26

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

VI. Renewed Persecution

Accession of Antiochus V. ¹⁰ Now we shall relate what happened under Antiochus Eupator, the son of that godless man, and shall give a summary of the chief evils caused by the wars. ¹¹ When Eupator succeeded to the kingdom, he put a certain Lysias in charge of the government as commander-in-chief of Coelesyria and Phoenicia. ¹² Ptolemy, called Macron,^[a] had taken the lead in treating the Jews fairly because of the previous injustice that had been done them, and he endeavored to have peaceful relations with them. ¹³ As a result, he was accused before Eupator by the King’s Friends. In fact, on all sides he heard himself called a traitor for having abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and for having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Since he could not command the respect due to his high office, he ended his life by taking poison.

Victory over the Idumeans.^{[b] 14 (A)}When Gorgias became governor of the region, he employed foreign troops and used every opportunity to attack the Jews. ¹⁵ At the same time the Idumeans, who held some strategic strongholds, were harassing the Jews; they welcomed fugitives from Jerusalem and endeavored to continue the war. ¹⁶ Maccabeus and his companions, after public prayers asking God to be their ally, moved quickly against the strongholds of the Idumeans. ¹⁷ Attacking vigorously, they gained control of the places, drove back all who were fighting on the walls, and cut down those who opposed them, killing no fewer than twenty thousand. ¹⁸ When at least nine thousand took refuge in two very strong towers, well equipped to sustain a siege, ¹⁹ Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, along with Zacchaeus and his forces, in sufficient numbers to besiege them, while he himself went off to places where he was more urgently needed. ²⁰ But some of those in Simon’s force who were lovers of money let themselves be bribed by some of those in the towers; on receiving seventy thousand drachmas, they allowed a number of them to escape. ²¹ When Maccabeus was told what had happened, he assembled the rulers of the people and accused those men of having sold their kindred for money by setting their enemies free to fight against them. ²² So he put them to death as traitors, and without delay captured the two towers. ²³ As he was successful at arms in all his undertakings, he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two strongholds.

Victory over Timothy. ²⁴ Timothy, who had previously been defeated by the Jews,^[c] gathered a tremendous force of foreign troops and collected a large number of cavalry from Asia; then he appeared in Judea, ready to conquer it by force. ²⁵ At his approach, Maccabeus and his companions made supplication to God, sprinkling earth upon their heads and girding their loins in sackcloth. ²⁶ Lying prostrate at the foot of the altar, they begged him to be gracious to them, and to be an enemy to their enemies, and a foe to their foes, as the law declares.^{(B) 27} After the prayer, they took up their weapons and advanced a considerable distance from the city, halting when they were close to the enemy. ²⁸ As soon as dawn broke,^[d] the armies joined battle, the one having as pledge of success and victory not only their valor but also their reliance on the Lord, and the other taking fury as their leader in the fight.

^29 (C)In the midst of the fierce battle, there appeared to the enemy five majestic men from the heavens riding on golden-bridled horses, leading the Jews. ³⁰ They surrounded Maccabeus, and shielding him with their own armor, kept him from being wounded. They shot arrows and hurled thunderbolts at the enemy, who were bewildered and blinded, routed in utter confusion. ³¹ Twenty thousand five hundred of their foot soldiers and six hundred cavalry were slain.

³² Timothy, however, fled to a well-fortified stronghold called Gazara, where Chaereas was in command.^{(D) 33} For four days Maccabeus and his forces eagerly besieged the fortress. ³⁴ Those inside, relying on the strength of the place, kept repeating outrageous blasphemies and uttering abominable words. ³⁵ When the fifth day dawned, twenty young men in the army of Maccabeus, angered over such blasphemies, bravely stormed the wall and with savage fury cut down everyone they encountered. ³⁶ Similarly, others climbed up and swung around on the defenders; they put the towers to the torch, spread the fire and burned the blasphemers alive. Still others broke down the gates and let in the rest of the troops, who took possession of the city. ³⁷ Timothy had hidden in a cistern, but they killed^[e] him, along with his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes. ³⁸ On completing these exploits, they blessed, with hymns of grateful praise, the Lord who shows great kindness to Israel and grants them victory.

Chapter 11

Defeat of Lysias.^{[f] 1 (E)}Very soon afterward, Lysias, guardian and kinsman of the king and head of the government, being greatly displeased at what had happened, ² mustered about eighty thousand infantry and all his cavalry and marched against the Jews. His plan was to make their city a Greek settlement; ³ to levy tribute on the temple, as he did on the shrines of the other nations; and to put the high priesthood up for sale every year.^{(F) 4} He did not take God’s power into account at all, but felt exultant confidence in his myriads of foot soldiers, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.^{(G) 5} So he invaded Judea, and when he reached Beth-zur, a fortified place about five stadia^[g] from Jerusalem, launched a strong attack against it.

⁶ When Maccabeus and his companions learned that Lysias was besieging the strongholds, they and all the people begged the Lord with lamentations and tears to send a good angel to save Israel.^{(H) 7} Maccabeus himself was the first to take up arms, and he exhorted the others to join him in risking their lives to help their kindred. Then they resolutely set out together. ⁸ Suddenly, while they were still near Jerusalem, a horseman appeared at their head, clothed in white garments and brandishing gold weapons.^{(I) 9} Then all of them together thanked the merciful God, and their hearts were filled with such courage that they were ready to assault not only human beings but even the most savage beasts, or even walls of iron. ¹⁰ Now that the Lord had shown mercy toward them, they advanced in battle order with the aid of their heavenly ally. ¹¹ Hurling themselves upon the enemy like lions, they laid low eleven thousand foot soldiers and sixteen hundred cavalry, and put all the rest to flight. ¹² Most of those who survived were wounded and disarmed, while Lysias himself escaped only by shameful flight.

Peace Negotiations. ^13 (J)But Lysias was not a stupid man. He reflected on the defeat he had suffered, and came to realize that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God was their ally. He therefore sent a message ¹⁴ persuading them to settle everything on just terms, and promising to persuade the king also, and to induce him to become their friend. ¹⁵ Maccabeus, solicitous for the common good, agreed to all that Lysias proposed; and the king granted on behalf of the Jews all the written requests of Maccabeus to Lysias.

¹⁶ These are the terms of the letter which Lysias wrote to the Jews: “Lysias sends greetings to the Jewish people. ¹⁷ John and Absalom, your envoys, have presented your signed communication and asked about the matters contained in it. ¹⁸ Whatever had to be referred to the king I called to his attention, and the things that were acceptable he has granted. ¹⁹ If you maintain your loyalty to the government, I will endeavor to further your interests in the future. ²⁰ On the details of these matters I have authorized my representatives, as well as your envoys, to confer with you. ²¹ Farewell.” The one hundred and forty-eighth year,^[h] the twenty-fourth of Dioscorinthius.

²² The king’s letter read thus: “King Antiochus sends greetings to his brother Lysias. ²³ Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, we wish the subjects of our kingdom to be undisturbed in conducting their own affairs. ²⁴ We have heard that the Jews do not agree with our father’s change to Greek customs but prefer their own way of life. They are petitioning us to let them retain their own customs. ²⁵ Since we desire that this people too should be undisturbed, our decision is that their temple be restored to them and that they live in keeping with the customs of their ancestors. ²⁶ Accordingly, please send them messengers to give them our assurances of friendship, so that, when they learn of our decision, they may have nothing to worry about but may contentedly go about their own business.”

²⁷ The king’s letter to the people was as follows: “King Antiochus sends greetings to the Jewish senate and to the rest of the Jews. ²⁸ If you are well, it is what we desire. We too are in good health. ²⁹ Menelaus has told us of your wish to return home and attend to your own affairs. ³⁰ Therefore, those who return by the thirtieth of Xanthicus will have our assurance of full permission ³¹ to observe their dietary and other laws, just as before, and none of the Jews shall be molested in any way for faults committed through ignorance. ³² I have also sent Menelaus to reassure you. ³³ Farewell.” In the one hundred and forty-eighth year, the fifteenth of Xanthicus.^[i]

³⁴ The Romans also sent them a letter as follows: “Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, legates of the Romans, send greetings to the Jewish people. ³⁵ What Lysias, kinsman of the king, has granted you, we also approve. ³⁶ But for the matters that he decided should be submitted to the king, send someone to us immediately with your decisions so that we may present them to your advantage, for we are on our way to Antioch. ³⁷ Make haste, then, to send us those who can inform us of your preference. ³⁸ Farewell.” In the one hundred and forty-eighth year, the fifteenth of Xanthicus.^[j]

Chapter 12

Incidents at Joppa and Jamnia. ¹ After these agreements were made, Lysias returned to the king, and the Jews went about their farming. ² But some of the local governors, Timothy and Apollonius, son of Gennaeus,^[k] as also Hieronymus and Demophon, to say nothing of Nicanor, the commander of the Cyprians, would not allow them to live in peace and quiet.

³ Some people of Joppa also committed this outrage: they invited the Jews who lived among them, together with their wives and children, to embark on boats which they had provided. There was no hint of enmity toward them. ⁴ This was done by public vote of the city. When the Jews, wishing to live on friendly terms and not suspecting anything, accepted the invitation, the people of Joppa took them out to sea and drowned at least two hundred of them.

⁵ As soon as Judas heard of the barbarous deed perpetrated against his compatriots, he summoned his men; ⁶ and after calling upon God, the just judge, he marched against the murderers of his kindred. In a night attack he set the harbor on fire, burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there. ⁷ Because the gates of the town were shut, he withdrew, intending to come back later and wipe out the entire population of Joppa.

⁸ On hearing that the people of Jamnia planned in the same way to wipe out the Jews who lived among them, ⁹ he attacked the Jamnians by night, setting fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the flames was visible as far as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.

More Victories by Judas. ^10 (K)When the Jews had gone about a mile from there^[l] in the march against Timothy, they were attacked by Arabians numbering at least five thousand foot soldiers and five hundred cavalry. ¹¹ After a hard fight, Judas and his companions, with God’s help, were victorious. The defeated nomads begged Judas to give pledges of friendship, and they promised to supply the Jews with livestock and to be of service to them in any other way. ¹² Realizing that they could indeed be useful in many respects, Judas agreed to make peace with them. After the pledges of friendship had been exchanged, the Arabians withdrew to their tents.

¹³ He also attacked a certain city called Caspin, fortified with earthworks and walls and inhabited by a mixed population of Gentiles. ¹⁴ Relying on the strength of their walls and their supply of provisions, the besieged treated Judas and his men with contempt, insulting them and even uttering blasphemies and profanity. ¹⁵ But Judas and his men invoked the aid of the great Sovereign of the world, who, in the days of Joshua, overthrew Jericho without battering rams or siege engines; then they furiously stormed the walls.^{(L) 16} Capturing the city by the will of God, they inflicted such indescribable slaughter on it that the adjacent pool, which was about a quarter of a mile wide, seemed to be filled with the blood that flowed into it.

^17 (M)When they had gone on some ninety miles, they reached Charax, where there were certain Jews known as Toubians.^{[m](N) 18} But they did not find Timothy in that region, for he had already departed from there without having done anything except to leave behind in one place a very strong garrison. ¹⁹ But Dositheus and Sosipater, two of Maccabeus’ captains, marched out and destroyed the force of more than ten thousand men that Timothy had left in the stronghold. ²⁰ Meanwhile, Maccabeus divided his army into cohorts, with a commander over each cohort, and went in pursuit of Timothy, who had a force of a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twenty-five hundred cavalry. ²¹ When Timothy learned of the approach of Judas, he sent on ahead of him the women and children, as well as the baggage, to a place called Karnion, which was hard to besiege and even hard to reach because of the difficult terrain of that region. ²² But when Judas’ first cohort appeared, the enemy was overwhelmed with fear and terror at the manifestation of the all-seeing One. Scattering in every direction, they rushed away in such headlong flight that in many cases they wounded one another, pierced by the points of their own swords. ²³ Judas pressed the pursuit vigorously, putting the sinners to the sword and destroying as many as thirty thousand men.

²⁴ Timothy himself fell into the hands of those under Dositheus and Sosipater; but with great cunning, he begged them to spare his life and let him go, because he had in his power the parents and relatives of many of them, and would show them no consideration. ²⁵ When he had fully confirmed his solemn pledge to restore them unharmed, they let him go for the sake of saving their relatives.

^26 (O)Judas then marched to Karnion and the shrine of Atargatis,^[n] where he killed twenty-five thousand people. ²⁷ After the defeat and destruction of these, he moved his army to Ephron, a fortified city inhabited by Lysias and people of many nationalities. Robust young men took up their posts in defense of the walls, from which they fought valiantly; inside were large supplies of war machines and missiles. ²⁸ But the Jews, invoking the Sovereign who powerfully shatters the might of enemies, got possession of the city and slaughtered twenty-five thousand of the people in it.

²⁹ Then they set out from there and hastened on to Scythopolis,^[o] seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. ³⁰ But when the Jews who lived there testified to the goodwill shown by the Scythopolitans and to their kind treatment even in times of adversity, ³¹ Judas and his men thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their nation in the future also. Finally they arrived in Jerusalem, shortly before the feast of Weeks.

³² After this feast, also called Pentecost, they lost no time in marching against Gorgias, governor of Idumea, ³³ who opposed them with three thousand foot soldiers and four hundred cavalry. ³⁴ In the ensuing battle, a few of the Jews were slain. ³⁵ A man called Dositheus, a powerful horseman and one of Bacenor’s men,^[p] caught hold of Gorgias, grasped his military cloak and dragged him along by brute strength, intending to capture the vile wretch alive, when a Thracian horseman attacked Dositheus and cut off his arm at the shoulder. Then Gorgias fled to Marisa.

³⁶ After Esdris and his men had been fighting for a long time and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in the battle. ³⁷ Then, raising a battle cry in his ancestral language, and with hymns, he charged Gorgias’ men when they were not expecting it and put them to flight.

Expiation for the Dead. ³⁸ Judas rallied his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was approaching, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the sabbath there. ³⁹ On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his companions went to gather up the bodies of the fallen and bury them with their kindred in their ancestral tombs. ⁴⁰ But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had fallen.^{(P) 41} They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden. ^42 [q]Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.^{(Q) 43} He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; ⁴⁴ for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. ⁴⁵ But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. ⁴⁶ Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.

Chapter 13

Death of Menelaus. ^1 (R)In the one hundred and forty-ninth year,^[r] Judas and his men learned that Antiochus Eupator was invading Judea with a large force, ² and that with him was Lysias, his guardian, who was in charge of the government. They led^[s] a Greek army of one hundred and ten thousand foot soldiers, fifty-three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots armed with scythes.

³ Menelaus also joined them, and with great duplicity kept urging Antiochus on, not for the welfare of his country, but in the hope of being established in office. ⁴ But the King of kings^(S) aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel. When the king was shown by Lysias that Menelaus was to blame for all the trouble, he ordered him to be taken to Beroea^[t] and executed there in the customary local method. ⁵ There is at that place a tower seventy-five feet high, full of ashes,^[u] with a circular rim sloping down steeply on all sides toward the ashes. ⁶ Anyone guilty of sacrilege or notorious for certain other crimes is brought up there and then hurled down to destruction. ⁷ In such a manner was Menelaus, that transgressor of the law, fated to die, deprived even of burial. ⁸ It was altogether just that he who had committed so many sins against the altar with its pure fire and ashes, in ashes should meet his death.

Battle near Modein. ⁹ The king was advancing, his mind full of savage plans for inflicting on the Jews things worse than those they suffered in his father’s time. ¹⁰ When Judas learned of this, he urged the people to call upon the Lord day and night, now more than ever, to help them when they were about to be deprived of their law, their country, and their holy temple; ¹¹ and not to allow this people, which had just begun to revive, to be subjected again to blasphemous Gentiles. ¹² When they had all joined in doing this, and had implored the merciful Lord continuously with weeping and fasting and prostrations for three days, Judas encouraged them and told them to stand ready.

¹³ After a private meeting with the elders, he decided that, before the king’s army could invade Judea and take possession of the city, the Jews should march out and settle the matter with God’s help. ¹⁴ Leaving the outcome to the Creator of the world, and exhorting his followers to fight nobly to death for the laws, the temple, the city, the country, and the government, he encamped near Modein. ¹⁵ Giving his troops the battle cry “God’s Victory,” he made a night attack on the king’s pavilion with a picked force of the bravest young men and killed about two thousand in the camp. He also stabbed the lead elephant and its rider.^{(T) 16} Finally they withdrew in triumph,^[v] having filled the camp with terror and confusion. ¹⁷ Day was just breaking when this was accomplished with the help and protection of the Lord.

Treaty with Antiochus V. ^18 (U)The king, having had a taste of the Jews’ boldness, tried to take their positions by a stratagem. ¹⁹ So he marched against Beth-zur, a strong fortress of the Jews; but he was driven back, checked, and defeated. ²⁰ Judas sent supplies to the men inside, ²¹ but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, betrayed military secrets^[w] to the enemy. He was found out, arrested, and imprisoned. ²² The king made a second attempt by negotiating with the people of Beth-zur. After giving them his pledge and receiving theirs, he withdrew ²³ and attacked Judas’ men. But he was defeated. Next he heard that Philip, who was left in charge of the government in Antioch, had rebelled. Dismayed, he negotiated with the Jews, submitted to their terms, and swore to observe all their rights. Having come to this agreement, he offered a sacrifice, and honored the sanctuary and the place with a generous donation. ²⁴ He received Maccabeus, and left Hegemonides as governor of the territory from Ptolemais to the region of the Gerrhenes.^{[x] 25} When he came to Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais were angered by the peace treaty; in fact they were so indignant that they wanted to annul its provisions. ²⁶ But Lysias took the platform, defended the treaty as well as he could and won them over by persuasion. After calming them and gaining their goodwill, he returned to Antioch. That is the story of the king’s attack and withdrawal.