3. Septuagint, 2 Maccabees, 1.1-1.5, 1.27-1.29, 1.34, 2.4, 2.18, 3.1-3.4, 3.7, 3.15, 3.22, 3.31, 3.38, 4.2, 4.5, 4.7, 4.9-4.17, 4.19-4.21, 4.27, 4.29-4.32, 4.34, 4.37-4.38, 4.44-4.49, 5.6-5.8, 5.15-5.20, 5.22-5.23, 6.3, 6.12-6.17, 7.31, 7.33, 8.2, 8.18, 8.29, 8.36, 9.5-9.10, 9.19, 9.28, 10.11, 10.15-10.16, 11.31, 12.6, 12.15, 12.28, 12.36, 13.6-13.8, 13.10, 14.8, 14.37, 15.21-15.22, 15.27, 15.30-15.33, 15.36 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 1.1. The Jewish brethren in Jerusalem and those in the land of Judea, To their Jewish brethren in Egypt, Greeting, and good peace.' 1.2. May God do good to you, and may he remember his covet with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants.' 1.3. May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a strong heart and a willing spirit. 1.4. May he open your heart to his law and his commandments, and may he bring peace.' 1.5. May he hear your prayers and be reconciled to you, and may he not forsake you in time of evil.' 1.27. Gather together our scattered people, set free those who are slaves among the Gentiles, look upon those who are rejected and despised, and let the Gentiles know that thou art our God.' 1.28. Afflict those who oppress and are insolent with pride. 1.29. Plant thy people in thy holy place, as Moses said.' 1.34. the king investigated the matter, and enclosed the place and made it sacred.' 2.4. It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God.' 2.18. as he promised through the law. For we have hope in God that he will soon have mercy upon us and will gather us from everywhere under heaven into his holy place, for he has rescued us from great evils and has purified the place.' 3.1. While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were very well observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness,' 3.2. it came about that the kings themselves honored the place and glorified the temple with the finest presents,' 3.3. o that even Seleucus, the king of Asia, defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses connected with the service of the sacrifices.' 3.4. But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been made captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the administration of the city market;' 3.7. When Apollonius met the king, he told him of the money about which he had been informed. The king chose Heliodorus, who was in charge of his affairs, and sent him with commands to effect the removal of the aforesaid money.' 3.15. The priests prostrated themselves before the altar in their priestly garments and called toward heaven upon him who had given the law about deposits, that he should keep them safe for those who had deposited them.' 3.22. While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had entrusted it,' 3.31. Quickly some of Heliodorus' friends asked Onias to call upon the Most High and to grant life to one who was lying quite at his last breath. 3.38. If you have any enemy or plotter against your government, send him there, for you will get him back thoroughly scourged, if he escapes at all, for there certainly is about the place some power of God.' 4.2. He dared to designate as a plotter against the government the man who was the benefactor of the city, the protector of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws.' 4.5. So he betook himself to the king, not accusing his fellow citizens but having in view the welfare, both public and private, of all the people.' 4.7. When Seleucus died and Antiochus who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption,' 4.9. In addition to this he promised to pay one hundred and fifty more if permission were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enrol the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.' 4.10. When the king assented and Jason came to office, he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life.' 4.11. He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, secured through John the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to establish friendship and alliance with the Romans; and he destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law.' 4.12. For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.' 4.13. There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest,' 4.14. that the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar. Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the call to the discus,' 4.15. disdaining the honors prized by their fathers and putting the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige. 4.16. For this reason heavy disaster overtook them, and those whose ways of living they admired and wished to imitate completely became their enemies and punished them.' 4.17. For it is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws -- a fact which later events will make clear. 4.19. the vile Jason sent envoys, chosen as being Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem, to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. Those who carried the money, however, thought best not to use it for sacrifice, because that was inappropriate, but to expend it for another purpose.' 4.20. So this money was intended by the sender for the sacrifice to Hercules, but by the decision of its carriers it was applied to the construction of triremes.' 4.21. When Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent to Egypt for the coronation of Philometor as king, Antiochus learned that Philometor had become hostile to his government, and he took measures for his own security. Therefore upon arriving at Joppa he proceeded to Jerusalem.' 4.27. And Menelaus held the office, but he did not pay regularly any of the money promised to the king.' 4.29. Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.' 4.30. While such was the state of affairs, it happened that the people of Tarsus and of Mallus revolted because their cities had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king's concubine.' 4.31. So the king went hastily to settle the trouble, leaving Andronicus, a man of high rank, to act as his deputy.' 4.32. But Menelaus, thinking he had obtained a suitable opportunity, stole some of the gold vessels of the temple and gave them to Andronicus; other vessels, as it happened, he had sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities.' 4.34. Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, urged him to kill Onias. Andronicus came to Onias, and resorting to treachery offered him sworn pledges and gave him his right hand, and in spite of his suspicion persuaded Onias to come out from the place of sanctuary; then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him out of the way.' 4.37. Therefore Antiochus was grieved at heart and filled with pity, and wept because of the moderation and good conduct of the deceased;' 4.38. and inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped off the purple robe from Andronicus, tore off his garments, and led him about the whole city to that very place where he had committed the outrage against Onias, and there he dispatched the bloodthirsty fellow. The Lord thus repaid him with the punishment he deserved.' 4.44. When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case before him.' 4.45. But Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes to win over the king.' 4.46. Therefore Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment, induced the king to change his mind.' 4.47. Menelaus, the cause of all the evil, he acquitted of the charges against him, while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men, who would have been freed uncondemned if they had pleaded even before Scythians.' 4.48. And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty. 4.49. Therefore even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently for their funeral.' 5.6. But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his fellow citizens, not realizing that success at the cost of one's kindred is the greatest misfortune, but imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over fellow countrymen.' 5.7. He did not gain control of the government, however; and in the end got only disgrace from his conspiracy, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.' 5.8. Finally he met a miserable end. Accused before Aretas the ruler of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by all men, hated as a rebel against the laws, and abhorred as the executioner of his country and his fellow citizens, he was cast ashore in Egypt;' 5.15. Not content with this, Antiochus dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country.' 5.16. He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands, and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings which other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the place.' 5.17. Antiochus was elated in spirit, and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who dwelt in the city, and that therefore he was disregarding the holy place.' 5.18. But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been scourged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodorus was, whom Seleucus the king sent to inspect the treasury.' 5.19. But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation.' 5.20. Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled. 5.22. And he left governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, by birth a Phrygian and in character more barbarous than the man who appointed him;' 5.23. and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these Menelaus, who lorded it over his fellow citizens worse than the others did. In his malice toward the Jewish citizens,' 6.3. Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil. 6.12. Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.' 6.13. In fact, not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness.' 6.14. For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but he does not deal in this way with us,' 6.15. in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height. 6.16. Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Though he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.' 6.17. Let what we have said serve as a reminder; we must go on briefly with the story. 7.31. But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God.' 7.33. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.' 8.2. They besought the Lord to look upon the people who were oppressed by all, and to have pity on the temple which had been profaned by ungodly men,' 8.18. For they trust to arms and acts of daring,'he said, 'but we trust in the Almighty God, who is able with a single nod to strike down those who are coming against us and even the whole world.' 8.29. When they had done this, they made common supplication and besought the merciful Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.' 8.36. Thus he who had undertaken to secure tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender, and that therefore the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained by him.' 9.5. But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow. As soon as he ceased speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures --' 9.6. and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions.' 9.7. Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.' 9.8. Thus he who had just been thinking that he could command the waves of the sea, in his superhuman arrogance, and imagining that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance, was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.' 9.9. And so the ungodly man's body swarmed with worms, and while he was still living in anguish and pain, his flesh rotted away, and because of his stench the whole army felt revulsion at his decay.' 9.10. Because of his intolerable stench no one was able to carry the man who a little while before had thought that he could touch the stars of heaven. 9.19. To his worthy Jewish citizens, Antiochus their king and general sends hearty greetings and good wishes for their health and prosperity.' 9.28. So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the more intense suffering, such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his life by a most pitiable fate, among the mountains in a strange land.' 10.11. This man, when he succeeded to the kingdom, appointed one Lysias to have charge of the government and to be chief governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.' 10.15. Besides this, the Idumeans, who had control of important strongholds, were harassing the Jews; they received those who were banished from Jerusalem, and endeavored to keep up the war.' 10.16. But Maccabeus and his men, after making solemn supplication and beseeching God to fight on their side, rushed to the strongholds of the Idumeans.' 11.31. for the Jews to enjoy their own food and laws, just as formerly, and none of them shall be molested in any way for what he may have done in ignorance.' 12.6. and, calling upon God the righteous Judge, attacked the murderers of his brethren. He set fire to the harbor by night, and burned the boats, and massacred those who had taken refuge there.' 12.15. But Judas and his men, calling upon the great Sovereign of the world, who without battering-rams or engines of war overthrew Jericho in the days of Joshua, rushed furiously upon the walls.' 12.28. But the Jews called upon the Sovereign who with power shatters the might of his enemies, and they got the city into their hands, and killed as many as twenty-five thousand of those who were within it.' 12.36. As 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.' 13.6. There they all push to destruction any man guilty of sacrilege or notorious for other crimes. 13.7. By such a fate it came about that Menelaus the lawbreaker died, without even burial in the earth.' 13.8. And this was eminently just; because he had committed many sins against the altar whose fire and ashes were holy, he met his death in ashes.' 13.10. But when Judas heard of this, he ordered the people to call upon the Lord day and night, now if ever to help those who were on the point of being deprived of the law and their country and the holy temple,' 14.8. first because I am genuinely concerned for the interests of the king, and second because I have regard also for my fellow citizens. For through the folly of those whom I have mentioned our whole nation is now in no small misfortune.' 14.37. A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a man who loved his fellow citizens and was very well thought of and for his good will was called father of the Jews.' 15.21. Maccabeus, perceiving the hosts that were before him and the varied supply of arms and the savagery of the elephants, stretched out his hands toward heaven and called upon the Lord who works wonders; for he knew that it is not by arms, but as the Lord decides, that he gains the victory for those who deserve it.' 15.22. And he called upon him in these words: 'O Lord, thou didst send thy angel in the time of Hezekiah king of Judea, and he slew fully a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Sennacherib.' 15.27. So, fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they laid low no less than thirty-five thousand men, and were greatly gladdened by God's manifestation.' 15.30. And the man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his fellow citizens, the man who maintained his youthful good will toward his countrymen, ordered them to cut off Nicanor's head and arm and carry them to Jerusalem.' 15.31. And when he arrived there and had called his countrymen together and stationed the priests before the altar, he sent for those who were in the citadel.' 15.32. He showed them the vile Nicanor's head and that profane man's arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty;' 15.33. and he cut out the tongue of the ungodly Nicanor and said that he would give it piecemeal to the birds and hang up these rewards of his folly opposite the sanctuary. 15.36. And they all decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month -- which is called Adar in the Syrian language -- the day before Mordecai's day.' |
|
