Sefarim
Maqabim Bet8
2 Maccabees · Chapter 8
Then Judas Maccabeus, and they that were with him, went privily into the towns, and called their kinsfolks together, and took unto them all such as continued in the Jews’ religion, and assembled about six thousand men.
And they called upon the master, that he would look upon the people that was trodden down of all; and also pity the heikhal profaned of ungodly men;
And that he would have compassion upon the city, sore defaced, and ready to be made even with the ground; and hear the blood that cried unto him,
And remember the wicked slaughter of harmless infants, and the blasphemies committed against his name; and that he would shew his hatred against the wicked.
Now when Maccabeus had his company about him, he could not be withstood by the heathen: for the wrath of the master was turned into mercy.
Therefore he came at unawares, and burnt up towns and cities, and got into his hands the most commodious places, and overcame and put to flight no small number of his enemies.
But specially took he advantage of the night for such privy attempts, insomuch that the fruit of his holiness was spread every where.
So when Philip saw that this man increased by little and little, and that things prospered with him still more and more, he wrote unto Ptolemeus, the governor of Celosyria and Phenice, to yield more aid to the king’s affairs.
Then forthwith choosing Nicanor the son of Patroclus, one of his special friends, he sent him with no fewer than twenty thousand of all nations under him, to root out the whole generation of the Jews; and with him he joined also Gorgias a captain, who in matters of war had great experience.
So Nicanor undertook to make so much money of the captive Jews, as should defray the tribute of two thousand talents, which the king was to pay to the Romans.
Wherefore immediately he sent to the cities upon the sea coast, proclaiming a sale of the captive Jews, and promising that they should have fourscore and ten bodies for one talent, not expecting the vengeance that was to follow upon him from the Almighty Elohim.
Now when word was brought unto Judas of Nicanor’s coming, and he had imparted unto those that were with him that the army was at hand,
They that were fearful, and distrusted the justice of Elohim, fled, and conveyed themselves away.
Others sold all that they had left, and withal besought the master to deliver them, sold by the wicked Nicanor before they met together:
And if not for their own sakes, yet for the covenants he had made with their fathers, and for his holy and glorious name’s sake, by which they were called.
So Maccabeus called his men together unto the number of six thousand, and exhorted them not to be stricken with terror of the enemy, nor to fear the great multitude of the heathen, who came wrongly against them; but to fight manfully,
And to set before their eyes the injury that they had unjustly done to the holy place, and the cruel handling of the city, whereof they made a mockery, and also the taking away of the government of their forefathers:
For they, said he, trust in their weapons and boldness; but our confidence is in the Almighty who at a beck can cast down both them that come against us, and also all the world.
Moreover, he recounted unto them what helps their forefathers had found, and how they were delivered, when under Sennacherib an hundred fourscore and five thousand perished.
And he told them of the battle that they had in Bavel with the Galatians, how they came but eight thousand in all to the business, with four thousand Macedonians, and that the Macedonians being perplexed, the eight thousand destroyed an hundred and twenty thousand because of the help that they had from shamayim, and so received a great booty.
Thus when he had made them bold with these words, and ready to die for the torah and the country, he divided his army into four parts;
And joined with himself his own brethren, leaders of each band, to wit Simon, and Yoseph, and Yonatan, giving each one fifteen hundred men.
Also he appointed Eleazar to read the holy book: and when he had given them this watchword, The help of Elohim; himself leading the first band,
And by the help of the Almighty they slew above nine thousand of their enemies, and wounded and maimed the most part of Nicanor’s host, and so put all to flight;
And took their money that came to buy them, and pursued them far: but lacking time they returned:
For it was the day before the shabbat, and therefore they would no longer pursue them.
So when they had gathered their armour together, and spoiled their enemies, they occupied themselves about the shabbat, yielding exceeding praise and thanks to the master, who had preserved them unto that day, which was the beginning of mercy distilling upon them.
And after the shabbat, when they had given part of the spoils to the maimed, and the widows, and orphans, the residue they divided among themselves and their servants.
When this was done, and they had made a common supplication, they besought the merciful master to be reconciled with his servants for ever.
Moreover of those that were with Timotheus and Bacchides, who fought against them, they slew above twenty thousand, and very easily got high and strong holds, and divided among themselves many spoils more, and made the maimed, orphans, widows, yea, and the aged also, equal in spoils with themselves.
And when they had gathered their armour together, they laid them up all carefully in convenient places, and the remnant of the spoils they brought to Yerushalayim.
They slew also Philarches, that wicked person, who was with Timotheus, and had annoyed the Jews many ways.
Furthermore at such time as they kept the feast for the victory in their country they burnt Callisthenes, that had set fire upon the holy gates, who had fled into a little house; and so he received a reward meet for his wickedness.
As for that most ungracious Nicanor, who had brought a thousand merchants to buy the Jews,
He was through the help of the master brought down by them, of whom he made least account; and putting off his glorious apparel, and discharging his company, he came like a fugitive servant through the midland unto Antioch having very great dishonour, for that his host was destroyed.
Thus he, that took upon him to make good to the Romans their tribute by means of captives in Yerushalayim, told abroad, that the Jews had Elohim to fight for them, and therefore they could not be hurt, because they followed the laws that he gave them.
Sefarim
Maqabim Bet9
2 Maccabees · Chapter 9
About that time came Antiochus with dishonour out of the country of Persia
For he had entered the city called Persepolis, and went about to rob the heikhal, and to hold the city; whereupon the multitude running to defend themselves with their weapons put them to flight; and so it happened, that Antiochus being put to flight of the inhabitants returned with shame.
Now when he came to Ecbatane, news was brought him what had happened unto Nicanor and Timotheus.
Then swelling with anger. he thought to avenge upon the Jews the disgrace done unto him by those that made him flee. Therefore commanded he his chariotman to drive without ceasing, and to dispatch the journey, the judgment of Elohim now following him. For he had spoken proudly in this sort, That he would come to Yerushalayim and make it a common burying place of the Jews.
But the master Almighty, the Elohim of Isreal, smote him with an incurable and invisible plague: or as soon as he had spoken these words, a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts;
And that most justly: for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange torments.
Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging, but still was filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, and commanding to haste the journey: but it came to pass that he fell down from his chariot, carried violently; so that having a sore fall, all the members of his body were much pained.
And thus he that a little afore thought he might command the waves of the sea, (so proud was he beyond the condition of man) and weigh the high mountains in a balance, was now cast on the ground, and carried in an horselitter, shewing forth unto all the manifest power of Elohim.
So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army.
And the man, that thought a little afore he could reach to the stars of shamayim, no man could endure to carry for his intolerable stink.
Here therefore, being plagued, he began to leave off his great pride, and to come to the knowledge of himself by the scourge of Elohim, his pain increasing every moment.
And when he himself could not abide his own smell, he said these words, It is meet to be subject unto Elohim, and that a man that is mortal should not proudly think of himself if he were Elohim.
This wicked person vowed also unto the master, who now no more would have mercy upon him, saying thus,
That the holy city (to the which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground, and to make it a common buryingplace,) he would set at liberty:
And as touching the Jews, whom he had judged not worthy so much as to be buried, but to be cast out with their children to be devoured of the fowls and wild beasts, he would make them all equals to the citizens of Athens:
And the holy heikhal, which before he had spoiled, he would garnish with goodly gifts, and restore all the holy vessels with many more, and out of his own revenue defray the charges belonging to the sacrifices:
Yea, and that also he would become a Jew himself, and go through all the world that was inhabited, and declare the power of Elohim.
But for all this his pains would not cease: for the just judgment of Elohim 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:
Antiochus, king and governor, to the good Jews his citizens wisheth much joy, health, and prosperity:
If ye and your children fare well, and your affairs be to your contentment, I give very great thanks to Elohim, having my hope in shamayim.
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:
Not distrusting mine health, but having great hope to escape this sickness.
But considering that even my father, at what time he led an army into the high countries. appointed a successor,
To 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:
Again, considering how that the princes that are borderers and neighbours unto my kingdom wait for opportunities, and expect what shall be the event. I have appointed my son Antiochus king, whom I often committed and commended unto many of you, when I went up into the high provinces; to whom I have written as followeth:
Therefore I pray and request you to remember the benefits that I have done unto you generally, and in special, and that every man will be still faithful to me and my son.
For I am persuaded that he understanding my mind will favourably and graciously yield to your desires.
Thus the murderer and blasphemer having suffered most grievously, as he entreated other men, so died he a miserable death in a strange country in the mountains.
And Philip, that was brought up with him, carried away his body, who also fearing the son of Antiochus went into Mitsrayim to Ptolemeus Philometor.
Sefarim
Maqabim Bet10
2 Maccabees · Chapter 10
Now Maccabeus and his company, the master guiding them, recovered the heikhal and the city:
But the altars which the heathen had built in the open street, and also the chapels, they pulled down.
And having cleansed the heikhal they made another altar, and striking stones they took fire out of them, and offered a sacrifice after two years, and set forth incense, and lights, and shewbread.
When that was done, they fell flat down, and besought the master that they might come no more into such troubles; but if they sinned any more against him, that he himself would chasten them with mercy, and that they might not be delivered unto the blasphemous and barbarous nations.
Now upon the same day that the strangers profaned the heikhal, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Casleu.
And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.
Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.
And this was the end of Antiochus, called Epiphanes.
Now will we declare the acts of Antiochus Eupator, who was the son of this wicked man, gathering briefly the calamities of the wars.
So when he was come to the crown, he set one Lysias over the affairs of his realm, and appointed him his chief governor of Celosyria and Phenice.
For Ptolemeus, that was called Macron, choosing rather to do justice unto the Jews for the wrong that had been done unto them, endeavoured to continue peace with them.
Whereupon being accused of the king’s friends before Eupator, and called traitor at every word because he had left Cyprus, that Philometor had committed unto him, and departed to Antiochus Epiphanes, and seeing that he was in no honourable place, he was so discouraged, that he poisoned himself and died.
But when Gorgias was governor of the holds, he hired soldiers, and nourished war continually with the Jews:
And therewithall the Idumeans, having gotten into their hands the most commodious holds, kept the Jews occupied, and receiving those that were banished from Yerushalayim, they went about to nourish war.
Then they that were with Maccabeus made supplication, and besought Elohim that he would be their helper; and so they ran with violence upon the strong holds of the Idumeans,
And assaulting them strongly, they won the holds, and kept off all that fought upon the wall, and slew all that fell into their hands, and killed no fewer than twenty thousand.
And because certain, who were no less than nine thousand, were fled together into two very strong castles, having all manner of things convenient to sustain the siege,
Maccabeus left Simon and Yoseph, and Zaccheus also, and them that were with him, who were enough to besiege them, and departed himself unto those places which more needed his help.
Now they that were with Simon, being led with covetousness, were persuaded for money through certain of those that were in the castle, and took seventy thousand drachms, and let some of them escape.
But when it was told Maccabeus what was done, he called the governors of the people together, and accused those men, that they had sold their brethren for money, and set their enemies free to fight against them.
So he slew those that were found traitors, and immediately took the two castles.
And having good success with his weapons in all things he took in hand, he slew in the two holds more than twenty thousand.
Now Timotheus, whom the Jews had overcome before, when he had gathered a great multitude of foreign forces, and horses out of Asia not a few, came as though he would take Jewry by force of arms.
But when he drew near, they that were with Maccabeus turned themselves to pray unto Elohim, and sprinkled earth upon their heads, and girded their loins with sackcloth,
And fell down at the foot of the altar, and besought him to be merciful to them, and to be an enemy to their enemies, and an adversary to their adversaries, as the torah declareth.
So after the prayer they took their weapons, and went on further from the city: and when they drew near to their enemies, they kept by themselves.
Now the sun being newly risen, they joined both together; the one part having together with their virtue their refuge also unto the master for a pledge of their success and victory: the other side making their rage leader of their battle
But when the battle waxed strong, there appeared unto the enemies from shamayim five comely men upon horses, with bridles of gold, and two of them led the Jews,
And took Maccabeus betwixt them, and covered him on every side weapons, and kept him safe, but shot arrows and lightnings against the enemies: so that being confounded with blindness, and full of trouble, they were killed.
And there were slain of footmen twenty thousand and five hundred, and six hundred horsemen.
As for Timotheus himself, he fled into a very strong hold, called Gawra, where Chereas was governor.
But they that were with Maccabeus laid siege against the fortress courageously four days.
And they that were within, trusting to the strength of the place, blasphemed exceedingly, and uttered wicked words.
Nevertheless upon the fifth day early twenty young men of Maccabeus’ company, inflamed with anger because of the blasphemies, assaulted the wall manly, and with a fierce courage killed all that they met withal.
Others likewise ascending after them, whiles they were busied with them that were within, burnt the towers, and kindling fires burnt the blasphemers alive; and others broke open the gates, and, having received in the rest of the army, took the city,
And killed Timotheus, that was hid in a certain pit, and Chereas his brother, with Apollophanes.
When this was done, they praised the master with psalms and thanksgiving, who had done so great things for Yisra'el, and given them the victory.