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2 Maccabees 10:9-15:39

Ptolemy Macron commits suicide. (2Mace.10.9-13)

⁹Such were the circumstances attending the death of Antiochus styled Epiphanes. ¹⁰Our task now is to unfold the history of Antiochus Eupator, son of that godless man, and briefly to relate the evil effects of the wars. ¹¹On coming to the throne, this prince put at the head of affairs a certain Lysias, the general officer commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, ¹²whereas Ptolemy, known as Macron, and the first person to govern the Jews justly, had done his best to govern them peacefully to make up for the wrongs inflicted on them in the past. ¹³Denounced, in consequence, to Eupator by the Friends of the King, he heard himself called traitor at every turn: for having abandoned Cyprus, which had been entrusted to him by Philometer, for having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes, and for having shed no lustre on his illustrious office: he committed suicide by poisoning himself.

Judas Maccabaeus defeats the Idumeans. (2Mace.10.14-23)

¹⁴Gorgias now became general of the area; he maintained a force of mercenaries and a continual state of war with the Jews. ¹⁵At the same time, the Idumaeans, who controlled important fortresses, were harassing the Jews, welcoming outlaws from Jerusalem and endeavouring to maintain a state of war. ¹⁶Maccabaeus and his men, after making public supplication to God, entreating him to support them, began operations against the Idumaean fortresses. ¹⁷Vigorously pressing home their attack, they seized possession of these vantage points, beating off all who fought on the ramparts; they slaughtered all who fell into their hands, accounting for no fewer than twenty thousand. ¹⁸Nine thousand at least took refuge in two exceptionally strong towers with everything they needed to withstand a siege, ¹⁹whereupon, Maccabaeus left Simon and Joseph, with Zacchaeus and his forces, in sufficient numbers to besiege them, and himself went off to other places requiring his attention. ²⁰But Simon's men were greedy for money and allowed themselves to be bribed by some of the men in the towers; accepting seventy thousand drachmas, they let a number of them escape. ²¹When Maccabaeus was told what had happened, he summoned the people's commanders and accused the offenders of having sold their brothers for money by releasing their enemies to fight them. ²²Having executed them as traitors, he at once proceeded to capture both towers. ²³Successful in all that he undertook by force of arms, in these two fortresses he slaughtered more than twenty thousand men.

Jusad defeats Timothy. (2Mace.10.24-38)

²⁴Timotheus, who had been beaten by the Jews once before, now assembled an enormous force of mercenaries, mustering cavalry from Asia in considerable numbers, and soon appeared in Judaea, expecting to conquer it by force of arms. ²⁵At his approach, Maccabaeus and his men made their supplications to God, sprinkling earth on their heads and putting sackcloth round their waists. ²⁶Prostrating themselves on the terrace before the altar, they begged him to support them and to show himself the enemy of their enemies, the adversary of their adversaries, as the Law clearly states. ²⁷After these prayers, they armed themselves and advanced a fair distance from the city, halting when they were close to the enemy. ²⁸As the first light of dawn began to spread, the two sides joined battle, the one having as their pledge of success and victory not only their own valour but their recourse to the Lord, the other making their own ardour their mainstay in the fight. ²⁹When the battle was at its height, the enemy saw five magnificent men appear from heaven on horses with golden bridles and put themselves at the head of the Jews; ³⁰surrounding Maccabaeus and screening him with their own armour, they kept him unscathed, while they rained arrows and thunderbolts on the enemy until, blinded and confused, they scattered in complete disorder. ³¹Twenty thousand five hundred infantry and six hundred cavalry were slaughtered. ³²Timotheus himself fled to a strongly guarded citadel called Gezer, where Chaereas was in command. ³³For four days Maccabaeus and his men eagerly besieged the fortress, ³⁴while the defenders, confident in the security of the place, hurled fearful blasphemies and godless insults at them. ³⁵At daybreak on the fifth day, twenty young men of Maccabaeus' forces, fired with indignation at the blasphemies, manfully assaulted the wall, with wild courage cutting down everyone they encountered. ³⁶Others, in a similar scaling operation, took the defenders in the rear, and set fire to the towers, lighting pyres on which they burned the blasphemers alive. The first, meanwhile, breaking open the gates, let the rest of the army in and, at their head, captured the town. ³⁷Timotheus had hidden in a storage-well, but they killed him, with his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes. ³⁸When all this was over, with hymns and thanksgiving they blessed the Lord, who had shown such great kindness to Israel and given them the victory.

Judas Maccabaeus defeats Lysias. (2Mace.11.1-12)

11¹Almost immediately afterwards, Lysias, the king's tutor and cousin, chief minister of the realm, much disturbed at the turn of events, ²mustered about eighty thousand foot soldiers and his entire cavalry and advanced against the Jews, intending to make the city a place for Greeks to live in, ³to levy a tax on the Temple as on other national shrines, and to put the office of high priest up for sale every year; ⁴he took no account at all of the power of God, being sublimely confident in his tens of thousands of infantrymen, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants. ⁵Invading Judaea, he approached Beth-Zur, a fortified position about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and began to subject it to strong pressure. ⁶When Maccabaeus and his men learned that Lysias was besieging the fortresses, they and the populace with them begged the Lord with lamentation and tears to send a good angel to save Israel. ⁷Maccabaeus himself was the first to take up his weapons, and he urged the rest to risk their lives with him in support of their brothers; so they sallied out resolutely, as one man. ⁸They were still near Jerusalem when a rider attired in white appeared at their head, brandishing golden weapons. ⁹With one accord they all blessed the God of mercy, and found themselves filled with such courage that they were ready to lay low not men only but the fiercest beasts and walls of iron. ¹⁰They advanced in battle order with the aid of their celestial ally, the Lord having had mercy on them. ¹¹Charging like lions on the enemy, they laid low eleven thousand of the infantry and sixteen hundred horsemen, and routed all the rest. ¹²Of those, the majority got away, wounded and weaponless. Lysias himself escaped only by ignominious flight.

Lysias makes peace with the Jews. (2Mace.11.13-15)

¹³Now Lysias was not lacking in intelligence and, as he reflected on the reverse he had just suffered, he realised that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God fought for them. He therefore sent them a delegation ¹⁴to persuade them to accept reasonable terms all round, and promised to compel the king to become their friend. ¹⁵Maccabaeus, thinking only of the common good, agreed to all that Lysias proposed, and whatever Maccabaeus submitted to Lysias in writing concerning the Jews was granted by the king.

Letter: Lycias to the Jews. (2Mace.11.16-21)

¹⁶Here is the text of the letter Lysias wrote to the Jews: 'Lysias to the Jewish people, greetings. ¹⁷'John and Absalom, your envoys, have delivered to me the communication transcribed below, requesting me to approve its provisions. ¹⁸Anything requiring the king's attention I have put before him; whatever was possible, I have granted. ¹⁹Provided you maintain your goodwill towards the interests of the State, I shall do my best in the future to promote your well-being. ²⁰As regards the details, I have given orders for your envoys and my own officials to discuss these with you. ²¹May you prosper. 'The twenty-fourth day of Dioscorus, in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'

Letter: Antiochus IV Epiphanes to Lycias. (164 BCE) (2Mace.11.26)

²²The king's letter ran as follows: 'King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greetings. ²³'Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, our will is that the subjects of the realm be left undisturbed to attend to their own affairs. ²⁴We understand that the Jews do not approve our father's policy, the adoption of Greek customs, but prefer their own way of life and ask to be allowed to observe their own laws. ²⁵Accordingly, since we intend this people to be free from vexation like any other, our ruling is that the Temple be restored to them and that they conduct their affairs according to the customs of their ancestors. ²⁶'It will therefore be your concern to send them a mission of friendship, so that on learning our policy they may have confidence and happily go about their business.'

Letter: Antiochus IV Epiphanes to the Jews. (164 BCE) (2Mace.11.27-33)

²⁷The king's letter to the Jewish nation was in these terms: 'King Antiochus to the Jewish Senate and the rest of the Jews, greetings. ²⁸'If you are well, that is as we would wish; we ourselves are in good health. ²⁹'Menelaus informs us that you wish to return home and attend to your own affairs. ³⁰Accordingly, all those who return before the thirtieth day of Xanthicus may rest assured that they have nothing to fear. ³¹The Jews may make use of their own kind of food and their own laws as formerly, and none of them is to be molested in any way for any unwitting offences. ³²I am in fact sending Menelaus to set your minds at rest. ³³Farewell. 'The fifteenth day of Xanthicus in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'

Letter: Quintus Memmius & Titus Manius to the Jews. (164 BCE) (2Mace.11.34-38)

³⁴The Romans also sent the Jews a letter, which read as follows: 'Quintus Memmius, Titus Manilius, Manius Sergius, legates of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings. ³⁵'Whatever Lysias, the king's Cousin, has granted you we also approve. ³⁶As for the matters he decided to refer to the king, consider them carefully and send someone without delay, if we are to interpret them to your advantage, because we are leaving for Antioch. ³⁷Lose no time, therefore, in sending us those who can tell us what your intentions are. ³⁸Farewell. 'The fifteenth day of Dioscorus in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'

Jews of Joppa murdered. (2Mace.12.1-9)

12¹These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to their farming. ²Among the local generals, Timotheus and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus and Demophon, and Nicanor the Cypriarch as well, would not allow the Jews to live in peace and quiet. ³The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked crime: they invited the Jews living among them to go aboard some boats they had lying ready, taking their wives and children. There was no hint of any intention to harm them; ⁴there had been a public vote by the citizens, and the Jews accepted, as well they might, being peaceable people with no reason to suspect anything. But once out in the open sea they were all sent to the bottom, a company of at least two hundred. ⁵When Judas heard of the cruel fate of his countrymen, he issued his orders to his men ⁶and after invoking God, the just judge, he attacked his brothers' murderers. Under cover of dark he set fire to the port, burned the boats and put to the sword everyone who had taken refuge there. ⁷As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the whole community of Joppa. ⁸But hearing that the people of Jamnia were planning to treat their resident Jews in the same way, ⁹he made a night attack on the Jamnites and fired the port with its fleet; the glow of the flames was seen as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.

Judas' victory at Jamnia. (2Mace.12.10-16)

¹⁰When they had left the town barely a mile behind them in their advance on Timotheus, Judas was attacked by an Arab force of at least five thousand foot soldiers, with five hundred cavalry. ¹¹A fierce engagement followed, and with God's help Judas' men won the day; the defeated nomads begged Judas to offer them the right hand of friendship, and promised to surrender their herds and make themselves generally useful to him. ¹²Realising that they might indeed prove valuable in many ways, Judas consented to make peace with them and after an exchange of pledges the Arabs withdrew to their tents. ¹³Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races; its name was Caspin. ¹⁴Confident in the strength of their walls and their stock of provisions, the besieged adopted an insolent attitude to Judas and his men, reinforcing their insults with blasphemies and profanity. ¹⁵But Judas and his men invoked the great Sovereign of the world who without battering-ram or siege-engine had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua; they then made a fierce assault on the wall. ¹⁶By God's will, having captured the town, they made such indescribable slaughter that the nearby lake, a quarter of a mile across, seemed filled to overflowing with blood.

Judas defeats Timothy. (2Mace.12.17-25)

¹⁷Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known as Tubians. ¹⁸They did not find Timotheus himself in that neighbourhood; he had already left the district, having achieved nothing apart from leaving a very strong garrison at one point. ¹⁹Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the Maccabaean generals, marched out and destroyed the force Timotheus had left behind in the fortress, amounting to more than ten thousand men. ²⁰Maccabaeus himself divided his army into cohorts to which he assigned commanders, and then hurried in pursuit of Timotheus, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry. ²¹Timotheus' first move on learning of Judas' advance was to send away the women and children and the rest of the baggage train to the place called the Carnaim, since it was an impregnable position, difficult of access owing to the narrowness of all the approaches. ²²Judas' cohort came into sight first. The enemy, seized with fright and panic-stricken by the manifestation of the All-seeing, began to flee, one running this way, one running that, often wounding one another in consequence and running on the points of one another's swords. ²³Judas pursued them with a will, cutting the sinners to pieces and killing something like thirty thousand men. ²⁴Timotheus himself, having fallen into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, very craftily pleaded with them to let him go with his life, on the grounds that he had the relatives and even the brothers of many of them in his power, and that these could otherwise expect short shrift. ²⁵When at long last he convinced them that he would honour his promise and return these people safe and sound, they let him go for the sake of saving their brothers.

Judas' other victories. (2Mace.12.26-31)

²⁶Reaching the Carnaim and the Atargateion, Judas slaughtered twenty-five thousand men. ²⁷Having defeated and destroyed them, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town, where Lysanias was living. Stalwart young men drawn up outside the walls offered vigorous resistance, while inside there were quantities of war-engines and missiles in reserve. ²⁸But the Jews, having invoked the Sovereign who by his power shatters enemies' defences, gained control of the town and cut down nearly twenty-five thousand of the people inside. ²⁹Moving off from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis, ³⁰seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But as the Jews who had settled there assured Judas that the people of Scythopolis had always treated them well and had been particularly kind to them when times were at their worst, ³¹he and his men thanked them and urged them to extend the same friendship to his race in the future. They reached Jerusalem shortly before the feast of Weeks.

Judas defeats Gorgias. (2Mace.12.32-37)

³²After Pentecost, as it is called, they marched against Gorgias, the general commanding Idumaea. ³³He came out at the head of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry; ³⁴in the course of the ensuing battle a few Jews lost their lives. ³⁵A man called Dositheus, a horseman of the Tubian contingent, a valiant man, overpowered Gorgias and, gripping him by the cloak, was forcibly dragging him along, intending to take the accursed man alive, but one of the Thracian cavalry, hurling himself on Dositheus, slashed his shoulder, and Gorgias escaped to Marisa. ³⁶Meanwhile, since Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted, Judas called on the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle. ³⁷Then, chanting the battle cry and hymns at the top of his voice in his ancestral tongue, by a surprise attack he routed Gorgias' troops.

Prayers for men killed in battle. (2Mace.12.38-45)

³⁸Judas then rallied his army and moved on to the town of Adullam where, as it was the seventh day of the week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath. ³⁹Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of the fallen taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs. ⁴⁰But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols of Jamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost their lives. ⁴¹All then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light, ⁴²and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen; ⁴³after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection. ⁴⁴For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead, ⁴⁵whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin.

Manelaus put to death. (163 BCE) (2Mace.13.1-8)

13¹In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas and his men discovered that Antiochus Eupator was advancing in force against Judaea, ²and with him Lysias his tutor and chief minister; he had moreover a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots fitted with scythes. ³Menelaus, too, joined them and very craftily kept urging Antiochus on, not for the welfare of his own country but in the hope of being restored to office. ⁴But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against the guilty wretch, and when Lysias made it clear to the king that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, Antiochus gave orders for him to be taken to Beroea and there put to death by the local method of execution. ⁵In that place there is a tower fifty cubits high, full of ash, with an internal lip all round overhanging the ashes. ⁶If anyone is convicted of sacrilegious theft or of some other heinous crime, he is taken up to the top and pushed over to perish. ⁷In such a manner was the renegade fated to die; Menelaus had not even the privilege of burial. ⁸Deserved justice, this; since he had committed many sins against the altar, the fire and ashes of which were holy, it was in ashes that he met his death.

Battle near Modein. (2Mace.13.9-17)

⁹The king, then, was advancing, his mind filled with barbarous designs, to give the Jews a demonstration of far worse things than anything that had happened under his father. ¹⁰When Judas heard of this, he ordered the people day and night to call on the Lord as never before, to come to the help of those who were in peril of being deprived of the Law, their fatherland and the holy Temple, ¹¹and not to allow the people, just when they were beginning to breathe again, to fall into the power of ill-famed foreigners. ¹²When they had all, with one voice, obeyed his instructions and had made their petitions to the merciful Lord, weeping, fasting and prostrating themselves for three days continuously, Judas spoke words of encouragement and told them to keep close to him. ¹³After separate consultation with the elders, he resolved not to wait for the king's army to invade Judaea and take possession of the city, but to march out and settle the whole matter with the Lord's help. ¹⁴Having thus committed the outcome to the Creator of the world, and having exhorted his soldiers to fight bravely to the death for the laws, the Temple, the city, their country and their way of life, he encamped his army near Modein. ¹⁵Giving his men the password 'Victory from God', he made a night attack on the king's pavilion with a picked band of the bravest young men. Inside the camp he destroyed about two thousand, and his men cut down the largest of the elephants with its mahout; ¹⁶having eventually filled the camp with terror and confusion, they successfully withdrew, ¹⁷just as dawn was breaking. This was achieved, thanks to the protection which the Lord granted Judas.

Antiochus V Eupator's treaty with the Jews. (2Mace.13.18-26)

¹⁸The king, having had a taste of Jewish daring, now tried to capture their positions by trickery. ¹⁹He advanced on Beth-Zur, a strong fortress of the Jews, but was checked, overcome and so repulsed. ²⁰Judas supplied the garrison with what they needed, ²¹but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, supplied the enemy with secret information; the man was identified, arrested, and dealt with. ²²A second time, the king parleyed with the garrison of Beth-Zur; he offered and accepted pledges of friendship, retired, then attacked Judas and his men, but lost the battle. ²³He was then told that Philip, left in charge of affairs, had rebelled in Antioch. He was stunned by this, opened negotiations with the Jews, came to an agreement, and swore to abide by all reasonable conditions. Agreement reached, he offered a sacrifice, honoured the Temple, and made generous gifts to the holy place. ²⁴He received Maccabaeus kindly and, leaving Hegemonides to exercise command from Ptolemais to the territory of the Gerrenians, ²⁵went to Ptolemais. The inhabitants of the place disapproved of the treaty; they complained furiously and wanted to annul its provisions. ²⁶Lysias mounted the rostrum and made a convincing defence of the provisions which convinced and calmed them and won their goodwill. He then withdrew to Antioch. So much for the episode of the king's offensive and retreat.

Alcimus speaks against Judas. (2Mace.14.1-10)

14¹Three years after this, Judas and his men learned that Demetrius son of Seleucus had landed at the port of Tripolis with a strong army and a fleet, ²and that he had occupied the country and had killed Antiochus and his tutor Lysias. ³A certain Alcimus, a former high priest, had wilfully incurred defilement at the time of the insurrection; realising that whichever way he turned there was no security for him, nor any further access to the holy altar, ⁴he went to King Demetrius in about the year one hundred and fifty-one and presented him with a golden crown and a palm, together with the traditional olive branches from the Temple; there, for that day, he let the matter rest. ⁵Presently he found an opportunity to further his mad plan. When Demetrius called him into his council and questioned him about the dispositions and intentions of the Jews, he replied, ⁶'Those Jews called Hasidaeans, who are led by Judas Maccabaeus, are war-mongers and rebels who are preventing the kingdom from finding stability. ⁷That is why, after being deprived of my hereditary dignity—I mean the high priesthood—I have come here now, ⁸first out of genuine concern for the king's interests, and secondly, out of a regard for our own fellow-citizens, because the irresponsible behaviour of those I have mentioned has brought no slight misery on our entire race. ⁹When your majesty has taken note of all these points, may it please you to make provision for the welfare of our country and our oppressed nation, as befits the gracious benevolence you extend to all; ¹⁰for, as long as Judas remains alive, the State will never enjoy peace.'

Demetrius sends Nicanor to attack Judas. (2Mace.14.11-25)

¹¹No sooner had he spoken thus than the rest of the King's Friends, who were hostile to Judas' activities, stoked Demetrius' anger. ¹²The latter at once selected Nicanor, then commander of the elephants, promoted him to the command of Judaea and despatched him ¹³with instructions to dispose of Judas, disperse his followers and instal Alcimus as high priest of the greatest of temples. ¹⁴The foreigners in Judaea, who had fled before Judas, flocked to join Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and troubles of the Jews would be to their own advantage. ¹⁵When the Jews heard that Nicanor was coming and that the foreigners were about to attack, they sprinkled dust over themselves and made supplication to him who had established his people for ever and who never failed to support his own heritage by direct manifestations. ¹⁶On their leader's orders, they at once left the place where they were and confronted the enemy at the village of Dessau. ¹⁷Simon, brother of Judas, engaged Nicanor but, owing to the sudden arrival of the enemy, suffered a slight reverse. ¹⁸Nicanor, however, had heard how brave Judas and his men were and how resolutely they always fought for their country, and he did not dare allow bloodshed to decide the issue. ¹⁹And so he sent Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias to offer the Jews pledges of friendship and to accept theirs. ²⁰After careful consideration of his terms, the leader communicated them to his troops, and since they were all clearly of one mind they agreed to the treaty. ²¹A day was fixed on which the respective leaders were to meet as individuals. A litter came out from either side and seats were set up. ²²Judas had posted armed men in strategic positions, in case of a sudden treacherous move by the enemy. The leaders held their conference and reached agreement. ²³Nicanor took up residence in Jerusalem and did nothing out of place there; indeed, he sent away the crowds that had flocked to join him. ²⁴He kept Judas constantly with him, becoming deeply attached to him ²⁵and encouraged him to marry and have children. Judas married, settled down and led a normal life.

Nicanor turns against Judas. (2Mace.14.26-36)

²⁶When Alcimus saw how friendly the two men had become, he went to Demetrius with a copy of the treaty they had signed and told him that Nicanor was harbouring thoughts against the interests of the State, and was planning that Judas, an enemy of the realm, should fill the next vacancy among the Friends of the King. ²⁷The king flew into a rage; roused by the slanders of this villain, he wrote to Nicanor, telling him of his strong displeasure at these agreements and ordering him immediately to send Maccabaeus to Antioch in chains. ²⁸When the letter reached Nicanor, he was very much upset, for he disliked the prospect of breaking an agreement with a man who had done nothing wrong. ²⁹Since, however, there was no way of opposing the king, he waited for an opportunity to carry out the order by a stratagem. ³⁰Maccabaeus began to notice that Nicanor was treating him more sharply and that his manner of speaking to him was more abrupt than it had been, and he concluded that such sharpness could have no very good motive. He therefore collected a considerable number of his followers and got away from Nicanor. ³¹The latter, realising that the man had well and truly outmanoeuvred him, went to the greatest and holiest of Temples when the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to surrender Judas. ³²When they protested on oath that they did not know where the wanted man could be, ³³he stretched out his right hand towards the Temple and swore this oath, 'If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I shall rase this dwelling of God to the ground, I shall demolish the altar, and on this very spot I shall erect a splendid temple to Dionysus.' ³⁴With these words he left them. The priests stretched out their hands to heaven, calling on him who has at all times done battle for our nation; this was their prayer: ³⁵'O Lord in need of nothing, it has pleased you that the Temple where you dwell should be here with us. ³⁶Now, therefore, holy Lord of all holiness, preserve for ever from all profanation this House, so newly purified.'

Death of Razis. (2Mace.14.37-46)

³⁷Now, a man called Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor. He was a man who loved his countrymen and stood high in their esteem, and he was known as the father of the Jews because of his kindness. ³⁸In the earlier days of the insurrection he had been convicted of Judaism, and he had risked both life and limb for Judaism with the utmost zeal. ³⁹Nicanor, by way of demonstrating the enmity he had for the Jews, sent over five hundred soldiers to arrest him, ⁴⁰reckoning that if he eliminated this man he would be dealing them a severe blow. ⁴¹When the troops were on the point of capturing the tower and were forcing the outer door and calling for fire to set the doors alight, Razis, finding himself completely surrounded, fell on his own sword, ⁴²nobly resolving to die rather than fall into the clutches of these villains and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth. ⁴³But in the heat of conflict he missed his thrust, and while the troops swarmed in through the doorways, he ran nimbly upstairs to the parapet and manfully threw himself down among the troops. ⁴⁴But, as they immediately drew back, he fell into the middle of the empty space. ⁴⁵Still breathing, and blazing with anger, he struggled to his feet, blood spurting in all directions, and despite his terrible wounds ran right through the crowd; then, taking his stand on a steep rock, ⁴⁶although he had now lost every drop of blood, he tore out his entrails and taking them in both hands flung them down on the crowd, calling on the Master of his life and spirit to give them back to him one day. Thus he died.

Nicanor's cruel plan. (2Mace.15.1-5)

15¹Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the neighbourhood of Samaria, so he decided to attack them, at no risk to himself, on the day of rest. ²Those Jews who had been compelled to follow him, said, 'Do not massacre them in such a savage, barbarous way. Respect the day on which the All-seeing has conferred a special holiness.' ³At this the triple-dyed scoundrel asked if there were in heaven a sovereign who had ordered the keeping of the Sabbath day. ⁴When they answered, 'The living Lord himself, the Heavenly Sovereign, has ordered the observance of the seventh day,' ⁵he retorted, 'And I, as sovereign on earth, order you to take up arms and do the king's business.' For all that, he did not manage to carry out his wicked plan.

Judas prepares for battle. (2Mace.15.6-19)

⁶While Nicanor, in his unlimited boastfulness and pride, was planning to erect a general trophy with the spoils taken from Judas and his men, ⁷Maccabaeus remained firm in his confident conviction that the Lord would stand by him. ⁸He urged his men not to be dismayed by the foreigners' attacks but, keeping in mind the help that had come to them from Heaven in the past, to be confident that this time too victory would be theirs with the help of the Almighty. ⁹He put fresh heart into them by citing the Law and the Prophets and, by stirring up memories of the battles they had already won, he filled them with new enthusiasm. ¹⁰Having thus aroused their courage, he ended his exhortation by demonstrating the treachery of the foreigners and how they had violated their oaths. ¹¹Having armed each one of them not so much with the safety given by shield and lance as with that confidence which springs from noble language, he encouraged them all by describing to them a convincing dream—a vision, as it were. ¹²What he had seen was this: Onias, the former high priest, that paragon of men, modest of bearing and gentle of manners, suitably eloquent and trained from boyhood in the practice of every virtue—Onias was stretching out his hands and praying for the whole Jewish community. ¹³Next, there appeared a man equally remarkable for his great age and dignity and invested with a marvellous and impressive air of majesty. ¹⁴Onias began to speak: 'This is a man', he said, 'who loves his brothers and prays much for the people and the holy city-Jeremiah, the prophet of God.' ¹⁵Jeremiah then stretched out his right hand and presented Judas with a golden sword, saying as he gave it, ¹⁶'Take this holy sword as a gift from God; with it you will shatter the enemy.' ¹⁷Encouraged by the noble words of Judas, which had the power to inspire valour and give the young the spirit of mature men, they decided not to entrench themselves in a camp, but bravely to take the offensive and, in hand-to-hand fighting, to commit the result to the fortune of war, since the city, their holy religion and the Temple were in danger. ¹⁸Their concern for their wives and children, their brothers and relatives, had shrunk to minute importance; their chief and greatest fear was for the consecrated Temple. ¹⁹Those left behind in the city felt a similar anxiety, alarmed as they were about the forthcoming encounter in the open country.

Defeat & death of Nicanor. (2Mace.15.20-36)

²⁰Everyone now awaited the coming issue. The enemy had already concentrated their forces and stood formed up in order of battle, with the elephants drawn up in a strategic position and the cavalry disposed on the wings. ²¹Maccabaeus took note of these masses confronting him, the glittering array of armour and the fierce aspect of the elephants; then, raising his hands to heaven, he called on the Lord who works miracles, in the knowledge that it is not by force of arms but as he sees fit to decide, that victory is granted by him to such as deserve it. ²²His prayer was worded thus: 'You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judaea, and he destroyed no less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army; ²³now, once again, Sovereign of heaven, send a good angel before us to spread terror and dismay. ²⁴May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they have come with blasphemy on their lips to attack your holy people.' And on these words he finished. ²⁵Nicanor and his men advanced to the sound of trumpets and war songs, ²⁶but the men of Judas closed with the enemy uttering invocations and prayers. ²⁷Fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they cut down at least thirty-five thousand men and were greatly cheered by this manifestation of God. ²⁸When the engagement was over and they were withdrawing in triumph, they recognised Nicanor, lying dead in full armour. ²⁹With shouting and confusion all around, they blessed the sovereign Master in their ancestral tongue. ³⁰He who, as protagonist, had devoted himself, body and soul, to his fellow-citizens, and had preserved the love he felt even in youth for those of his own race, gave orders for Nicanor's head to be cut off, with his arm up to the shoulder, and taken to Jerusalem. ³¹When he arrived there himself, he called his countrymen together, stationed the priests in front of the altar and then sent for the people from the Citadel. ³²He showed them the head of the abominable Nicanor, and the hand which this infamous man had stretched out so insolently against the holy House of the Almighty. ³³Then, cutting out godless Nicanor's tongue, he gave orders for it to be fed piecemeal to the birds, and for the salary of his folly to be hung up in front of the Temple. ³⁴At this, everyone sent blessings heavenwards to the glorious Lord, saying, 'Blessed be he who has preserved his holy place from pollution!' ³⁵He hung Nicanor's head from the Citadel, a clear and evident sign to all of the help of the Lord. ³⁶They all decreed by public vote never to let that day go by unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, called Adar in Aramaic, the eve of what is called the Day of Mordecai.

Concluding words. (2Mace.15.37-39)

³⁷So ends the episode of Nicanor, and as, since then, the city has remained in the possession of the Hebrews, I shall bring my own work to an end here too. ³⁸If it is well composed and to the point, that is just what I wanted. If it is worthless and mediocre, that is all I could manage. ³⁹Just as it is injurious to drink wine by itself, or again water alone, whereas wine mixed with water is pleasant and produces a delightful sense of well-being, so skill in presenting the incidents is what delights the understanding of those who read the book. And here I close.