2 Maccabees 5
1 About the same time Antiochus
prepared his second voyage into Egypt:
2 and then it happened, that through
all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen
running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of
soldiers, 3 and troops of horsemen in
array, encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields,
and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and
glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts.
4 Wherefore every man prayed that that
apparition might turn to good.
5 Now when there was gone forth a
false rumour, as though Antiochus had been dead, Jason took at the least a
thousand men, and suddenly made an assault upon the city; and they that were
upon the walls being put back, and the city at length taken, Menelaus fled
into the castle: 6 but Jason slew his
own citizens without mercy, not considering that to get the day of them of his
own nation would be a most unhappy day for him; but thinking they had been
his enemies, and not
his countrymen, whom he conquered.
7 Howbeit for all this he obtained not
the principality, but at the last received shame for the reward of his
treason, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.
8 In the end therefore he had an
unhappy return, being accused before Aretas the king of the Arabians, fleeing
from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a forsaker of the laws, and
being had in abomination as an open enemy of his country and countrymen, he
was cast out into Egypt. 9 Thus he
that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land, retiring
to the Lacedemonians, and thinking there to find
succour by reason of his kindred:
10 and he that had cast out many
unburied had none to mourn for him, nor any solemn funerals at all, nor
sepulchre with his fathers.
11 Now when this that was done came
to the king's ear, he thought that Judea had revolted: whereupon removing out
of Egypt in a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms,
12 and commanded his men of war not
to spare such as they met, and to slay such as went up upon the houses.
13 Thus there was killing of young
and old, making away of men, women, and children, slaying of virgins and
infants. 14 And there were destroyed
within the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, whereof forty
thousand were slain in the conflict; and no fewer sold than slain.
15 Yet was he not content with this,
but presumed to go into the most holy temple of all the world; Menelaus, that
traitor to the laws, and to his own country, being his guide:
16 and taking the holy vessels with
polluted hands, and with profane hands pulling down the things that were
dedicated by other kings to the augmentation and glory and honour of the
place, he gave them away.
17 And so haughty was Antiochus in
mind, that he considered not that the Lord was angry for a while for the sins
of them that dwelt in the city, and therefore his eye was not upon the place.
18 For had they not been formerly
wrapped in many sins, this man, as soon as he had come, had forthwith been
scourged, and put back from his presumption, as Heliodorus was, whom Seleucus
the king sent to view the treasury.
19 Nevertheless God did not choose
the people for the place's sake, but the place for the people's sake.
20 And therefore the place itself,
that was partaker with them of the adversity that happened to the nation, did
afterward communicate in the benefits sent from the Lord: and as it was
forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty, so again, the great Lord being
reconciled, it was set up with all glory.
21 So when Antiochus had carried out
of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents, he departed in all haste
unto Antiochia, weening in his pride to make the land navigable, and the sea
passable by foot: such was the haughtiness of his mind.
22 And he left governors to vex the
nation: at Jerusalem, Philip, for his country a Phrygian, and for manners more
barbarous than he that set him there;
23 and at Garizim, Andronicus; and
besides, Menelaus, who worse than all the rest bare an heavy hand over the
citizens, having a malicious mind against his countrymen the Jews.
24 He sent also that detestable
ringleader Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him
to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the
younger sort: 25 who coming to
Jerusalem, and pretending peace, did forbear till the holy day of the sabbath,
when taking the Jews keeping holy day, he commanded his men to arm themselves.
26 And so he slew all them that were
gone to the celebrating of the sabbath, and running through the city with
weapons slew great multitudes.
27 But Judas Maccabeus with nine
others, or thereabout, withdrew himself into the wilderness, and lived in the
mountains after the manner of beasts, with his company, who fed on herbs
continually, lest they should be partakers of the pollution.