This evil onslaught harshly intensified the grievous distress of the people. The Gentiles made the temple a center of debauchery and licentious revelry, as they used the sacred precincts for immoral pleasures with prostitutes and intercourse with women. They also brought into the temple sacrificial offerings that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings that were prohibited by the law.
No one was allowed to keep the Sabbath or to observe the traditional feasts or even to admit being a Jew. Furthermore, on the monthly celebration of the king's birthday, the Jews were forcibly compelled to partake of the sacrificial victims, and when the festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were forced to wear wreaths of ivy and to take part in the procession honoring him.
At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities ordering them to adopt the same policies toward the Jews, compel them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to death those who refused to conform to Greek customs. Thus it was clear that disaster was imminent. For example, two women were brought to trial, charged with having circumcised their children. They were publicly paraded around the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then hurled headlong from the city wall. Others who had assembled in some nearby caves to observe the Sabbath secretly were betrayed to Philip, and all were burned to death together, since their piety kept them from defending themselves in their respect for the holiness of the day.
2 MACCABEES: chapter 6, verses 1 - 11
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