Antiochus Eupator Writes to Lysias.

       The king's letter read as follows: "King Antiochus sends greetings to his brother Lysias. Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, we desire that the subjects of our realm be left undisturbed in the conduct of their own affairs. We have heard that the Jews are opposed to our father's policy concerning the adoption of Greek customs but rather prefer their own way of life and request that they be permitted to observe their own laws. Accordingly, since it is our will that this nation too should be free from disturbance, we decree that their temple shall be restored to them and that they be allowed to live in accordance with the customs of their ancestors. Therefore, please send them word of our pledges of friendship so that, informed of our policy, they may be reassured and go contentedly about their business."

       The king's letter to the people was in these terms: "King Antiochus sends greetings to the Jewish senate and to the rest of the Jews. If you are well, this is our wish. We ourselves are also enjoying good health. Menelaus has informed us of your wish to return home and attend to your own affairs. Therefore, those who return by the thirtieth day of Xanthicus will have our pledge that they will be permitted to observe their own dietary laws and other laws as formerly, and none of them will be molested in any way for offenses committed as a result of ignorance. I am also sending Menelaus to assure you. Farewell. The fifteenth day of Xanthicus in the year one hundred and forty-eight."

2 MACCABEES: chapter 11, verses 22 - 33

The Romans Write to the Jews.

       The Romans also sent a letter to the Jews, which read as follows: "Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, legates of the Romans, send greetings to the Jewish people. Whatever Lysias, the kinsman of the king, has granted you, we also approve. In regard to those matters that he has submitted to the king for judgment, as soon as you have considered them, send someone to us without delay that we may make suitable proposals on your behalf, for we are on our way to Antioch. Therefore, do not lose any time in sending messengers to us to inform us about your opinions. Farewell. The fifteenth day of Xanthicus in the year one hundred and forty-eight."

2 MACCABEES: chapter 11, verses 34 - 38

Judas Punishes Joppa and Jamnia.

After these agreements had been concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews reapplied themselves to their farming. However, some of the governors in the region--Timothy and Apollonius, the son of Gennaeus, as well as Hieronymus and Demophon, and Nicanor, the commander of the Cyprians--would not allow the Jews to live quietly and in peace.

       The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked atrocity: they invited the Jews who lived among them, together with their wives and children, to set out on boats that they had provided. There was no indication of any animosity toward the Jews. There had been a public vote of the city in this regard, and the Jews accepted, since they suspected no treachery and wished to live in peace. The people of Joppa took them out to sea and drowned at least two hundred of them.

       As soon as Judas learned of this act of cruelty perpetrated against his compatriots, he issued orders to his men, and after calling upon GOD, THE JUST JUDGE, he attacked the murderers of his kindred. He set fire to the harbor during a nighttime attack, burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there. Then, because the gates of the town were closed, he withdrew, intending to return later and wipe out the entire community of Joppa.

       However, after learning that the people of Jamnia planned to deal in the same way with the Jews who lived among them, he attacked the Jamnians by night and set fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the flames was visible as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 1 - 9

Judas Intervenes in Galaad.

       When the Jews had proceeded more than a mile from there in their campaign against Timothy, they were attacked by at least five thousand Arab infantrymen supported by five hundred horsemen. After a fierce struggle, Judas and his companions were victorious with the help of GOD. The defeated nomads begged Judas to make a pact of friendship with them, and they promised to supply the Jews with cattle and to help them in every other way possible. Realizing that they might indeed be useful in many ways, Judas agreed to make peace with them, and after assurances of friendship had been exchanged, the Arabs withdrew to their tents.

       Judas also attacked a town named Caspin, which was fortified by earthworks and ramparts and inhabited by a mixed population of Gentiles. Confident in the strength of their walls and their stock of provisions, the besieged treated Judas and his men with contempt, insulting them and uttering blasphemies and profanity. However, Judas and his men invoked THE GREAT SOVEREIGN OF THE WORLD who, without battering ram or engines of war, had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua. Then they stormed the wall with a savage assault. They captured the town by the will of GOD, inflicting such an indescribable slaughter that the adjoining lake, a quarter of a mile in width, appeared to be overflowing with blood.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 10 - 16

The Battle of Carnaim.

       When they had advanced from there about ninety-five miles, they came to Charax, which was inhabited by those Jews known as Toubiani. However, they did not find Timothy in that region, for by then he had departed from there without accomplishing anything, aside from leaving behind a very strong garrison in one place. But Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the generals of Maccabeus, marched out and destroyed the force that Timothy had left behind in the stronghold, a force that numbered more than ten thousand men. Meanwhile, Maccabeus divided his army into cohorts, with a commander in charge of each cohort, and hurried in pursuit of Timothy, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twenty-five hundred cavalry. When Timothy learned of the approach of Judas, he sent off the women and the children and also the baggage to a place called Carnaim, which was hard to besiege and difficult to approach because of the narrowness of the passages of entry.

       However, after the first cohort of Judas appeared, the enemy was stricken with terror and fear at the manifestation of THE ALL-SEEING ONE. In headlong flight, they scattered in every direction, so that frequently they were injured by their own comrades and run through by the points of their swords. Judas pressed the pursuit vigorously, putting the sinners to the sword and slaying as many as thirty thousand men.

       Timothy himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, but with considerable cunning, he begged them to let him go unharmed, the reason being that he had the parents and relatives of many of them in his power and their fate was in his hands. When he made a solemn pledge to return those hostages unharmed, they set him free for the sake of saving their kindred. Judas then marched against Carnaim and the temple of Atargatis, where he slaughtered twenty-five thousand people.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 17 - 26

Judas Returns to Jerusalem.

       After the defeat and destruction of these, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town where Lysias dwelt with people of various nationalities. Stalwart young men took up their posts in defense of the walls and made a spirited stand, while inside there were large supplies of engines of war and missiles. However, the Jews, having invoked THE SOVEREIGN whose power shatters the strength of HIS enemies, gained control of the town and killed about twenty-five thousand of the people inside. Then they set out from there and pushed on to Scythopolis, seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But when the Jews who lived there testified to the goodwill that the people of Scythopolis had shown them, and to their kind treatment of them during times of misfortune, Judas and his men thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their race in the future also. Finally, since the Feast of Weeks was close at hand, they proceeded to Jerusalem.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 27 - 31

An Engagement That Ends Badly.

       After the Feast of Pentecost, they marched against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea, who confronted them with three thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen. In the course of the ensuing battle, a small number of Jews lost their lives. However, a man named Dositheus, one of Bacenor's cavalry forces and an individual of great strength, caught hold of Gorgias by his cloak and forcibly dragged him along, intending to take the accursed man alive. But a Thracian horseman bore down on Dositheus and cut off his arm at the shoulder, enabling Gorgias to escape to Marisa.

       Meanwhile, inasmuch as Esdris and his men were exhausted after engaging in battle for a long time, Judas called upon THE LORD to show HIMSELF their ally and leader in the battle. Then, raising a battle cry in his ancestral tongue, along with hymns, he launched a surprise attack and put the forces of Gorgias to flight. Thereupon Judas rallied his forces and advanced to the town of Adullam. Inasmuch as the seventh day of the week was at hand, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath there.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 32 - 38

The Sacrifice for the Dead.

       On the following day, since the need had now become urgent, Judas and his men went to collect the bodies of those who had fallen and to bury them with their kindred in their ancestral tombs. However, under the tunic of each of the dead, they found amulets that were sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. Thus it was clear to everyone that this was the reason that these men had been slain. And so they all praised the acts of THE LORD, THE JUST JUDGE who reveals things that are hidden, and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be completely blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, since they had seen with their own eyes what had happened as a result of the sin of those who had fallen.

       Then he took up a collection from all of his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this, he acted in a suitable and honorable way, guided by his belief in the resurrection. For if he had not expected those who had fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. However, if he was focusing on the splendid reward reserved for those whose death was marked by godliness, his thought was holy and devout. Therefore, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead so that they might be delivered from their sin.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 12, verses 39 - 46

The End of Menelaus, the Renegade.

In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas and his men were informed that Antiochus Eupator was advancing on Judea with a large army, and that accompanying him was Lysias, his guardian, who was in charge of the government. Additionally, they had a Greek force consisting of one hundred and ten thousand foot soldiers, five thousand three hundred horsemen, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots armed with scythes.

       Menelaus also joined them, and with considerable hypocrisy, he kept urging Antiochus on, not for the sake of his country's welfare, but in the belief that he would thereby become established in office. However, the King of kings stirred up the fury of Antiochus against this scoundrel, and when Lysias offered convincing evidence to the king that Menelaus was to blame for all the trouble, Antiochus ordered him to be taken to Beroea and executed there in the customary local manner. In that place there is a tower seventy-five feet high, full of ashes, with a rim encircling it that slopes down precipitously on all sides into the ashes. Anyone found guilty of sacrilege, or any other heinous crime, is taken to the top and then hurled down to destruction. Such was the fate suffered by Menelaus, the transgressor of the law, as he died without even being given the privilege of burial in the ground. His manner of death was eminently just, for he had committed innumerable sins against the altar whose fire and ashes were holy, and it was in ashes that he met his death.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 13, verses 1 - 8

Judas Triumphs against the Syrians at Modein.

The king then advanced with savage arrogance, aiming to inflict on the Jews far worse sufferings than they had experienced under his father. When Judas learned of this, he urged the people to call upon THE LORD night and day and to implore HIM to come to their aid now more than ever before, since they were in danger of being deprived of their law, their country, and the holy temple, and not to allow them, just when they had begun to revive, to once again fall into the hands of the blasphemous Gentiles. When they had all joined in this petition and had implored THE MERCIFUL LORD unceasingly for three days with weeping and fasting as they prostrated themselves, Judas encouraged them and ordered them to stand ready.

       After consulting privately with the elders, he decided not to wait for the king's army to invade Judea and take possession of the city, but to march forth and resolve matters with the help of GOD. Thus, committing the outcome to THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD and exhorting his soldiers to fight bravely to the death for the law, the temple, the city, the country, and their way of life, he pitched camp near Modein. After giving his troops the battle cry, "GOD'S victory," he made a nighttime attack on the king's pavilion with a picked force of his bravest young warriors and killed about two thousand of the enemy in the camp, also slaying the lead elephant and its driver. Eventually, they filled the camp with terror and confusion and then withdrew in triumph, just as dawn was breaking. All this was achieved through the help and protection that Judas had received from THE LORD.

2 MACCABEES: chapter 13, verses 9 - 17