THE STORY OF THE MACCABEES

IN the days of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes,1 king of Syria, there were many among the Jews who followed the customs of the Greeks, the leader being Joshua the highpriest, who called himself by the name of Jason. They wore the garments of the Greeks, and made for themselves a place for wrestling and quoit-playing, and such sports, under Mount Zion itself, where the young men stripped themselves to contend in the games, and even the priests left the service of the temple to cast the quoit. Nay, the high priest Jason so despised his office that he sent an offering of money to the god Melkarth of Tyre.

In the fourth year of his reign 3 Antiochus invaded the land of Egypt with a great host, and when the king of Egypt submitted himself, in the next year he came up to Jerusalem, and entered into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the great candlestick, and the table of the shewbread, and the flagons, and the cups, and the censers of gold, and he stripped off the gold that was on the walls. the people, and so departed. he sent his chief collector of tribute, Apollonius by name, to Jerusalem with a great army. This man

He slew also many of After five years, again,

1 Or "Glorious." The surname was turned into a nickname, "Epimanes, ," i.e. the "madman."

2 The petasus or broad-brimmed hat is especially mentioned. associated with the customary representations of Hermes (Mercury).

It was

pretended to come peaceably, and so was permitted to enter without hindrance into the city. Being there, he waited till the Sabbath day came round; and when the people were keeping the feast, he bade his soldiers fall upon them, and slew a great multitude of men. He built also a great wall round the city of David, and strengthened it with towers, and put in it a garrison of the heathen. Then was the sanctuary laid waste like a wilderness, the feasts turned into mourning, and the Sabbaths into reproach.

King Antiochus sent letters throughout his kingdom that all his subjects should become one people, every one having their own land. Especially to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah did he send messengers commanding that they should follow the religion of the heathen. He forbade the offering of sacrifice in the temple, and commanded that the Holy Place should be polluted, and that altars, and groves, and chapels of false gods should be set up, and that swine should be sacrificed. Also he commanded that none should circumcise their children; and if any would not do after his commandment he was to be put to death.

On the fifteenth day of the month Chisleu1 an altar of Olympian Jupiter was set up on the brazen altar that Zerubbabel had made; and on the fifteenth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar. All books of the law that could be found they rent in pieces and burned with fire; and if they knew of any man that had any holy book or that kept the law, they put him to death.

Now there dwelt in Modin 2 one Mattathias, a priest of the order of Joarib, which is the first of the orders. He had five sons, namely, John, that was called the

1 About the end of the year 168 B.C.

2 A town on the western border of the hill-country of Judea.

Fortunate, and Simon, called the Wise, and Judas, the Hammer,1 and Eleazar, the Beast-Slayer, and Jonathan, the Dissembler. These men were greatly troubled at what King Antiochus had done. When the king's officers came to Modin to compel the inhabitants to sacrifice, they said to Mattathias, "Thou art a ruler and an honourable man in this city; come therefore first and fulfil the king's commandment. Then shalt thou and thy house be counted among the king's friends, and be honoured with many rewards.”

But Mattathias answered, "Though all the nations that are under the king's dominion obey him, and fall away from the religion of their fathers, yet I and my sons will walk in the covenant of our God."

And when one of the Jews came forward to sacrifice at the altar, Mattathias was so inflamed with rage that he slew him there. Also the king's commissioner was slain, and the altar was pulled down.

Then Mattathias cried, "Whoso is zealous for the law, let him follow me;" and he and his sons left the city and fled to the mountains, and there abode, enduring great hardships.

While they were there it so happened that the soldiers of the heathen came on a certain Sabbath day upon a company of them that had broken the king's commandment. The soldiers said to them, "Come forth and do as the king hath commanded, and ye shall live." They answered, “We will not do so, neither will we profane the Sabbath." And when the heathen attacked them they would neither defend themselves nor flee. So they were slain, they and their wives and their children, to the number of a thousand people. When

1 Maccab, probably, not certainly, however, meaning "Hammer." These surnames are, of course, afterthoughts. They were not borne by Mattathias's sons before they had distinguished themselves.

Mattathias and his people heard this they said, "We will not do as our brethren have done. If any come against us on the Sabbath day, we will fight against them."

Now Mattathias was old, and the time drew near that he should die; but before he died he called the people together, and said to them, "Simon is a man of

counsel; he therefore shall be your father; and Judas is mighty and strong; let him be your captain." So he died; and his sons buried him at Modin in the sepulchre of his father, and all Israel made lamentation over him.

After a while Apollonius, the chief collector of tribute, came against the Jews with an army. But Judas met him, and turned his army to flight.

Many of the heathen

were slain, and Apollonius himself.

And Judas took

his sword, and ever after used it for his own.

Next Seron, who was captain of the king's army in Syria, came against him; but Judas with a small company met him in the pass of Beth-horon.

Judas's men said to him, "How shall we that are so few fight against this great army, seeing also that we are faint with hunger?"

Judas answered, "It is no hard matter for many to be vanquished by few. Victory standeth not in the multitude of a host; but help cometh of heaven."

When he had ended his speaking, he leapt suddenly on the enemy, and Seron and his host were overthrown. Eight hundred of them were slain in the Pass of Bethhoron; and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines. After this the fear of Judas and his brethren fell upon all the nations round about.

When King Antiochus heard of these things, he was very wroth. But because his treasury was empty he himself purposed to go into the land of Persia, hoping to get great riches therefrom; and he put one Lysias, who was his kinsman, to be deputy in his stead. Him he commanded utterly to root Israel from their land, and to plant strangers in it.

Lysias sent Ptolemy and Nicanor and Gorgias with an army of forty thousand footmen and seven thousand horsemen to make war against the Jews. These came and pitched at Emmaus.1

Judas and his brethren and all the people that followed them came to Mizpeh, that is on the hill on the north side of Jerusalem, from whence they could see the temple where it lay desolate. They fasted that day, and put on sackcloth, and threw dust upon their heads, and rent their clothes. And they laid open before the 1 In the Philistine plains.

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