Chapter 2

4:17. For acting wickedly against the laws of God doth not pass unpunished: but this the time following will declare.

4:18. Now when the game that was used every fifth year was kept at Tyre, the king being present,

4:19. The wicked Jason sent from Jerusalem sinful men, to carry three hundred didrachmas of silver for the sacrifice of Hercules; but the bearers thereof desired it might not be bestowed on the sacrifices, because it was not necessary, but might be deputed for other charges.

4:20. So the money was appointed by him that sent it to the sacrifice of Hercules: but because of them that carried it was employed for the making of galleys.

4:21. Now when Apollonius, the son of Mnestheus was sent into Egypt to treat with the nobles of king Philometor, and Antiochus understood that he was wholly excluded from the affairs of the kingdom, consulting his own interest, he departed thence and came to Joppe, and from thence to Jerusalem.

4:22. Where he was received in a magnificent manner by Jason, and the city, and came in with torch lights, and with praises, and from thence he returned with his army into Phenicia.

4:23. Three years afterwards Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the aforesaid Simon, to carry money to the king, and to bring answers from him concerning certain necessary affairs.

4:24. But he being recommended to the king, when he had magnified the appearance of his power, got the high priesthood for himself, by offering more than Jason by three hundred talents of silver.

4:25. So having received the king's mandate, he returned, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood: but having the mind of a cruel tyrant, and the rage of a savage beast.

4:26. Then Jason, who had undermined his own brother, being himself undermined, was driven out a fugitive into the country of the Ammonites.

4:27. So Menelaus got the principality: but as for the money he had promised to the king, he took no care, when Sostratus, the governor of the castle, called for it.

4:28. For to him appertained the gathering of the taxes: wherefore they were both called before the king.

4:29. And Menelaus was removed from the priesthood, Lysimachus, his brother, succeeding: and Sostratus alas made governor of the Cyprians.

4:30. When these things were in doing, it fell out that they of Tharsus, and Mallos, raised a sedition, because they were given for a gift to Antiochus, the king's concubine.

4:31. The king, therefore, went in all haste to appease them, leaving Andronicus, one of his nobles, for his deputy.

4:32. Then Menelaus supposing that he had found a convenient time, having stolen certain vessels of gold out of the temple, gave them to Andronicus, and others he had sold at Tyre, and in the neighbouring cities:

4:33. Which when Onias understood most certainly, he reproved him, keeping himself in a safe place at Antioch, beside Daphne.

4:34. Whereupon Menelaus coming to Andronicus, desired him to kill Onias. And he went to Onias, and gave him his right hand with an oath, and (though he were suspected by him) persuaded him to come forth out of the sanctuary, and immediately slew him, without any regard to justice.

4:35. For which cause not only the Jews, but also the other nations, conceived indignation, and were much grieved for the unjust murder of so great a man.

4:36. And when the king was come back from the places of Cilicia, the Jews that were at Antioch, and also the Greeks, went to him: complaining of the unjust murder of Onias.

4:37. Antiochus, therefore, was grieved in his mind for Onias, and being moved to pity, shed tears, remembering the sobriety and modesty of the deceased.

4:38. And being inflamed to anger, he commanded Andronicus to be stripped of his purple, and to be led about through all the city: and that in the same place wherein he had committed the impiety against Onias, the sacrilegious wretch should be put to death, the Lord repaying him his deserved punishment.

4:39. Now when many sacrileges had been committed by Lysimachus in the temple, by the counsel of Menelaus, and the rumour of it was spread abroad, the multitude gathered themselves together against Lysimachus, a great quantity of gold being already carried away.

4:40. Wherefore the multitude making an insurrection, and their minds being filled with anger, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men, and began to use violence, one Tyrannus being captain, a man far gone both in age and in madness.

4:41. But when they perceived the attempt of Lysimachus, some caught up stones, some strong clubs, and some threw ashes upon Lysimachus.

4:42. And many of them were wounded, and some struck down to the ground, but all were put to flight: and as for the sacrilegious fellow himself, they slew him beside the treasury.

4:43. Now concerning these matters, an accusation was laid against Menelaus.

4:44. And when the king was come to Tyre, three men were sent from the ancients to plead the cause before him.

4:45. But Menelaus being convicted, promised Ptolemee to give him much money to persuade the king to favour him.

Ptolemee... The son of Dorymenus, a favourite of the king.

4:46. So Ptolemee went to the king in a certain court where he was, as it were to cool himself, and brought him to be of another mind:

4:47. So Menelaus, who was guilty of all the evil, was acquitted by him of the accusations: and those poor men, who, if they had pleaded their cause even before Scythians, should have been judged innocent, were condemned to death.

4:48. Thus they that persecuted the cause for the city, and for the people, and the sacred vessels, did soon suffer unjust punishment.

4:49. Wherefore even the Tyrians, being moved with indignation, were very liberal towards their burial.

4:50. And so through the covetousness of them that were in power, Menelaus continued in authority, increasing in malice to the betraying of the citizens.

2 Machabees Chapter 5

Wonderful signs are seen in the air. Jason's wickedness and end. Antiochus takes Jerusalem, and plunders the temple.

5:1. At the same time Antiochus prepared for a second journey into Egypt.

5:2. And it came to pass, that through the whole city of Jerusalem, for the space of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in the air, in gilded raiment, and armed with spears, like bands of soldiers.

5:3. And horses set in order by ranks, running one against another, with the shakings of shields, and a multitude of men in helmets, with drawn swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden armour, and of harnesses of all sorts.

5:4. Wherefore all men prayed that these prodigies might turn to good.

5:5. Now when there was gone forth a false rumour as though Antiochus had been dead, Jason taking with him no fewer than a thousand men, suddenly assaulted the city: and though the citizens ran together to the wall, the city at length was taken, and Menelaus fled into the castle.

5:6. But Jason slew his countrymen without mercy, not considering that prosperity against one's own kindred is a very great evil, thinking they had been enemies, and not citizens, whom he conquered.

5:7. Yet he did not get the principality, but received confusion at the end, for the reward of his treachery, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.

5:8. At the last, having been shut up by Aretas, the king of the Arabians, in order for his destruction, flying from city to city, hated by all men, as a forsaker of the laws and execrable, as an enemy of his country and countrymen, he was thrust out into Egypt:

5:9. And he that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land, going to Lacedemon, as if for kindred sake he should have refuge there:

5:10. But he that had cast out many unburied, was himself cast forth both unlamented and unburied, neither having foreign burial, nor being partaker of the sepulchre of his fathers.

5:11. Now when these things were done, the king suspected that the Jews would forsake the alliance: whereupon departing out of Egypt with a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms,

5:12. And commanded the soldiers to kill, and not to spare any that came in their way, and to go up into the houses to slay.

5:13. Thus there was a slaughter of young and old, destruction of women and children, and killing of virgins and infants.

5:14. And there were slain in the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, forty thousand were made prisoners, and as many sold.

5:15. But this was not enough, he presumed also to enter into the temple, the most holy in all the world Menelaus, that traitor to the laws, and to his country, being his guide.

5:16. And taking in his wicked hands the holy vessels, which were given by other kings and cities, for the ornament and the glory of the place, he unworthily handled and profaned them.

5:17. Thus Antiochus going astray in mind, did not consider that God was angry for a while, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city: and therefore this contempt had happened to the place:

5:18. Otherwise had they not been involved in many sins, as Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to rob the treasury, so this man also, as soon as he had come, had been forthwith scourged, and put back from his presumption.

5:19. But God did not choose the people for the place's sake, but the place for the people's sake.

5:20. And, therefore, the place also itself was made partaker of the evils of the people: but afterwards shall communicate in the good things thereof, and as it was forsaken in the wrath of Almighty God, shall be exalted again with great glory, when the great Lord shall be reconciled.

5:21. So when Antiochus had taken away out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents, he went back in all haste to Antioch, thinking through pride that he might now make the land navigable, and the sea passable on foot: such was the haughtiness of his mind.

5:22. He left also governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, but in manners more barbarous than he that set him there:

5:23. And in Gazarim, Andronicus and Menelaus, who bore a more heavy hand upon the citizens than the rest.

5:24. And whereas he was set against the Jews, he sent that hateful prince, Apollonius, with an army of two and twenty thousand men, commanding him to kill all that were of perfect age, and to sell the women and the younger sort.

5:25. Who, when he was come to Jerusalem, pretending peace, rested till the holy day of the sabbath: and then the Jews keeping holiday, he commanded his men to take arms.

5:26. And he slew all that were come forth to flee: and running through the city with armed men, he destroyed a very great multitude.

5:27. But Judas Machabeus, who was the tenth, had withdrawn himself into a desert place, and there lived amongst wild beasts in the mountains with his company: and they continued feeding on herbs, that they might not be partakers of the pollution.

Was the tenth... That is, he had nine others in his company.

2 Machabees Chapter 6

Antiochus commands the law to be abolished, sets up an idol in the temple, and persecutes the faithful. The martyrdom of Eleazar.

6:1. But not long after the king sent a certain old man of Antioch, to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers and of God:

6:2. And to defile the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius: and that in Garazim of Jupiter Hospitalis, according as they were that inhabited the place.

That in Gazarim... Viz., the temple of the Samaritans. And as they were originally strangers, the name of Hospitalis (which signifies of or belonging to strangers) was applicable to the idol set up in their temple.

6:3. And very bad was this invasion of evils, and grievous to all.

6:4. For the temple was full of the riot and revellings of the Gentiles: and of men lying with lewd women. And women thrust themselves of their accord into the holy places, and brought in things that were not lawful.

6:5. The altar also was filled with unlawful things, which were forbidden by the laws.

6:6. And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the fathers observed, neither did any man plainly profess himself to be a Jew.

6:7. But they were led by bitter constraint on the king's birthday to the sacrifices: and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were compelled to go about crowned with ivy in honour of Bacchus.

6:8. And there went out a decree into the neighbouring cities of the Gentiles, by the suggestion of the Ptolemeans, that they also should act in like manner against the Jews, to oblige them to sacrifice:

6:9. And whosoever would not conform themselves to the ways of the Gentiles, should be put to death: then was misery to be seen.

6:10. For two women were accused to have circumcised their children: whom, when they had openly led about through the city, with the infants hanging at their breasts, they threw down headlong from the walls.

6:11. And others that had met together in caves that were near, and were keeping the sabbath day privately, being discovered by Philip, were burnt with fire, because they made a conscience to help themselves with their hands, by reason of the religious observance of the day.

Philip... The governor of Jerusalem.

6:12. Now I beseech those that shall read this book, that they be not shocked at these calamities, but that they consider the things that happened, not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of our nation.

6:13. For it is a token of great goodness, when sinners are not suffered to go on in their ways for a long time, but are presently punished.

6:14. For, not as with other nations, (whom the Lord patiently expecteth, that when the day of judgment shall come, he may punish them in the fulness of their sins:)

6:15. Doth he also deal with us, so as to suffer our sins to come to their height, and then take vengeance on us.

6:16. And therefore he never withdraweth his mercy from us: but though he chastise his people with adversity he forsaketh them not.

6:17. But let this suffice in a few words for a warning to the readers. And now we must come to the narration.

6:18. Eleazar one of the chief of the scribes, a man advanced in years, and of a comely countenance, was pressed to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh.

6:19. But he, choosing rather a most glorious death than a hateful life, went forward voluntarily to the torment.

6:20. And considering in what manner he was to come to it, patiently bearing, he determined not to do any unlawful things for the love of life.

6:21. But they that stood by, being moved with wicked pity, for the old friendship they had with the man, taking him aside, desired that flesh might be brought which it was lawful for him to eat, that he might make as if he had eaten, as the king had commanded, of the flesh of the sacrifice:

Wicked pity... Their pity was wicked, inasmuch as it suggested that wicked proposal of saving his life by dissimulation.

6:22. That by so doing he might be delivered from death; and for the sake of their old friendship with the man, they did him this courtesy.

6:23. But he began to consider the dignity of his age, and his ancient years, and the inbred honour of his grey head, and his good life and conversation from a child; and he answered without delay, according to the ordinances of the holy law made by God, saying, that he would rather be sent into the other world.

6:24. For it doth not become our age, said he, to dissemble: whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, was gone over to the life of the heathens:

6:25. And so they, through my dissimulation, and for a little time of a corruptible life, should be deceived, and hereby I should bring a stain and a curse upon my old age.

6:26. For though, for the present time, I should be delivered from the punishments of men, yet should I not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead.

6:27. Wherefore, by departing manfully out of this life, I shall shew myself worthy of my old age:

6:28. And I shall leave an example of fortitude to young men, if with a ready mind and constancy I suffer an honourable death, for the most venerable and most holy laws. And having spoken thus, he was forthwith carried to execution.

6:29. And they that led him, and had been a little before more mild, were changed to wrath for the words he had spoken, which they thought were uttered out of arrogancy.

6:30. But when he was now ready to die with the stripes, he groaned: and said: O Lord, who hast the holy knowledge, thou knowest manifestly that whereas I might be delivered from death, I suffer grievous pains in body: but in soul am well content to suffer these things, because I fear thee.

6:31. Thus did this man die, leaving not only to young men, but also to the whole nation, the memory of his death, for an example of virtue and fortitude.

2 Machabees Chapter 7

The glorious martyrdom of the seven brethren and their mother.

7:1. It came to pass also, that seven brethren, together with their mother, were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh against the law, for which end they were tormented with whips and scourges.

7:2. But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? we are ready to die, rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from our fathers.

7:3. Then the king being angry, commanded fryingpans and brazen caldrons to be made hot: which forthwith being heated,

7:4. He commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had spoken first: and the skin of his head being drawn off, to chop off also the extremities of his hands and feet, the rest of his brethren and his mother looking on.

7:6. And when he was now maimed in all parts, he commanded him, being yet alive, to be brought to the fire, and to be fried in the fryingpan: and while he was suffering therein long torments, the rest, together with the mother, exhorted one another to die manfully,

7:6. Saying: The Lord God will look upon the truth, and will take pleasure in us, as Moses declared in the profession of the canticle; And in his servants he will take pleasure.

7:7. So when the first was dead after this manner, they brought the next to make him a mocking stock: and when they had pulled off the skin of his head with the hair, they asked him if he would eat, before he were punished throughout the whole body in every limb. 7:8. But he answered in his own language, and said: I will not do it. Wherefore he also, in the next place, received the torments of the first:

7:9. And when he was at the last gasp, he said thus: Thou indeed, O most wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life.

7:10. After him the third was made a mocking-stock, and when he was required, he quickly put forth his tongue, and courageously stretched out his hands:

7:11. And said with confidence: These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them, because I hope to receive them again from him.

7:12. So that the king, and they that were with him, wondered at the young man's courage, because he esteemed the torments as nothing.

7:13. And after he was thus dead, they tormented the fourth in the like manner.

7:14. And when he was now ready to die, he spoke thus: It is better, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up again by him; for, as to thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life.

7:15. And when they had brought the fifth, they tormented him. But he, looking upon the king, 7:16. Said: Whereas thou hast power among men though thou art corruptible, thou dost what thou wilt but think not that our nation is forsaken by God.

7:17. But stay patiently a while, and thou shalt see his great power, in what manner he will torment thee and thy seed.

7:18. After him they brought the sixth, and he being ready to die, spoke thus: Be not deceived without cause: for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God, and things worthy of admiration are done to us:

7:19. But do not think that thou shalt escape unpunished, for that thou hast attempted to fight against God.

7:20. Now the mother was to be admired above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld her seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God:

7:21. And she bravely exhorted every one of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom; and joining a man's heart to a woman's thought,

7:22. She said to them: I know not how you were formed in my womb; for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you.

7:23. But the Creator of the world, that formed the nativity of man, and that found out the origin of all, he will restore to you again, in his mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise yourselves for the sake of his laws.

7:24. Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and withal despising the voice of the upbraider, when the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with an oath, that he would make him a rich and a happy man, and, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, would take him for a friend, and furnish him with things necessary.

7:25. But when the young man was not moved with these things, the king called the mother, and counselled her to deal with the young man to save his life.

7:26. And when he had exhorted her with many words she promised that she would counsel her son.

7:27. So bending herself towards him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she said in her own language: My son have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age.

7:28. I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also:

7:29. So thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but being made a worthy partner with thy brethren, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren.

7:30. While she was yet speaking these words, the young man said: For whom do you stay? I will not obey the commandment of the king, but the commandment of the law which was given us by Moses.

7:31. But thou that hast been the author of all mischief against the Hebrews, shalt not escape the hand of God.

7:32. For we suffer thus for our sins.

7:33. And though the Lord, our God, is angry with us a little while, for our chastisement and correction, yet he will be reconciled again to his servants.

7:34. But thou, O wicked, and of all men most flagitious, be not lifted up without cause with vain hopes, whilst thou art raging against his servants.

7:35. For thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of the Almighty God, who beholdeth all things.

7:36. For my brethren having now undergone a short pain, are under the covenant of eternal life: but thou, by the judgment of God, shalt receive just punishment for thy pride.

7:37. But I, like my brethren, offer up my life and my body for the laws of our fathers: calling upon God to be speedily merciful to our nation, and that thou by torments and stripes mayst confess that he alone is God.

7:38. But in me, and in my brethren, the wrath of the Almighty, which hath justly been brought upon all our nation, shall cease.

7:39. Then the king being incensed with anger, raged against him more cruelly than all the rest, taking it grievously that he was mocked.

7:40. So this man also died undefiled, wholly trusting in the Lord.

7:41. And last of all, after the sons, the mother also was consumed.

7:42. But now there is enough said of the sacrifices and of the excessive cruelties.

2 Machabees Chapter 8