2 Maccabees 10

Now Maccabeus and his company, the Lord guiding them, ^arecovered the temple and the city: ²but the altars which the heathen had built in the open street, and also ^bthe chapels, they pulled down. ³And having cleansed the temple ^cthey made another altar, and ^dstriking stones they took fire out of them, and offered a sacrifice after ^etwo years, and ^fset forth incense, and lights, and shewbread. ⁴When that was done, ^ffthey fell flat down, and besought the Lord that they might come no more into such troubles; but if they sinned any more against him, that ^ghe himself would chasten them with mercy, and that they might not be delivered unto the blasphemous and barbarous nations. ⁵Now ^hupon the same day that the strangers profaned the temple, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is ⁱCasleu. ⁶And they kept ^jeight days with gladness, as in ^kthe feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts. ⁷Therefore they bare ^lbranches, and ^mfair boughs, and ^mpalms also, and sang ⁿpsalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. ^8oThey ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews. ⁹And this was the end of Antiochus, called ^pEpiphanes.

¹⁰Now will we declare the acts of ^qAntiochus Eupator, who was the son of this wicked man, ^rgathering briefly the calamities of the wars. ¹¹So when he was come to the crown, he ^sset one ^tLysias over the affairs of his realm, and appointed him ^uchief governor of ^vCoelosyria and Phenice. ¹²For ^wPtolemeus, that was called Macron, choosing rather to do justice unto the Jews for the wrong that had been done unto them, endeavoured to continue peace with them. ¹³Whereupon being accused of the king’s friends before ^qEupator, and called traitor ^xat every word, because he had left ^yCyprus, that ^zPhilometor had committed unto him, and departed to ^pAntiochus Epiphanes, and seeing that he was in no honourable place, he was so discouraged, that he poisoned himself and died.

¹⁴But when ^bGorgias was governor of the holds, he hired soldiers, and ^cnourished war ^xcontinually with the Jews: ¹⁵and therewithal ^ccthe Idumeans, having gotten into their hands ^dthe most commodious holds, kept the Jews occupied, and receiving ^ddthose that were banished from Jerusalem, they went about to ^cnourish war. ¹⁶Then ^ethey that were with Maccabeus made supplication, and besought God that he would be their helper; and so they ran with violence upon the strong holds of ^ccthe Idumeans, ¹⁷and assaulting them strongly, they won the holds, and kept off all that fought upon the wall, and slew all that fell into their hands, and killed no fewer than twenty thousand. ¹⁸And because certain, who were no less than nine thousand, were fled together into two very strong castles, having all manner of things convenient to sustain the siege, ¹⁹Maccabeus left ^fSimon and ^fJoseph, and Zaccheus also, and them that were with him, who were enough to besiege them, and departed himself unto those places which more needed his help. ²⁰Now they that were with Simon, being led with covetousness, were ^gpersuaded for money, (through certain of those that were in the castle,) and took seventy thousand ^hdrachms, and let some of them escape. ²¹But when it was told Maccabeus what was done, he called the governors of the people together, and accused those men, that they had sold their brethren for money, and set their enemies free to fight against them. ²²So he slew those that were found traitors, and immediately took ⁱthe two castles. ²³And having good success with his weapons in all things he took in hand, ^khe slew in the two holds more than twenty thousand.

²⁴Now ^lTimotheus, ^lwhom the Jews had overcome before, ^mwhen he had gathered a great multitude of foreign forces, and horses out of ⁿAsia not a few, came as though he would take Jewry by force of arms. ²⁵But when he drew near, they that were with Maccabeus turned themselves to pray unto God, and ^osprinkled earth upon their heads, and ^pgirded their loins with sackcloth, ²⁶and fell down at the foot of the altar, and besought him to be merciful to them, and ^qto be an enemy to their enemies, and an adversary to their adversaries, ^qas the law ^rdeclareth. ²⁷So after the prayer they took their weapons, and went on ^mfurther from the city: and when they drew near to their enemies, they kept by themselves. ²⁸Now the sun being newly risen, they joined both together; the one part having together with their virtue their refuge also unto the Lord for a pledge of their success and victory: the other side making their rage leader of their battle. ²⁹But when the battle waxed strong, ^sthere appeared unto the enemies from heaven five comely men upon horses with bridles of gold, and two of them ^ssled the Jews, ³⁰and took Maccabeus betwixt them, and covered him on every side with their weapons, and kept him safe, but shot arrows and lightnings against the enemies: so that ^tbeing confounded with blindness, and full of trouble, they were killed. ³¹And there were slain of footmen twenty thousand and five hundred, and six hundred horsemen.

³²As for ^lTimotheus himself, he fled into a very strong hold, called ^uGazara, where ^vChereas was governor. ³³But ^wthey that were with Maccabeus laid siege against the fortress courageously four days. ³⁴And they that were within, trusting to the strength of the place, blasphemed exceedingly, and uttered ^xwicked words. ³⁵Nevertheless upon the fifth day early twenty young men ^wof Maccabeus’ company, inflamed with anger because of the blasphemies, assaulted the wall manly, and with a fierce courage killed all that they met withal. ³⁶Others likewise ascending after them, whiles they were busied with them that were within, ^yburnt the towers, and kindling fires burnt the blasphemers alive; and others broke open the gates, and, having received in the rest of the army, took the city, ³⁷and killed ^lzTimotheus, that was ^ahid in a certain pit, and ^vChereas his brother, with Apollophanes. ³⁸When this was done, they praised the Lord with ^bpsalms and thanksgiving, who had done so great things for Israel, and ^cgiven them the victory.

XI.