2 Maccabees 5

About the same time ^aAntiochus prepared his second ^bvoyage into Egypt: ²and then it happened, that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, ^ethere were seen horsemen running ^cin the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of soldiers, ³and troops of horsemen in array, encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields, and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, and ^dharness of all sorts. ⁴Wherefore every man prayed that that ^eapparition might turn to good.

⁵Now when there was gone forth a false rumour, as though Antiochus had been dead, ^fJason took at the least a thousand men, and suddenly made an ^gassault upon the city; and they that were upon the walls being put back, and the city at length taken, ^hMenelaus fled into ⁱthe castle: ⁶but Jason slew his own citizens without mercy, not considering that to get the day of them of his own nation would be a most unhappy day for him; but thinking they had been his enemies, and not his countrymen, whom he conquered. ⁷Howbeit, for all this he obtained not the principality, but at the last received shame for the reward of his treason, and ^jfled again into the country of the Ammonites. ⁸In the end therefore he had an unhappy return, being accused before ^kAretas the king of the ^lArabians, fleeing from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as ^ma forsaker of the laws, and being had in abomination as an open enemy of his country and countrymen, he was ⁿcast out into Egypt. ⁹Thus he that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land, retiring to the ^oLacedemonians, and thinking there to find succour ^pby reason of his kindred: ¹⁰and he that had cast out many unburied had none to mourn for him, nor any ^qsolemn funerals at all, nor sepulchre with his fathers.

¹¹Now when ^rthis that was done came to the king’s ear, he thought that Judea had revolted: whereupon ^sremoving out of Egypt in a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms, ¹²and ^tcommanded his men of war not to spare such as they met, and to slay such as went up upon the houses. ^13uThus there was killing of young and old, ^wmaking away of men, women, and children, slaying of virgins and infants. ¹⁴And there were destroyed within the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, whereof forty thousand were slain in the conflict; and no fewer sold than slain. ¹⁵Yet was he not content with this, but ^xpresumed to go into the most holy temple of all the world; ^hMenelaus, that traitor to the laws, and to his own country, being his guide: ¹⁶and ^xtaking the holy vessels with polluted hands, and with profane hands pulling down ^ythe things that were dedicated by other kings to the augmentation and glory and honour of the place, he gave them away. ¹⁷And ^zso haughty was Antiochus in mind, that he considered not that ^athe Lord was angry for a while for the sins of them that dwelt in the city, and therefore ^bhis eye was not upon the place. ¹⁸For had they not been formerly wrapped in many sins, this man, as soon as he had come, had forthwith been scourged, and put back from his presumption, ^cas Heliodorus was, whom ^dSeleucus the king sent to view ^ethe treasury. ¹⁹Nevertheless God did not choose the people for ^fthe place’s sake, ^gbut the place for the people’s sake. ²⁰And therefore ^fthe place itself, that was partaker with them of the adversities that happened to the nation, did afterward communicate in the benefits sent from the Lord: and as it was forsaken in the wrath of the ^hAlmighty, so again, the great ^aLord being reconciled, it was set up with all glory.

²¹So when Antiochus ⁱhad carried out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents, he departed in all haste into ^jAntiochia, weening ^kin his pride to make the land navigable, and the sea passable by foot: such was ^zthe haughtiness of his mind. ²²And ^lhe left governors to vex the nation: at Jerusalem, ^llPhilip, for his country a ^mPhrygian, and for manners more barbarous than he that set him there; ²³and at ⁿGarizim, Andronicus; and besides, Menelaus, who worse than all the rest bare a heavy hand over the citizens, having a malicious mind against his countrymen the Jews. ^24oHe sent also that detestable ^pringleader ^qApollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort: ²⁵who coming to Jerusalem, and ^rpretending peace, did forbear till the holy day of the sabbath, when taking the Jews keeping holy day, he commanded his men to arm themselves. ²⁶And so he slew all them that were gone to the ^scelebrating of the sabbath, and running through the city with weapons ^tslew great multitudes. ²⁷But ^uJudas Maccabeus with nine others, or thereabout, ^wwithdrew himself into the wilderness, and ^wlived in the mountains after the manner of beasts, with his company, who fed on herbs continually, lest they should be partakers of the pollution.

VI.