Chanukah
Six: 6 Candles (Feast of Dedication) 29-Kislev.
Chunukah
6:
Numbers 7:42-47.
42 On the sixth day, Eliasaph the
son of Deuel, prince of the children of Gad
43 gave his offering: one silver platter, the
weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy
shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour
mixed with oil for a meal offering;
44 one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of
incense;
45 one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a
year old, for a burnt offering;
46 one male goat for a sin offering;
47 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings,
two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old.
This was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
(2 Maccabees 5:1-27 NAB-A)
:
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Jason Tries to Regain Control. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
About this time
Antiochus sent his second expedition into Egypt. It then happened that all
over the city, for nearly forty days, there appeared horsemen charging in
midair, clad in garments interwoven with gold--companies fully armed with
lances and drawn swords; squadrons of cavalry
in battle array, charges and countercharges on this side and that, with
brandished shields and bristling spears, flights of arrows and flashes of gold
ornaments, together with armor of every sort. Therefore
all prayed that this vision might be a good omen. But when a false rumor circulated that Antiochus was dead,
Jason gathered fully a thousand men and suddenly attacked the city. As the
defenders on the walls were forced back and the city was finally being taken,
Menelaus took refuge in the citadel. Jason then
slaughtered his fellow citizens without mercy, not realizing that triumph over
one's own kindred was the greatest failure, but imagining that he was winning a
victory over his enemies, not his fellow countrymen. Even so, he did not gain control of the government, but in
the end received only disgrace for his treachery, and once again took refuge in
the country of the Ammonites. At length he met
a miserable end. Called to account before Aretas, king of the Arabs, he fled
from city to city, hunted by all men, hated as a transgressor of the Torah,
abhorred as the butcher of his country and his countrymen. After being driven
into Egypt, he crossed the sea to the Spartans,
among whom he hoped to find protection because of his relations with them.
There he who had exiled so many from their country perished in exile; and he who had cast out so many to lie unburied went unmourned
himself with no funeral of any kind or any place in the tomb of his ancestors.
When these happenings were reported to the king, he
thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from
Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered
his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those
who took refuge in their houses. There was a
massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of
virgins and infants. In the space of three
days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and
the same number being sold into slavery.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Pillage of the Temple. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Not satisfied with
this, the king dared to enter the holiest temple in the world; Menelaus, that
traitor both to the Torah and to his country, served as guide. He laid
his impure hands on the sacred vessels and gathered up with profane hands the
votive offerings made by other kings for the advancement, the glory, and the
honor of the Place. Puffed up in spirit,
Antiochus did not realize that it was because of the sins of the city's
inhabitants that YHWH was angry for a little while and hence disregarded the
holy Place. If they had not become entangled in
so many sins, this man, like Heliodorus, who was sent by King Seleucus to
inspect the treasury, would have been flogged and turned back from his
presumptuous action as soon as he approached. YHWH,
however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the Place, but the Place for
the sake of the people. Therefore, the Place
itself, having shared in the people's misfortunes, afterward participated in
their good fortune; and what the Almighty had forsaken in his anger was
restored in all its glory, once the great Sovereign became reconciled. Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the
temple, and hurried back to Antioch. In his arrogance he planned to make the
land navigable and the sea passable on foot, so carried away was he with pride.
But he left governors to harass the nation: at
Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, and in character more cruel than the
man who appointed him; at Mount Gerizim,
Andronicus; and besides these, Menelaus, who lorded it over his fellow citizens
worse than the others did. Out of hatred for the Jewish citizens, the king sent Appollonius, commander of the Mysians, at the
head of an army of twenty-two thousand men, with orders to kill all the grown
men and sell the women and young men into slavery. When this man arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be
peacefully disposed and waited until the holy day of the sabbath; then, finding
the Jews refraining from work, he ordered his men to parade fully armed.
All those who came out to watch, he massacred, and
running through the city with armed men, he cut down a large number of people.
But Judas Maccabeus and about nine others withdrew to
the wilderness, where he and his companions lived like wild animals in the
hills, continuing to eat what grew wild to avoid sharing the defilement.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
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(2 Maccabees 6:1-31 NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Suppression of Judaism. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Not long after this the
king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their
ancestors and live no longer by the Torah of Elohim; also to
profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on
Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place
requested. This intensified the evil in an
intolerable and utterly disgusting way. The
Gentiles filled the temple with debauchery and revelry; they amused themselves
with prostitutes and had intercourse with women even in the sacred court. They
also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings
prohibited by the Torah. A man could not keep
the sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a
Jew. Moreover, at the monthly celebration of
the king's birthday the Jews had, from bitter necessity, to partake of the
sacrifices, and when the festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were
compelled to march in his procession, wearing wreaths of ivy. At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was
issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the
Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and
put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It
was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended. Thus,
two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly
paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then
thrown down from the top of the city wall. Others,
who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the sabbath in secret, were
betrayed to Philip and all burned to death. In their respect for the holiness
of that day, they had scruples about defending themselves.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Providential Significance of the Persecution. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Now I beg those who
read this book not to be disheartened by these misfortunes, but to consider
that these chastisements were meant not for the ruin but for the correction of
our nation. It is, in fact, a sign of great kindness to punish sinners
promptly instead of letting them go for long. Thus,
in dealing with other nations, YHWH patiently waits until they reach the full
measure of their sins before he punishes them; but with us he has decided to
deal differently, in order that he may not have
to punish us more severely later, when our sins have reached their fullness.
He never withdraws his mercy from us. Although he
disciplines us with misfortunes, he does not abandon his own people. Let these words suffice for recalling this truth. Without
further ado we must go on with our story.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Martyrdom of Eleazar. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Eleazar, one of the
foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced
to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of
defilement, he spat out the meat, and went forward of his own accord to the
instrument of torture, as men ought to do who
have the courage to reject the food which it is unlawful to taste even for love
of life. Those in charge of that unlawful
ritual meal took the man aside privately, because of their long acquaintance
with him, and urged him to bring meat of his own providing, such as he could legitimately
eat, and to pretend to be eating some of the meat of the sacrifice prescribed
by the king; in this way he would escape the
death penalty, and be treated kindly because of their old friendship with him.
But he made up his mind in a noble manner, worthy of
his years, the dignity of his advanced age, the merited distinction of his gray
hair, and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood; and so he declared
that above all he would be loyal to the holy Torah given by Elohim. He told
them to send him at once to the abode of the dead, explaining: "At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a
pretense; many young men would think the ninety-year-old Eleazar had gone over
to an alien religion. Should I thus dissimulate
for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I
would bring shame and dishonor on my old age. Even
if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men, I shall never, whether
alive or dead, escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy
of my old age, and I will leave to the young a
noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy
Torah." He spoke thus, and went immediately to the instrument of torture.
Those who shortly before had been kindly disposed, now
became hostile toward him because what he had said seemed to them utter
madness. When he was about to die under the
blows, he groaned and said: "YHWH in his holy knowledge knows full well
that, although I could have escaped death, I am not only enduring terrible pain
in my body from this scourging, but also suffering it with joy in my soul
because of my devotion to him." This is
how he died, leaving in his death a model of courage and an unforgettable
example of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
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(2 Maccabees 7:1-42 NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Martyrdom of Seven Brothers. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
It also happened that
seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and
scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of Elohim's Torah. One of
the brothers, speaking for the others, said: "What do you expect to
achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the Torah
of our ancestors." At that the king, in a
fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. While they were being quickly heated, he commanded his
executioners to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to
scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and
his mother looked on. When he was completely
maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and
fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother
encouraged one another to die bravely, saying such words as these: "YHWH Elohim is looking on, and he truly has
compassion on us, as Moses declared in his canticle, when he protested openly
with the words, 'And he will have pity on his servants.'" When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought
the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his
head, they asked him, "Will you eat the pork rather than have your body
tortured limb by limb?" Answering in the
language of his forefathers, he said, "Never!" So he too in turn
suffered the same tortures as the first. At the
point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this
present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.
It is for his Torah that we are dying." After
him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when
told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as
he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for
the sake of his Torah I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them
again." Even the king and his attendants
marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as
nothing. After he had died, they tortured and
maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When
he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men
with the Elohim-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there
will be no resurrection to life." They
next brought forward the fifth brother and maltreated him. Looking at the king,
he said: "Since you have power among men, mortal
though you are, do what you please. But do not think that our nation is
forsaken by Elohim. Only wait, and you will see
how his great power will torment you and your descendants." After him they brought the sixth brother. When he was about
to die, he said: "Have no vain illusions. We suffer these things on our
own account, because we have sinned against our Elohim; that is why such
astonishing things have happened to us. Do not
think, then, that you will go unpunished for having dared to fight against
Elohim." Most admirable and worthy of
everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a
single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in YHWH! Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart
with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their
forefathers with these words: "I do not
know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the
breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you
is composed. Therefore, since it is the Creator
of the universe who shapes each man's beginning, as he brings about the origin
of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life,
because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his Torah." Martyrdom
of Mother and Sons Antiochus, suspecting insult_ in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest
brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but
with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his
ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high
office. When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king
appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life. After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the
motions of persuading her son. In derision of
the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native
language: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine
months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you
to your present age. I beg you, child, to look
at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know
that Elohim did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the
human race came into existence. Do not be
afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so
that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them." She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said:
"What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command. I obey the
command of the Torah given to our forefathers through Moses. But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the
Hebrews, will not escape the hands of Elohim. We,
indeed, are suffering because of our sins. Though
our living YHWH treats us harshly for a little while to correct us with
chastisements, he will again be reconciled with his servants. But you, wretch, vilest of all men! do not, in your
insolence, concern yourself with unfounded hopes, as you raise your hand
against the children of Heaven. You have not
yet escaped the judgment of the almighty and all-seeing Elohim. My brothers, after enduring brief pain, have drunk of
never-failing life, under Elohim's covenant, but you, by the judgment of
Elohim, shall receive just punishments for your arrogance. Like my brothers, I offer up my body and my life for our
ancestral Torah, imploring Elohim to show mercy soon to our nation, and by
afflictions and blows to make you confess that he alone is Elohim. Through me and my brothers, may there be an end to the wrath
of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation." At that, the king became enraged and treated him even worse
than the others, since he bitterly resented the boy's contempt. Thus he too died undefiled, putting all his trust in YHWH!
The mother was last to die, after her sons. Enough has been said about the sacrificial meals and the
excessive cruelties.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
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(2 Maccabees 8:1-36 NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Revolt of Judas Maccabeus. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Judas Maccabeus and his
companions entered the villages, secretly, summoned their kinsmen, and by also
enlisting others who remained faithful to Judaism, assembled about six thousand
men. They implored YHWH to look kindly upon his people, who
were being oppressed on all sides; to have pity on the temple, which was
profaned by godless men; to have mercy on the
city, which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground; to
hearken to the blood that cried out to him; to
remember the criminal slaughter of innocent children and the blasphemies
uttered against his name; and to manifest his hatred of evil. Once Maccabeus got his men organized, the Gentiles could not
withstand him, for YHWH's wrath had now changed to mercy. Coming unexpectedly upon towns and villages, he would set
them on fire. He captured strategic positions, and put to flight a large number
of the enemy. He preferred the nights as being
especially helpful for such attacks. Soon the fame of his valor spread
everywhere. When Philip saw that Judas was
gaining ground little by little and that his successful advances were becoming
more frequent, he wrote to Ptolemy, governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to
come to the aid of the king's government. Ptolemy
promptly selected Nicanor, son of Patroclus, one of the Chief Friends, and sent
him at the head of at least twenty thousand armed men of various nations to
wipe out the entire Jewish race. With him he associated Gorgias, a professional
military commander, well-versed in the art of war. Nicanor planned to raise the two thousand talents of tribute
owed by the king to the Romans by selling captured Jews into slavery. So he immediately sent word to the coastal cities, inviting
them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to deliver ninety slaves for a
talent--little did he dream of the punishment that was to fall upon him from
the Almighty.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Preparation for Battle. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
When Judas learned of
Nicanor's advance and informed his companions about the approach of the army, the
cowardly and those who lacked faith in Elohim's justice deserted and got away.
But the others sold everything they had left, and at
the same time besought YHWH to deliver those whom the ungodly Nicanor had
sold before even meeting them. They begged
YHWH to do this, if not for their sake, at least for the sake of the
covenants made with their forefathers, and because they themselves bore his
holy, glorious name. Maccabeus assembled his
men, six thousand strong, and exhorted them not to be panic-stricken before the
enemy, nor to fear the large number of the Gentiles attacking them unjustly,
but to fight courageously, keeping before their
eyes the Torahless outrage perpetrated by the Gentiles against the holy Place
and the affliction of the humiliated city, as well as the subversion of their
ancestral way of life. "They trust in
weapons and acts of daring," he said, "but we trust in almighty
Elohim, who can by a mere nod destroy not only those who attack us, but the
whole world." He went on to tell them of
the times when help had been given their ancestors: both the time of
Sennacherib, when a hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men were destroyed,
and the time of the battle in Babylonia against the
Galatians, when only eight thousand Jews fought along with four thousand
Macedonians; yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand
routed one hundred and twenty thousand and took a great quantity of booty, because
of the help they received from Heaven.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Judas Defeats Nicanor. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
With such words he
encouraged them and made them ready to die for their Torah and their country.
Then Judas divided his army into four, placing his brothers, Simon,
Joseph, and Jonathan, each over a division, assigning to each fifteen hundred
men. (There was also Eleazar.) After reading to
them from the holy book and giving them the watchword, "The Help of
Elohim," he himself took charge of the first division and joined in battle
with Nicanor. With the Almighty as their ally,
they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and disabled the
greater part of Nicanor's army, and put all of them to flight. They also seized the money of those who had come to buy them
as slaves. When they had pursued the enemy for some time, they were obliged to return by reason of the late hour, it
was the day before the sabbath, and for that reason they could not continue the
pursuit. They collected the enemy's arms and
stripped them of their spoils, and then observed the sabbath with fervent
praise and thanks to YHWH who kept them safe for that day on which he let
descend on them the first dew of his mercy. After
the sabbath, they gave a share of the booty to the persecuted and to widows and
orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children. When this was done, they made supplication in common,
imploring the merciful YHWH to be completely reconciled with his servants.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Judas Defeats Timothy and Bacchides. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
They also challenged
the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, killed more than twenty thousand of them,
and captured some very high fortresses. They divided the enormous plunder,
allotting half to themselves and the rest to the persecuted, to orphans,
widows, and the aged.
They collected the enemies' weapons and carefully
stored them in suitable places; the rest of the spoils they carried to
Jerusalem. They also killed the commander of
Timothy's forces, a most wicked man, who had done great harm to the Jews.
While celebrating the victory in their ancestral city,
they burned both those who had set fire to the sacred gates and Callisthenes,
who had taken refuge in a little house; so he received the reward his wicked
deeds deserved. The accursed Nicanor, who had
brought the thousand slave dealers to buy the Jews, after being humbled through YHWH's help by those whom he
had thought of no account, laid aside his fine clothes and fled alone across
country like a runaway slave, until he reached Antioch. He was eminently
successful in destroying his own army. So he
who had promised to provide tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people
of Jerusalem testified that the Jews had a champion, and that they were
invulnerable for the very reason that they followed the Torah laid down by him.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
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! ! End of
Today’s FEAST and Related Scriptures! Praise Yah! (HNV-yet version, in the public domain.)
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