Chanukah
Two: 2 Candles (Festival of Lights).
Chanukah
2:
Numbers
7:18-29.
18 On the second day Nethanel the
son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, gave his offering.
19 He offered for 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;
20 one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of
incense;
21 one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a
year old, for a burnt offering;
22 one male goat for a sin offering;
23 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings,
two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old.
This was the offering of Nethanel the son of Zuar.
24 On the third day Eliab the son of Helon,
prince of the children of Zebulun
25 gave his offering: one silver platter, the
weight of which was a hundred and 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;
26 one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of
incense;
27 one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a
year old, for a burnt offering;
28 one male goat for a sin offering;
29 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 Eliab the son of Helon.
(1 Maccabees 5:1-68
NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Wars with Neighboring Peoples. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
When the Gentiles round
about heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary consecrated as
before, they were very angry. So they decided to destroy the descendants
of Jacob who were among them, and they began to massacre and persecute the
people. Then Judas attacked the sons of Esau at
Akrabattene in Idumea, because they were blockading Israel; he defeated them
heavily, overcame and despoiled them. He also
remembered the malice of the sons of Baean, who had become a snare and a
stumbling block to the people by ambushing them along the roads. He forced them to take refuge in towers, which he besieged;
he vowed their annihilation and burned down the towers along with all the
persons in them. Then he crossed over to the
Ammonites, where he found a strong army and a large body of people with Timothy
as their leader. He fought many battles with
them, routed them, and struck them down. After
seizing Jazer and its villages, he returned to Judea.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Liberation of Galilean Jews. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
The Gentiles in Gilead
assembled to attack and destroy the Israelites who were in their territory;
these then fled to the stronghold of Dathema. They sent a letter to
Judas and his brothers saying: "The Gentiles around us have combined
against us to destroy us, and they are
preparing to come and seize this stronghold to which we have fled. Timothy is
the leader of their army. Come at once and
rescue us from them, for many of us have fallen. All our kinsmen who were among the Tobiads have been killed; the Gentiles
have carried away their wives and children and their goods, and they have slain
there about a thousand men." While they
were reading this letter, suddenly other messengers, in torn clothes, arrived
from Galilee to deliver a similar message: that
the inhabitants of Ptolemais, Tyre, and Sidon, and the whole of Gentile Galilee
had joined forces to destroy them. When Judas
and the people heard this, a great assembly convened to consider what they
should do for their unfortunate kinsmen who were being attacked by enemies.
Judas said to his brother Simon: "Choose men for
yourself, and go, rescue your kinsmen in Galilee; I and my brother Jonathan
will go to Gilead." In Judea he left
Joseph, son of Zechariah, and Azariah, leader of the people, with the rest of
the army to guard it. "Take charge of
these people," he commanded them, "but do not fight against the
Gentiles until we return." Three thousand
men were allotted to Simon, to go into Galilee, and eight thousand men to Judas,
for Gilead. Simon went into Galilee and fought
many battles with the Gentiles. They were crushed before him, and he pursued them to the very gate of Ptolemais. About
three thousand men of the Gentiles fell, and he gathered their spoils. He took with him the Jews who were in Galilee and in
Arbatta, with their wives and children and all that they had, and brought them
to Judea with great rejoicing.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Judas and Jonathan in Gilead. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Judas Maccabeus and his
brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan and marched for three days through the
desert. There they met some Nabateans, who received them peacefully
and told them all that had happened to the Jews in Gilead: "Many of them have been imprisoned in Bozrah, in Bosor
near Alema, in Chaspho, Maked_, and
Carnaim"--all of these are large, fortified cities-- "and
some have been imprisoned in other cities of Gilead. Tomorrow their enemies
plan to attack the strongholds and to seize and destroy all these people in one
day." Thereupon Judas suddenly changed
direction with his army, marched across the desert to Bozrah, and captured the
city. He slaughtered all the male population, took all their possessions, and
set fire to the city. He led his army from that
place by night, and they marched toward the stronghold of Dathema. When morning came, they looked ahead and saw a countless
multitude of people, with ladders and devices for capturing the stronghold, and
beginning to attack the people within. When
Judas perceived that the struggle had begun and that the noise of the battle
was resounding to heaven with trumpet blasts and loud shouting, he said to the men of his army, "Fight for our kinsmen
today." He came up behind them with three
columns blowing their trumpets and shouting in prayer. When the army of Timothy realized that it was Maccabeus,
they fell back before him, and he inflicted on them a crushing defeat. About
eight thousand of their men fell that day. Then
he turned toward Alema and attacked and captured it; he killed all the male
population, plundered the place, and burned it down. From there he moved on and took Chaspho, Maked, Bosor, and
the other cities of Gilead. After these events
Timothy assembled another army and camped opposite Raphon, on the other side of
the stream. Judas sent men to spy on the camp,
and they reported to him: "All the Gentiles around us have rallied to him,
making a very large force; they have also hired
Arabs to help them, and have camped beyond the stream, ready to attack you."
So Judas went forward to attack them. As Judas
and his army were approaching the running stream, Timothy said to the officers
of his army: "If he crosses over to us first, we shall not be able to
resist him; he will certainly defeat us. But if
he is afraid and camps on the other side of the river, we will cross over to
him and defeat him." But when Judas
reached the running stream, he stationed the officers of the people beside the
stream and gave them this order: "Do not allow any man to pitch a tent; all
must go into battle." He was the first to
cross to the attack, with all the people behind him, and the Gentiles were
crushed before them; they threw away their arms and fled to the temple
enclosure at Carnaim. The Jews captured that
city and burnt the enclosure with all who were in it. So Carnaim was subdued,
and Judas met with no more resistance.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Return to Jerusalem. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Then he assembled all
the Israelites, great and small, who were in Gilead, with their wives and
children and their goods, a great crowd of people, to go into the land of
Judah. When they reached Ephron, a large and strongly fortified
city along the way, they found it impossible to encircle it on either the right
or the left; they would have to march right through it. But the men in the city shut them out and blocked up the
gates with stones. Then Judas sent them this
peaceful message: "We wish to cross your territory in order to reach our
own; no one will harm you; we will only march through." But they would not
open to him. So Judas ordered a proclamation to
be made in the camp that everyone make an attack from the place where he was.
When the men of the army took up their positions, he
assaulted the city all that day and night, and it was delivered to him. He slaughtered every male, razed and plundered the city, and
passed through it over the slain. Then they
crossed the Jordan to the great plain in front of Beth-shan; and Judas kept rounding up the stragglers and encouraging
the people the whole way, until he reached the land of Judah. They ascended Mount Zion in joy and gladness and offered
holocausts, because not one of them had fallen; they had returned in safety.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Joseph and Azariah Defeated. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
During the time that
Judas and Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, and Simon his brother was in
Galilee opposite Ptolemais, Joseph, son of Zechariah, and Azariah, the
leaders of the army, heard about the brave deeds and the fighting that they
were doing. They said, "Let us also make a
name for ourselves by going out and fighting against the Gentiles around
us." They gave orders to the men of their
army who were with them, and marched toward Jamnia. But Gorgias and his men came out of the city to meet them in
battle. Joseph and Azariah were beaten, and
were pursued to the frontiers of Judea, and about two thousand Israelites fell
that day. It was a bad defeat for the people,
because they had not obeyed Judas and his brothers, thinking that they would do
brave deeds. But they did not belong to the
family of those men to whom it was granted to achieve Israel's salvation.
The valiant Judas and his brothers were greatly
renowned in all Israel and among all the Gentiles, wherever their name was
heard; and men gathered about them and praised
them.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Success at Hebron and Philistia. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Then Judas and his
brothers went out and attacked the sons of Esau in the country toward the
south; he took Hebron and its villages, and he destroyed its strongholds and
burned the towers around it. He then set out for the land of the
Philistines and passed through Marisa. At that
time some priests fell in battle who had gone out rashly to fight in their
desire to distinguish themselves. Judas then
turned toward Azotus in the land of the Philistines. He destroyed their altars
and burned the statues of their idol_gods; and after plundering their cities he
returned to the land of Judah.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
\Eng:[:phone arpa
SAMPA][_:<3333,0>]\
(1 Maccabees 6:1-63
NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Last Days of Antiochus Epiphanes. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
As King Antiochus was
traversing the inland provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city
called Elymais, famous for its wealth in silver and gold, and that
its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons
left there by Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon, the first king of the
Greeks. He went therefore and tried to capture
and pillage the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to
the people of the city who rose up in battle
against him. So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there to return
to Babylon. While he was in Persia, a messenger
brought him news that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to
flight; that Lysias had gone at first with a
strong army and been driven back by the Israelites; that they had grown strong
by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions taken from the armies they
had destroyed; that they had pulled down the
Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had
surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his
city of Beth-zur. When the king heard this
news, he was struck with fear and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his
designs had failed, he took to his bed. There
he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow, for he knew he was going to
die. So he called in all his Friends and said
to them: "Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with
anxiety. I said to myself: 'Into what
tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.' But I now recall
the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and
silver that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of
Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these
evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign
land." Then he summoned Philip, one of his
Friends, and put him in charge of his whole kingdom. He gave him his crown, his robe, and his signet ring, so
that he might guide the king's son Antiochus and bring him up to be king.
King Antiochus died in Persia in the year one hundred
and forty-nine. When Lysias learned that the
king was dead, he set up the king's son Antiochus, whom he had reared as a
child, to be king in his place; and he gave him the title Eupator.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Renewed Attacks from Syria. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
The men in the citadel
were hemming in Israel around the sanctuary, continually trying to harm them
and to strengthen the Gentiles. But Judas planned to destroy them, and
called all the people together to besiege them. So
in the year one hundred and fifty they assembled and stormed the citadel, for
which purpose he constructed catapults and other devices. Some of the besieged escaped, joined by impious Israelites;
they went to the king and said: "How long will
you fail to do justice and avenge our kinsmen? We
agreed to serve your father and to follow his orders and obey his edicts.
And for this the sons of our people have become our
enemies; they have put to death as many of us as they could find and have
plundered our estates. They have acted
aggressively not only against us, but throughout their whole territory. Look! They have now besieged the citadel in Jerusalem in
order to capture it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Beth-zur.
Unless you quickly forestall them, they will do even
worse things than these, and you will not be able to stop them." When the king heard this he was angry, and he called
together all his Friends, the officers of his army, and the commanders of the
cavalry. Mercenary forces also came to him from
other kingdoms and from the islands of the seas. His army numbered a hundred thousand foot-soldiers, twenty thousand
cavalry, and thirty-two elephants trained for war. They passed through Idumea and camped before Beth-zur. For
many days they attacked it; they constructed siege-devices, but the besieged
made a sortie and burned these, and they fought bravely.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Battle at Beth-zechariah. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Then Judas marched away
from the citadel and moved his camp to Beth-zechariah, on the way to the king's
camp. The king, rising before dawn, moved his force hastily along
the road to Beth-zechariah; and the armies prepared for battle, while the
trumpets sounded. They showed the elephants the
juice of grapes and mulberries to provoke them to fight. The beasts were distributed along the phalanxes, each
elephant having assigned to it a thousand men in coats of mail, with bronze
helmets, and five hundred picked cavalry. These
anticipated the beast wherever it was; and wherever it moved, they moved too
and never left it. A strong wooden tower
covering each elephant, and fastened to it by a harness, held, besides the
Indian mahout, three soldiers who fought from it. The remaining cavalry were stationed on one or the other of
the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and to be protected from the
phalanxes. When the sun shone on the gold and
bronze shields, the mountains gleamed with their brightness and blazed like
flaming torches. Part of the king's army
extended over the heights, while some were on low ground, but they marched
forward steadily and in good order. All who
heard the noise of their numbers, the tramp of their marching, and the clashing
of the arms, trembled; for the army was very great and strong. Judas with his army advanced to fight, and six hundred men
of the king's army fell. Eleazar, called
Avaran, saw one of the beasts bigger than any of the others and covered with
royal armor, and he thought the king must be on it. So he gave up his life to save his people and win an
everlasting name for himself. He dashed up to
it in the middle of the phalanx, killing men right and left, so that they fell
back from him on both sides. He ran right under
the elephant and stabbed it in the belly, killing it. The beast fell to the
ground on top of him, and he died there. When
the Jews saw the strength of the royal army and the ardor of its forces, they
retreated from them.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Siege of the Temple. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
A part of the king's
army went up to Jerusalem to attack them, and the king established camps in
Judea and at Mount Zion.
He made peace with the men of Beth-zur, and they
evacuated the city, because they had no food there to enable them to stand a
siege, for that was a sabbath year in the land. The
king took Beth-zur and stationed a garrison there to hold it. For many days he besieged the sanctuary, setting up
artillery and machines, fire-throwers, catapults and mechanical bows_ for shooting arrows and slingstones. The Jews countered by
setting up machines of their own, and kept up the fight a long time. But there were no provisions in the storerooms, because it
was the seventh year, and the tide-over provisions had been eaten up by those
who had been rescued from the Gentiles and brought to Judea. Few men remained in the sanctuary; the rest scattered, each
to his own home, for the famine was too much for them.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Syria Offers Terms. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Lysias heard that
Philip, whom King Antiochus, before his death, had appointed to train his son
Antiochus to be king,
had returned from Persia and Media with the army that
accompanied the king, and that he was seeking to take over the government.
So he hastily resolved to withdraw. He said to the
king, the leaders of the army, and the soldiers: "We are growing weaker
every day, our provisions are scanty, the place we are besieging is strong, and
it is our duty to take care of the affairs of the kingdom. Therefore let us now come to terms with these men, and make
peace with them and all their nation. Let us
grant them freedom to live according to their own Torah as formerly; it was on
account of their Torah, which we abolished, that they became angry and did all
these things." The proposal found favor
with the king and the leaders; he sent peace
terms to the Jews, and they accepted. So the king and the leaders swore an oath
to them, and on these terms they evacuated the fortification. But when the king entered Mount Zion and saw how the place
was fortified, he broke the oath he had sworn and gave orders for the
encircling wall to be destroyed. Then he
departed in haste and returned to Antioch, where he found Philip in possession
of the city. He fought against him and took the city by force.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
\Eng:[:phone arpa
SAMPA][_:<3333,0>]\
(1 Maccabees 7:1-50 NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Expedition of Bacchides and Alcimus. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
In the year one hundred
and fifty-one, Demetrius, son of Seleucus, set out from Rome, arrived with a
few men in a city on the seacoast, and began to rule there. As he
was preparing to enter the royal palace of his ancestors, the soldiers seized
Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him. When
he was informed of this, he said, "Do not show me their faces."
So the soldiers killed them, and Demetrius sat on the
royal throne. Then all the Torahless and
impious men of Israel came to him. They were led by Alcimus, who desired to be
high priest. They made this accusation to the
king against the people: "Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your
friends and have driven us out of our country. So
now, send a man whom you trust to go and see all the havoc Judas has done to us
and to the king's land, and let him punish them and all their supporters."
Then the king chose Bacchides, one of the King's
Friends, governor of West-of-Euphrates, a great man in the kingdom, and
faithful to the king. He sent him and the
impious Alcimus, to whom he granted the high priesthood, with orders to take
revenge on the Israelites. They set out and, on
arriving in the land of Judah with a great army, sent messengers who spoke
deceitfully to Judas and his brothers in peaceful terms. But these paid no attention to their words, seeing that they
had come with a great army. A group of scribes,
however, gathered about Alcimus and Bacchides to ask for a just agreement.
The Hasideans were the first among the Israelites to
seek peace with them, for they said, "A
priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army, and he will not do us any
wrong." He spoke with them peacefully and
swore to them, "We will not try to injure you or your friends."
So they trusted him. But he arrested sixty of them and
killed them in one day, according to the text of Scripture: "The flesh of your holy ones they have strewn, and
their blood they have shed round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury
them." Then fear and dread of them came
upon all the people, who said: "There is no truth or justice among them;
they violated the agreement and the oath that they swore." Bacchides withdrew from Jerusalem and pitched his camp in Beth-zaith.
He had many of the men arrested who deserted to him, throwing them into the
great pit. He handed the province over to
Alcimus, leaving troops to help him, while he himself returned to the king.
Alcimus spared no pains to maintain his high priesthood,
and all those who were disturbing their people
gathered about him. They took possession of the land of Judah and caused great
distress in Israel. When Judas saw all the
evils that Alcimus and his men were bringing upon the Israelites, more than
even the Gentiles had done, he went about all
the borders of Judea and took revenge on the men who had deserted, preventing
them from going out into the country. But when
Alcimus saw that Judas and his followers were gaining strength and realized
that he could not oppose them, he returned to the king and accused them of
grave crimes.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Nicanor in Judea. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Then the king sent
Nicanor, one of his famous officers, who was a bitter enemy of Israel, with
orders to destroy the people. Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a large force
and deceitfully sent to Judas and his brothers this peaceable message: "Let there be no fight between me and you. I will come
with a few men to meet you peaceably." So
he came to Judas, and they greeted one another peaceably. But Judas' enemies
were prepared to seize him. When he became
aware that Nicanor had come to him with treachery in mind, Judas was afraid and
would not meet him again. When Nicanor saw that
his plan had been discovered, he went out to fight Judas near Capharsalama.
About five hundred men of Nicanor's army fell; the
rest fled to the City of David.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. Nicanor Threatens the Temple. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
After this, Nicanor
went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests from the sanctuary and some of the
elders of the people came out to greet him peaceably and to show him the
holocaust that was being offered for the king. But he mocked and
ridiculed them, defiled them, and spoke disdainfully. In a rage he swore: "If Judas and his army are not
delivered to me at once, when I return victorious I will burn this temple
down." He went away in great anger. The
priests, however, went in and stood before the altar and the sanctuary. They
wept and said: "You have chosen this house
to bear your name, to be a house of prayer and petition for your people.
Take revenge on this man and his army, and let them
fall by the sword. Remember their blasphemies, and do not let them
continue."
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. The Death of Nicanor. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Nicanor left Jerusalem
and pitched his camp at Beth-horon, where the Syrian army joined him. But
Judas camped in Adasa with three thousand men. Here Judas uttered this prayer:
"When they who were sent by the king blasphemed,
your angel went out and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand of them.
In the same way, crush this army before us today, and
let the rest know that Nicanor spoke wickedly against your sanctuary; judge him
according to his wickedness." The armies
met in battle on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. Nicanor's army was
crushed, and he himself was the first to fall in the battle. When his army saw that Nicanor was dead, they threw down
their arms and fled. The Jews pursued them a
day's journey, from Adasa to near Gazara, blowing the trumpets behind them as
signals. From all the surrounding villages of
Judea people came out and closed in on them. They hemmed them in, and all the
enemies fell by the sword; not a single one escaped. Then the Jews collected the spoils and the booty; they cut
off Nicanor's head and his right arm, which he had lifted up so arrogantly.
These they brought to Jerusalem and displayed there. The people rejoiced greatly, and observed that day as a
great festival. They decreed that it should be
observed every year on the thirteenth of Adar. And
for a short time the land of Judah was quiet.
! ! End of
The Chapter.
\Eng:[:phone arpa
SAMPA][_:<3333,0>]\
(1 Maccabees 8:1-32
NAB-A) :
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. A Eulogy of the Romans. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
Judas had heard of the
reputation of the Romans. They were valiant fighters and acted amiably to all
who took their side. They established a friendly alliance with all who applied
to them. He was also told of their battles and the brave deeds that
they had performed against the Gauls, conquering them and forcing them to pay
tribute. They had gotten possession of the
silver and gold mines in Spain, and by planning
and persistence had conquered the whole country, although it was very remote
from their own. They had crushed the kings who had come against them from the
far corners of the earth and had inflicted on them severe defeat, and the rest
paid tribute to them every year. Philip and
Perseus, king of the Macedonians, and the others who opposed them in battle had
been overwhelmed and subjugated. Antiochus the
Great, king of Asia, who had fought against them with a hundred and twenty
elephants and with cavalry and chariots and a very great army, had been
defeated by them. They had taken him alive and
obliged him and the kings who succeeded him to pay a heavy tribute, to give
hostages and a section of Lycia, Mysia, and
Lydia from among their best provinces. The Romans took these from him and gave
them to King Eumenes. When the men of Greece
had planned to come and destroy them, the
Romans discovered it, and sent against the Greeks a single general who made war
on them. Many were wounded and fell, and the Romans took their wives and
children captive. They plundered them, took possession of their land, tore down
their strongholds and reduced them to slavery even to this day. All the other kingdoms and islands that had ever opposed
them they destroyed and enslaved; with their
friends, however, and those who relied on them, they maintained friendship.
They had conquered kings both far and near, and all who heard of their fame
were afraid of them. In truth, those whom they
desired to help to a kingdom became kings, and those whom they wished to depose
they deposed; and they were greatly exalted. Yet
with all this, none of them put on a crown or wore purple as a display of
grandeur. They had made for themselves a senate
house, and every day three hundred and twenty men took counsel, deliberating on
all that concerned the people and their well-being. They entrusted their government to one man every year, to
rule over their entire country, and they all obeyed that one, and there was no
envy or jealousy among them.
\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnestLOW”\. An Alliance with Rome. .\Vce=Speaker=“LeslieEarnest”\.
So Judas chose
Eupolemus, son of John, son of Accos, and Jason, son of Eleazar, and sent them
to Rome to establish an alliance of friendship with them. He did
this to get rid of the yoke, for it was obvious that the kingdom of the Greeks
was subjecting Israel to slavery. After making
a very long journey to Rome, the envoys entered the senate and spoke as
follows: "Judas, called Maccabeus, and his
brothers, with the Jewish people, have sent us to you to make a peaceful
alliance with you, and to enroll ourselves among your allies and friends."
The proposal pleased the Romans, and this is a copy of the reply they inscribed on bronze
tablets and sent to Jerusalem, to remain there with the Jews as a record of
peace and alliance: "May it be well with
the Romans and the Jewish nation at sea and on land forever; may sword and
enemy be far from them. But if war is first
made on Rome, or any of its allies in any of their dominions, the Jewish nation will help them wholeheartedly, as the
occasion shall demand; and to those who wage
war they shall not give nor provide grain, arms, money, or ships; this is
Rome's decision. They shall fulfill their obligations without receiving any recompense.
In the same way, if war is made first on the Jewish
nation, the Romans will help them willingly, as the occasion shall demand,
and to those who are attacking them there shall not be
given grain, arms, money, or ships; this is Rome's decision. They shall fulfill
their obligations without deception. On these
terms the Romans have made an agreement with the Jewish people. But if both parties hereafter decide to add or take away
anything, they shall do as they choose, and whatever they shall add or take
away shall be valid. "Moreover, concerning
the wrongs that King Demetrius has done to them, we have written to him thus:
'Why have you made your yoke heavy upon our friends and allies the Jews?
If they complain about you again, we will do them
justice and make war on you by land and sea.'"
! ! 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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