King James Version · Under the Greeks
2 Maccabees 5
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1About the same time prepared his second voyage into : 2And then it happened, that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in 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 , and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts. 4Wherefore every man that that apparition might turn to good. 5Now when there was gone forth a false rumour, as though had been , took at the least a thousand men, and suddenly made an assault upon the city; and they that were upon the walls being put back, and the city at length taken, fled into the castle: 6But 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 , and not his countrymen, whom he conquered. 7Howbeit for all this he obtained not the principality, but at the last received for the reward of his treason, and fled again into the country of . 8In the end therefore he had an unhappy return, being accused before Aretas the king of the , fleeing from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a forsaker of the laws, and being had in as an open enemy of his country and countrymen, he was cast out into . 9Thus he that had driven many out of their country in a strange land, retiring to the , and thinking there to find succour by reason of his kindred: 10And he that had cast out many unburied had none to mourn for him, nor any solemn funerals at all, nor with his fathers. 11Now when this that was done came to the king’s car, he thought that had revolted: whereupon removing out of in a furious , he took the city by force of arms, 12And commanded his men of war not to spare such as they met, and to such as went up upon the houses. 13Thus there was killing of young and old, making 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 presumed to go into the most temple of all the world; , that traitor to the laws, and to his own country, being his guide: 16And taking the vessels with polluted hands, and with profane hands pulling down the things that were dedicated by other kings to the augmentation and and of the place, he gave them away. 17And so haughty was in , that he considered not that was angry for a while for the of them that dwelt in the city, and therefore his eye was not upon the place. 18For had they not been formerly wrapped in many , this man, as soon as he had come, had forthwith been scourged, and put back from his presumption, as was, whom the king sent to view the . 19Nevertheless did not choose the people for the place’s sake, but the place far the people’s sake. 20And therefore the place itself, that was partaker with them of the adversity that happened to the nation, did afterward communicate in the benefits sent from : and as it was forsaken in the of , so again, the great being reconciled, it was set up with all . 21So when had carried out of a thousand and eight hundred , he departed in all haste unto , weening in his pride to make the land navigable, and the sea passable by foot: such was the haughtiness of his . 22And he left governors to vex the nation: at , Philip, for his country a Phrygian, and for manners more barbarous than he that set him there; 23And at Garizim, ; and besides, , who worse than all the rest an heavy hand over the citizens, having a malicious against his countrymen the . 24He sent also that ringleader with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort: 25Who coming to , and pretending peace, did forbear till the day of the , when taking the keeping day, he commanded his men to arm themselves. 26And so he slew all them that were gone to the celebrating of the , and running through the city with weapons slew . 27But with nine others, or thereabout, withdrew himself into , and lived in the mountains after the manner of , with his company, who fed on herbs continually, lest they should be partakers of the pollution.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under the Greeks, 332 BC to 63 BC ›
Alexander's conquest and the kingdoms of his successors. Greek language and custom press in everywhere, and the crisis under Antiochus IV provokes the Maccabean revolt.
- The successors
- Alexander dies at thirty-two and his generals carve up the empire. Judea sits on the border between the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and is fought over by both for a century and a half, which is the ordinary condition of the corridor.
- Hellenism
- Not just conquest but a culture: the gymnasium, the theatre, Greek names, Greek dress, Greek as the language of anyone with ambitions. Some Jews embraced it, some resisted it, and the argument between them is the real subject of the Maccabean books. In Alexandria the Hebrew scriptures are translated into Greek, producing the Septuagint, which is the Bible most New Testament writers quote.
- The crisis
- Antiochus IV bans the practice of Judaism, plunders the temple, and sets up a pagan altar in it in 167 BC. The revolt under the Maccabees wins, the temple is rededicated in 164 BC, which is the origin of Hanukkah, and Judea has about eighty years of independence under the Hasmoneans before Rome arrives.
- Further afield
- Rome fights Carthage three times and ends up master of the Mediterranean. Euclid writes the Elements and Archimedes does his work at Syracuse. In China the Qin unify the country in 221 BC and the Han follow, opening what becomes the Silk Road.