Brenton's Septuagint · Under the Greeks
3 Maccabees 6
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1And Eleazar, an illustrious priest of the country, who had attained to length of days, and whose life had been adorned with virtue, caused the presbyters who were about him to cease to cry out to the , and thus: 2O King, mighty in , , Almighty , who regulatest the whole creation with thy tender mercy, 3look upon the of , upon the children of the , thy , O , now being wrongfully destroyed as strangers in a strange land. 4Thou destroyedst , with his host of chariots, when that of this same was uplifted with lawless hardihood and loud-sounding . Shedding the beams of thy mercy upon the race of Israel, thou didst overwhelm him with his proud army. 5When Sennacherim, the grievous king of the , glorying in his countless hosts, had subdued the whole land with his spear, and was lifting himself against thy city, with boastings grievous to be , thou, O , didst demolish him and didst shew forth thy might to many nations. 6When the three friends in the land of of their own will exposed their lives to the rather than things, thou didst send a dewy coolness through the furnace, and bring the upon all their . 7It was thou who, when Daniel was hurled, through slander and envy, as a prey to lions down below, didst bring him back again unhurt to . 8When was pining away in the belly of the sea-bred monster, thou didst look upon him, O , and recover him to the sight of his own. 9And now, thou who hatest insolence; thou who dost abound in mercy; thou who art the protector of all things; appear quickly to those of the race of Israel, who are insulted by abhorred, lawless . 10If our life has during our been stained with , us from the hand of , and destroy us, O , by the which thou preferrest. 11Let not the -minded congratulate idols at the of thy beloved, saying, Neither did their them. 12Thou who art All-powerful and Almighty, O One, behold! have mercy upon us who are being withdrawn from life, like traitors, by the unreasoning insolence of lawless men. 13Let the heathen cower before thy invincible might to-day, O One, who hast all to the race of . 14The whole band of infants and their parents with tears beseech thee. 15Let it be shewn to all the nations that thou art with us, O , and hast not turned thy away from us; but as thou saidst that thou wouldst not forget them even in the land of their , so do thou fulfil this saying, O . 16Now, at the time that Eleazar had ended his , the king came along to the hippodrome, with the wild , and with his tumultuous . 17When the saw this, they uttered a loud cry to , so that the adjacent valleys resounded, and caused an irrepressible throughout the army. 18Then the all-, all-powerful, and true , displayed his countenance, and opened the of , from which two , dreadful of form, came down, and were visible to all but the . 19And they stood opposite, and filled the ' host with confusion and cowardice; and bound them with immoveable fetters. 20And a cold shudder came over the person of the king, and oblivion paralysed the vehemence of his . 21They turned back the animals upon the armed forces which followed them; and the animals trod them down, and destroyed them. 22The king's was converted into ; and he wept at his own machinations. 23For when he heard the cry, and saw them all on the verge of , with tears he angrily threatened his friends, saying, 24Ye have governed badly; and have exceeded tyrants in ; and me your benefactor ye have laboured to deprive at once of my and my life, by secretly devising measures injurious to . 25Who has gathered here, unreasonably removing each from his home, those who, in fidelity to us, had held the fortresses of the country? 26Who has thus consigned to unmerited punishments those who in good will towards us have in all things surpassed all nations, and who often have engaged in the most dangerous undertakings? 27Loose, loose the unjust bonds; send them to their homes in peace, and deprecate what has been done. 28 the sons of living of , who from our ancestors' times until now has granted a and uninterrupted prosperity to our affairs. 29These things he said: and they, released the same moment, having now escaped , praised their . 30The king then departed to the city, and called his financier to him, and bade him provide a seven days' quantity of and other materials for feasting for the . He decided that they should keep a gladsome festival of in the very place in which they expected to meet with their . 31Then they who were before despised and nigh unto , yea, rather advanced into it, partook of of , instead of a grievous and lamentable . Full of exultation, they parted out the place intended for their fall and burial into banqueting . 32Ceasing their miserable strain of woe, they took up the subject of their fatherland, hymning in their wonder-working . All groans, all , were laid aside: they formed dances in token of serene joy. 33So, also, the king collected a number of guests for the occasion, and returned unceasing thanks with much magnificence for the unexpected afforded him. 34Those who had marked them out as for and for carrion, and had registered them with joy, howled aloud, and were clothed with , and had the of their rage ingloriously put out. 35But the , as we said, instituted a dance, and then gave themselves up to feasting, glad thanksgivings, and psalms. 36They made a public to commemorate these things for generations to come, as long as they should be . They thus established these days as days of mirth, not for the purpose of drinking or luxury, but because had them. 37They requested the king to send them back to their homes. 38They were being enrolled from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epiphi, a period of forty days: the measures taken for their lasted from the fifth of Epiphi till the seventh, that is, three days. 39The Ruler over all did during this time manifest forth his mercy gloriously, and did them all together unharmed. 40They feasted upon the king's provision up to the fourteenth day, and then asked to be sent away. 41The king commended them, and wrote the subjoined letter, of magnanimous import for them, to the commanders of every city.
Sir Lancelot Brenton's 1851 English translation of the Greek Old Testament, public domain. Used here for books received in Orthodox canons that the other editions do not carry. 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.