Jonathan and the Kings

He marched into Syria speaking words of peace, and the people of the cities opened their gates and came out to meet him. King Alexander had ordered them to meet him, because Ptolemy was his father-in-law.

As Ptolemy entered the cities of Ptolemais, he left soldiers behind in each one to hold it.

When he came near Azotus, the people showed him the burned-down temple of Dagon. They showed him how Azotus and its fields had been destroyed. They showed him the bodies that had been thrown out, and the bodies of those who had been burned in the war. They had piled them in heaps along the road he was taking.

They told King Ptolemy what Jonathan had done, so that the blame would fall on Jonathan. But the king kept quiet.

Jonathan came to meet the king at Joppa with great ceremony. They greeted each other and spent the night there. Jonathan kept the king company as far as the Eleutherus River, and then he went back to Jerusalem.

He sent messengers to King Demetrius, the son of Demetrius. This younger Demetrius had come out of Crete into the land of his ancestors in the one hundred sixty-fifth year. “Come!” the message said. “Let’s make an agreement with each other. I will give you my daughter, who is married to Alexander, and you will reign over your father’s kingdom. I regret giving my daughter to Alexander, because he tried to kill me.”

Ptolemy said these things against Alexander because he wanted Alexander’s kingdom for himself.

He took his daughter back from Alexander and handed her over to Demetrius. He turned against Alexander, and everyone could see the hatred between them.

In Antioch, Ptolemy set the crown of Asia on his own head. So he wore two crowns, Egypt’s and Asia’s.

King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people there were rebelling. When Alexander heard about it, he came to fight Ptolemy. Ptolemy marched out with a strong army to meet him, and drove him off.

Alexander fled into Arabia to find shelter there, and King Ptolemy had won. Then Zabdiel the Arabian cut off Alexander’s head and sent it to Ptolemy.

On the third day after that, King Ptolemy died, and the men holding his strongholds were killed by the people who lived there. And Demetrius became king, in the one hundred sixty-seventh year.

Some lawless men, who hated their own nation, went and told King Demetrius that Jonathan was besieging the citadel.

The king was angry when he heard it. He set out at once and came to Ptolemais. Then he wrote to Jonathan, telling him to stop the siege and to come and talk with him at Ptolemais as fast as he could.

When Jonathan heard this, he gave orders to keep up the siege. Then he picked some of Israel’s elders and priests, and he put himself at risk. He took silver and gold, clothing and many other gifts, and went to the king at Ptolemais. And the king was pleased with him.

Some lawless men from Jonathan’s own nation complained about him. The king did for Jonathan what the kings before him had done. He honored him in front of all his friends. He confirmed him as high priest, with all the other honors he had held before, and gave him first place among his chief friends.

Jonathan asked the king to free Judea from paying tribute, together with the three districts and the land of Samaria, and he promised the king three hundred talents. A talent weighed about 66 pounds.

The king agreed, and he wrote Jonathan a letter about it all. The letter greeted Jonathan as the king’s brother, and the nation of the Jews with him. With it came a copy of another letter, which the king had written about them to Lasthenes, so that they could see it. The king called Lasthenes his relative.

That letter greeted Lasthenes as the king’s “father.” King Demetrius had decided to do good to the nation of the Jews, it said, because they were his friends, treated him fairly and wished him well. He confirmed that the borders of Judea were theirs. So were three districts that had been added to Judea from the land of Samaria: Aphaerema, Lydda and Ramathaim, with all their land. These were for everyone who offered sacrifice in Jerusalem, in place of what the king used to take from them each year from their crops and fruit trees. And from then on he would give back to them the other payments owed to the king: the tithes and the taxes, the salt pits and the crown taxes.

None of these gifts was ever to be taken back. Lasthenes was to have a copy made and given to Jonathan. The copy was to be set up on the holy mountain, in a place where everyone could see it.

Now Tryphon had once been on Alexander’s side. He saw that all the soldiers were grumbling against Demetrius. So he went to Imalcue the Arabian, who was raising Alexander’s young son, Antiochus. Again and again Tryphon pressed Imalcue to hand the boy over to him, so that Antiochus could reign in his father’s place. He told Imalcue everything Demetrius had done, and how much Demetrius’s soldiers hated him. And he stayed there for many days.

Jonathan sent word to King Demetrius, asking him to take the soldiers out of the citadel in Jerusalem, and out of the strongholds, because they never stopped fighting against Israel.

Demetrius sent this answer to Jonathan: “I will not only do this for you and your nation. I will greatly honor you and your nation, if I find the chance. But for now, please send me men who will fight for me, because my whole army has turned against me.”

So Jonathan sent three thousand brave men to him at Antioch. When they came to the king, he was glad to see them.

The people of the city gathered in the middle of the city, a hundred and twenty thousand men, and they wanted to kill the king. The king fled into the palace courtyard, and the people of the city seized the main streets and began to fight.

The king called the Jews to help him. They all came to him at once. Then they spread out through the city, and that day they killed about a hundred thousand people. They set the city on fire, took a great deal of plunder that day, and saved the king.

The people of the city saw that the Jews had taken control of the city to do as they pleased, and they lost heart. They cried out to the king, begging him, “Give us your right hand, and let the Jews stop fighting against us and the city!” To give the right hand was to promise peace.

They threw away their weapons and made peace. The Jews won great honor in the eyes of the king and of everyone in his kingdom, and they went back to Jerusalem with a great deal of plunder.

So King Demetrius sat on the throne of his kingdom, and the land was quiet. But everything he said was a lie. He turned away from Jonathan, did not pay him back for all the good Jonathan had done him, and treated him very harshly.

Tryphon took the elephants and took control of Antioch.

Young Antiochus wrote to Jonathan: “I confirm you as high priest. I put you over the four districts, and you will be one of the king’s friends.”

Antiochus sent Jonathan gold dishes and things for his table. He let him drink from gold cups, dress in purple and wear a gold buckle. He also put Jonathan’s brother Simon in charge as governor, from the Ladder of Tyre to the borders of Egypt.

Jonathan set out and traveled beyond the river and through the cities. All the forces of Syria came to join him as his allies. He came to Ascalon, and the people of the city came out and met him with honor.

He moved on to Gaza, and its people shut him out. So he besieged the city, burned the fields around it, and plundered them.

The people of Gaza pleaded with Jonathan, and he gave them his right hand. He took the sons of their leaders as hostages and sent them away to Jerusalem. Then he went on through the country as far as Damascus.

Simon camped outside Bethsura and attacked it for many days, shutting its people in. They asked him to give them his right hand, and he gave it. He sent them out of the town, took it over, and put soldiers there to hold it.

Jonathan and his army camped by the lake of Gennesareth. Early in the morning they marched to the plain of Hazor.

There, on the plain, an army of foreigners came to meet him. They had hidden men in the mountains to ambush him, while they themselves came at him face to face. Then the hidden men came out of their hiding places and joined the battle, and everyone on Jonathan’s side ran away.

Not one of them was left except two captains of the army, Mattathias the son of Absalom and Judas the son of Chalphi.

Jonathan tore his clothes and put dirt on his head, the way people showed their grief, and he prayed. Then he turned and fought them again. He defeated them, and they fled.

When his men who had run away saw it, they came back to him. With him they chased the enemy as far as their camp at Kedesh, and they camped there. About three thousand of the foreigners were killed that day. Then Jonathan went back to Jerusalem.

The men went to Rome and entered the senate house. “Jonathan the high priest and the nation of the Jews have sent us,” they said, “to renew their friendship and alliance with you, as it was before.”

The Romans gave them letters to the people of every place on their way. The letters told those people to help the men travel safely to the land of Judah.

This is what Jonathan wrote to the Spartans. The letter came from Jonathan the high priest, the nation’s council, the priests and the rest of the people of the Jews, and it greeted the Spartans as their own relatives.

The letter said that once before, Arius, who was then king over the Spartans, had sent a letter to Onias the high priest. Arius had written that the Spartans and the Jews were related, as the copy that follows shows. Onias had welcomed the messenger with honor and accepted the letter, which declared alliance and friendship.

The Jews did not need such things, the letter went on, since they had the holy books in their hands to encourage them. Even so, they had decided to send word to renew their brotherhood and friendship with the Spartans, so that they would not become strangers to them altogether. A long time had passed since the Spartans had written.

At their feasts and on other fitting days, they never stopped remembering the Spartans in the sacrifices they offered and in their prayers, as it is right to remember relatives. And they were glad for the Spartans’ glory.

The Jews themselves had been surrounded by many troubles and many wars, and the kings around them had fought against them. In these wars they had not wanted to be a burden to the Spartans, or to their other allies and friends, because they had help from heaven. They had been saved from their enemies, and their enemies had been humbled.

They had chosen Numenius, the son of a man named Antiochus, and Antipater, the son of a man named Jason, and sent them to the Romans to renew their old friendship and alliance. They had told the two to go to the Spartans as well, to greet them and give them this letter about renewing their friendship and brotherhood. The letter ended by asking the Spartans for a reply.

And this was the copy of the letter the Spartans had sent to Onias: “Arius, king of the Spartans, to Onias the chief priest, greetings. It has been found in writing that the Spartans and the Jews are related, and that they are descendants of Abraham.

“Now that we know this, please write to us and tell us how you are. For our part, we are writing to tell you that your livestock and goods are ours, and ours are yours. So we have given orders for this to be reported to you.”

He sent spies into the enemy camp. They came back and told him that the enemy were getting ready to attack them by night.

As soon as the sun went down, Jonathan ordered his men to keep watch and stay armed, so that they would be ready for battle all night long. He posted guards all around the camp.

The enemy heard that Jonathan and his men were ready for battle, and fear seized them. They trembled inside, and they lit fires in their camp and then pulled back. Jonathan and his men didn’t know they had gone until morning, because they could see the fires burning.

Jonathan went after them but couldn’t catch them, because they had crossed the Eleutherus River. Then he turned against the Arabians called Zabadaeans. He attacked them and took their goods as plunder. From there he went on to Damascus and traveled all through the country.

Simon went out too, as far as Ascalon and the strongholds near it. Then he turned toward Joppa and took it, because he had heard that the people there were planning to hand the stronghold over to Demetrius’s men. He put soldiers there to guard it.

When Jonathan came back, he called the elders of the people together. With them he made plans to build strongholds in Judea, to make the walls of Jerusalem higher, and to raise a great mound between the citadel and the city. The mound would cut the citadel off from the city and leave it standing alone, so that its soldiers could not buy or sell anything.

The people gathered together to build the city. Part of the wall along the brook on the east side had fallen down, and Jonathan repaired the section called Chaphenatha. Simon, too, built Adida in the lowlands. He made it strong and set up gates and bars.

He was afraid that Jonathan wouldn’t let him, and would fight against him. So he looked for a way to seize Jonathan and kill him. He marched out and came to Bethshan.

Jonathan came out to Bethshan to meet him, with forty thousand men picked for battle.

When Tryphon saw the great army Jonathan had brought, he was afraid to lay a hand on him. He welcomed him with honor, spoke well of him to all his friends, and gave him gifts. He ordered his own troops to obey Jonathan as they would obey Tryphon himself.

“Why have you put all these people to so much trouble,” he said to Jonathan, “when there is no war between us? Send them home now. Pick out a few men to be with you, and come to Ptolemais with me. I will give it to you, along with the rest of the strongholds, the rest of the troops and all the king’s officers. Then I will turn around and leave. That is why I came.”

Jonathan put his trust in Tryphon and did exactly what he said. He sent his army away, and they went back to the land of Judah. He kept three thousand men. He left two thousand of them in Galilee, and a thousand went with him.

As soon as Jonathan entered Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais shut the gates and seized him, and with their swords they killed every man who had come in with him.

Tryphon sent soldiers on foot and on horseback into Galilee and into the Great Plain to destroy all of Jonathan’s men.

Jonathan’s men understood that he had been seized and had died, along with the men who were with him. They encouraged one another and marched on close together, ready to fight.

The men chasing them saw that they were ready to fight for their lives, and turned back again. Jonathan’s men all came home to the land of Judah unharmed. They mourned for Jonathan and those who had been with him, and they were very much afraid. There was great mourning in all Israel.

And all the nations around them looked for a way to destroy them completely. “They have no ruler and no one to help them,” they said. “So let’s fight against them now, and make sure no one remembers them anymore.”