Simon

Now Simon heard that Tryphon had gathered a mighty army to come into the land of Judah and destroy it completely. The people were trembling in great fear, and Simon saw it. So he went up to Jerusalem and gathered them together.

He spoke to give them courage. “You all know what my brothers and I and my father’s family have done for the laws and the sanctuary,” he said. “You know the battles and the hard times we have seen. Because of this, all my brothers have died for Israel’s sake, and I am the last one left.

“Now I will never try to save my own life in any time of trouble, because I am no better than my brothers. Instead I will take revenge for my nation and for the sanctuary, and for our wives and children. All the Gentiles hate us, and they have gathered to destroy us.”

As soon as the people heard these words, their courage came back. They shouted back, “You are our leader in the place of Judas and Jonathan, your brothers. Fight our battles, and we will do whatever you tell us.”

Simon gathered all the fighting men, hurried to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and fortified the city all around. He sent Jonathan the son of Absalom, a different Jonathan, to Joppa with a large army. He threw out the people there and lived in the town.

Tryphon found out that Simon had taken his brother Jonathan’s place and meant to fight him. So he sent messengers to Simon.

“We are holding your brother Jonathan,” they said, “because of money he owed the king’s treasury for the positions he held. Send a hundred talents of silver, about 6,600 pounds, and two of his sons to be held as hostages, so that he won’t turn against us once he is free. Then we will let him go.”

Simon knew they were lying to him. Still, he sent for the money and the children, so that he would not stir up great anger among the people. Otherwise they might say, “Jonathan died because Simon didn’t send the money and the children.”

So he sent the children and the hundred talents. But Tryphon lied, and he did not let Jonathan go.

After this Tryphon came to invade and destroy the land. He went around by the road to Adora, and Simon and his army marched alongside him wherever he went.

Meanwhile the people in the citadel in Jerusalem sent messengers to Tryphon, urging him to come to them through the wilderness and to send them food.

So Tryphon got all his cavalry ready to come. But on that night a very heavy snow fell, and because of the snow he did not come. He marched off into the land of Gilead.

When Tryphon came near Bascama, he killed Jonathan, and Jonathan was buried there. Then Tryphon turned back and went away to his own land.

Simon built a monument on the tomb of his father and his family. He raised it high so that it could be seen, with polished stone on the front and the back.

He also set up seven pyramids, one next to another, for his father, his mother and his four brothers. He made a grand setting for them, with great pillars all around, and on the pillars he made suits of armor, to be remembered forever. Beside the armor he carved ships, so that everyone who sails on the sea could see them.

That is the tomb he made at Modin. It is still there to this day.

Simon built up the strongholds of Judea with high towers, great walls, gates and bars all around, and he stored food in them.

He chose men and sent them to King Demetrius, asking him to set the country free from its taxes, because all Tryphon did was plunder.

King Demetrius answered as Simon had asked. He wrote to “Simon the high priest and friend of kings” and to the elders and nation of the Jews. He had received the gold crown and the palm branch they sent. He offered a lasting peace and freedom from tribute. Everything he had granted them before still stood, and the strongholds they had built were theirs to keep. He forgave their mistakes and wrongs up to that day, and the crown tax they owed. No other tax would be collected in Jerusalem, and any of them who qualified could join his court. “Let there be peace between us,” he wrote.

In the one hundred seventieth year, the yoke of the Gentiles was taken away from Israel.

The people began to write in their records and contracts, “In the first year of Simon, the great high priest and captain and leader of the Jews.”

The people of the city tore their clothes and went up on the walls with their wives and children. They cried out loudly, begging Simon to give them his hand in peace. “Don’t treat us as our wicked deeds deserve,” they said. “Treat us with mercy.”

So Simon made peace with them and did not fight them. But he drove them out of the city, cleansed the houses where the idols had been, and then went in, singing and giving praise. He removed everything unclean from the city and settled men there who would keep the law. He made it stronger than it had been before, and he built a home there for himself.

But the people in the citadel in Jerusalem could not go out into the country or come back in, and they could not buy or sell. They grew very hungry, and a great many of them died of hunger.

Then they cried out to Simon to give them his hand in peace, and he gave it. But he drove them out of there, and he cleansed the citadel of everything that had made it unclean.

On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, Simon entered the citadel with praise and palm branches, with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, with hymns and with songs, because a great enemy had been wiped out of Israel.

Simon ordered that the day be celebrated with joy every year. He made the temple hill beside the citadel stronger than before, and he lived there with his men.

Simon saw that his son John had grown to be a man, so he made him leader of all his forces, and he lived in Gazara.

The Spartans’ letter called the Jews their relatives. The Jews’ ambassadors, Numenius and Antipater, had come to renew the friendship, and they had spoken of the Jews’ glory and honor. The Spartans had welcomed them gladly and put their words in the public records, and they sent a copy to Simon.

After this Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a great shield of gold weighing a thousand minas, about eleven hundred pounds, to make the alliance with them firm.

When the people heard these things, they said, “What thanks can we give Simon and his sons? He and his brothers and his father’s family have stood strong. They fought Israel’s enemies, drove them away, and made Israel’s freedom secure.”

So they wrote on tablets of brass and set them on pillars on Mount Zion. The writing was dated the eighteenth day of Elul, in the one hundred seventy-second year, the third year of Simon the high priest. It told what had been announced to a great gathering of priests, people, rulers and elders at Asaramel.

In the country’s many wars, it said, Simon the son of Mattathias and his brothers had risked their lives against their nation’s enemies to keep the sanctuary and the law standing. They had brought their nation great glory. Jonathan had brought the nation together and become high priest, and then he died and joined his ancestors. When enemies planned to invade and destroy the country and attack the sanctuary, Simon fought for his nation. He spent much of his own money to arm its brave men and pay them. He fortified the cities of Judea, and Bethsura on the border, where the enemy had kept its weapons. He fortified Joppa by the sea, and Gazara on the borders of Azotus, where enemies used to live, and he settled Jews in them with all they needed.

The people saw Simon’s faith and the glory he meant to bring his nation. They saw all he had done, his justice, and how he tried in every way to lift his people up. So they made him their leader and high priest. Under him things went well. The Gentiles were removed from the country, and so were the men of the citadel in David’s city, who used to go out and make everything around the sanctuary unclean. He put Jews in the citadel, fortified it for the safety of the country and the city, and raised Jerusalem’s walls higher.

So King Demetrius confirmed him as high priest, made him one of his friends and gave him great honor. He had heard that the Romans called the Jews friends, allies and relatives, and that the Romans had welcomed Simon’s ambassadors with honor, “and that the Jews and the priests were well pleased that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet.”

Simon was to govern them, take charge of the sanctuary, and set men over its work, the country, the weapons and the strongholds. All must obey him, every contract in the country must be written in his name, and he would wear purple and gold. No one among the people or the priests could undo any of this, oppose his word, call an assembly without him, or wear purple or a gold buckle. Anyone who did would be punished.

All the people agreed that Simon should do as these words said. Simon accepted. He agreed to be high priest, captain and governor of the Jews and of the priests, and protector of them all.

They ordered that this writing be put on tablets of brass and set up in the sanctuary’s grounds, where everyone could see it. Copies were to be kept in the treasury for Simon and his sons.

In the one hundred seventy-fourth year, Antiochus came into the land of his ancestors. All the forces came over to his side, so that only a few men were left with Tryphon. Tryphon knew that troubles had come on him all at once and that his army had left him. He fled to Dor by the sea, with Antiochus chasing him. Antiochus camped outside Dor with a hundred twenty thousand fighting men and eight thousand cavalry. He surrounded the city, and his ships attacked it from the sea. No one could go out or in.

Then Numenius and the men with him came back from Rome with letters from Lucius, consul of the Romans, to kings and countries. Lucius wrote that the Jews’ ambassadors had come as friends from Simon the high priest and the people, to renew the old alliance, and that the Romans had accepted their gold shield of a thousand minas. No one was to harm the Jews, fight them, or help those who fought them. Any troublemakers who had fled from the Jews’ country were to be handed over to Simon, to be punished under their law. He wrote this to King Ptolemy, King Demetrius, other kings and many countries, and sent a copy to Simon.

On the second day King Antiochus camped outside Dor. He kept bringing his forces up against it, built machines of war, and shut Tryphon in.

Simon sent him two thousand chosen men to fight on his side, with plenty of silver, gold and equipment for war. But Antiochus would not accept them. He broke all the agreements he had made with Simon and turned against him.

He sent Athenobius, one of his friends, to talk with Simon. “You hold Joppa, Gazara and the citadel of Jerusalem, cities of my kingdom,” the king said. “You have ruined their land, done great harm, and taken many places in my kingdom. Hand over those cities, and the taxes from the places you hold outside Judea. Or else give five hundred talents of silver for them, and five hundred more for the harm you have done and for the cities’ taxes. If not, we will come and conquer you.”

Athenobius, the king’s friend, came to Jerusalem. When he saw Simon’s glory, his cupboard of gold and silver dishes and the many people who served him, he was amazed. He gave Simon the king’s message.

Simon answered, “We have not taken other people’s land, and we hold nothing that belongs to others. What we hold is the land our ancestors left us. For a while our enemies held it wrongly, but now that we have the chance, we hold it firmly. As for Joppa and Gazara, which you demand, they did great harm among the people all through our country. We will give a hundred talents for them.”

Athenobius didn’t say a word in reply. He went back to the king in a rage and told him what Simon had said, and about Simon’s glory and all he had seen. The king was furious.

Meanwhile Tryphon got on board a ship and fled to Orthosia.

The king made Cendebaeus chief captain of the seacoast and gave him foot soldiers and cavalry. He ordered him to camp facing Judea, build up Kidron, fortify the gates and make war on the people. Meanwhile the king himself went after Tryphon. Cendebaeus came to Jamnia and began to trouble the people, invading Judea, taking people captive and killing them. He built up Kidron and placed cavalry and foot soldiers there, so that they could go out and raid the roads of Judea, as the king had commanded.

Simon called his two oldest sons, Judas and John. “My brothers and I and my father’s family have fought Israel’s battles from the time we were young until today,” he told them, “and things have gone well in our hands, so that we have often rescued Israel. But now I am old, and you, by his mercy, are old enough. Take the place of my brother and me. Go out and fight for our nation. May help from heaven be with you.”

He chose twenty thousand fighting men and cavalry from the country, and they marched against Cendebaeus and spent the night at Modin.

In the morning they got up and went out into the plain, and there was a great army of foot soldiers and cavalry coming to meet them. A brook lay between them.

He and his people camped near them. He saw that the people were afraid to cross the brook, so he crossed first. When the men saw him, they crossed after him.

He divided the people and put the cavalry in the middle of the foot soldiers, but the enemy’s cavalry was very large. They sounded the trumpets, and Cendebaeus and his army turned and ran. Many of them fell with deadly wounds, and the rest fled to the stronghold.

At that time Judas, John’s brother, was wounded. But John chased them until he came to Kidron, which Cendebaeus had built. They fled to the towers in the fields of Azotus, and he set them on fire. About two thousand of their men were killed. Then he went back to Judea in peace.

His heart grew proud. He planned to make himself master of the country, and he made plans to trick Simon and his sons and do away with them.

Simon was going around the towns of the country, seeing to their needs. In the one hundred seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month, the month of Sebat, he went down to Jericho, taking his sons Mattathias and Judas with him.

Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, welcomed them into Dok, a little stronghold he had built, but his welcome was a trick. He gave a great banquet for them, and he hid men there.

When Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his men got up, took their weapons and rushed in on Simon where the banquet was. They killed him, his two sons and some of his servants. Ptolemy did a great wrong and paid back good with harm.

Ptolemy wrote about these things to the king, so that the king would send forces to help him and hand the country and its cities over to him.

He sent other men to Gazara to kill John. He wrote to the officers who each commanded a thousand men, telling them to come to him, and promised to give them silver, gold and gifts. He sent still others to take Jerusalem and the temple hill.

But someone ran ahead to Gazara and told John that his father and his brothers were dead, and that Ptolemy had sent men to kill him too.

When John heard it, he was badly shaken. He seized the men who had come to destroy him and killed them, because he saw that they were trying to destroy him.

Everything else John did is written in the record of his days as high priest, from the time he became high priest after his father: his wars and brave deeds, the walls he built, and all he achieved.