Wars on Every Side

That was the end of Antiochus, the one called Epiphanes. 2 Maccabees now sums up the worst of the wars under Antiochus Eupator, who turned out to be a true son of that ungodly man. When he became king, he made Lysias his chancellor and chief governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

Ptolemy, called Macron, had set an example by treating the Jews justly, because of the wrong done to them, and he tried to keep peace with them. So the king’s friends accused him in front of Eupator. Everywhere he turned, people called him a traitor for abandoning Cyprus, which Philometor had trusted to him, and for going over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Failing to keep up the honor of his position, he took his own life with poison.

When Gorgias was made governor of the district, he kept an army of hired soldiers and made war on the Jews at every turn. The Idumaeans, who held important strongholds, kept attacking the Jews too. They took in people who had fled from Jerusalem and tried to keep the war going.

Judas Maccabaeus fought the descendants of Esau at Akrabattine in Idumaea, because they were besieging Israel. He killed a great many of them, humbled them and took their goods. 2 Maccabees says Judas and his men prayed solemnly, begging God to fight on their side. Then they stormed the Idumaeans’ strongholds and took them. They drove off the men on the walls and killed those they met, at least twenty thousand.

Judas also remembered the wickedness of the people of Baean. They had been a trap and a stumbling block to the people of Israel, hiding beside the roads to ambush them. Judas shut them inside their towers, set up camp against them and destroyed them completely. He burned the towers with everyone inside.

2 Maccabees says at least nine thousand had fled into two very strong towers, which had everything needed for a siege. Judas left Simon and Joseph, with Zacchaeus and his men, to besiege them, and went himself where he was needed most. But Simon and his men gave in to greed. They took a bribe of seventy thousand drachmas from some of the men in the towers and let some of them slip away.

When Judas heard what had happened, he called the leaders of the people together. He accused those men of selling their own people for money, by setting free enemies who would fight against them. He put them to death as traitors and at once took the two towers. He succeeded in everything he did, and he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two strongholds.

2 Maccabees tells how Timotheus, who had been beaten by the Jews before, came with crowds of foreign soldiers and horsemen from Asia, as if to take Judea by force. As he came near, Judas and his men sprinkled dirt on their heads and put on sackcloth. They threw themselves down on the step in front of the altar and begged God to be merciful to them, to be an enemy to their enemies and to stand against those who stood against them, as the law says.

Then they armed themselves, went out some way from the city, and halted near the enemy. At dawn the armies met. Besides their own virtue, one side had a promise of success and victory: they had run to the Lord for refuge. The other side let its rage lead it into the fight.

When the battle grew fierce, the enemy saw five splendid men on horses with bridles of gold appear out of heaven. Two of them led the Jews. They took Judas between them and covered him with their own armor, so that he was not wounded. Meanwhile they shot arrows and thunderbolts at the enemy, who were blinded, thrown into confusion and cut to pieces. Twenty thousand five hundred were killed, and six hundred horsemen besides.

Timotheus himself fled to Gazara, a very strong fortress commanded by Chaereas. Judas and his men were glad, and they besieged it for four days. The men inside trusted in their strong walls and spoke against God again and again. At dawn on the fifth day some of Judas’s young men, burning with anger at those words, stormed the wall in fury and cut down everyone in their way.

Others climbed up the same way while the enemy were busy with the men already inside, and they set fire to the towers. The fires burned alive the men who had spoken against God. Still others broke open the gates, let in the rest of the army, and took the city. They killed Timotheus, who was hidden in a cistern, and his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes. Then they sang hymns and gave thanks to the Lord, who does Israel great good and gives them victory.

He came into Judea and attacked Bethsuron hard. It was a strong town about five stadia, a little over half a mile, from Jerusalem. When Judas and his men heard of it, they and all the people begged the Lord with tears to send a good angel to save Israel. Judas armed himself first. He called on the others to put their lives in danger along with him to help their people, and they went with him very willingly.

While they were still close to Jerusalem, a horseman dressed in white appeared at their head, waving weapons of gold. They all praised the merciful God together and took heart. They were ready to attack not only men but the wildest animals and walls of iron. They went forward with the one in heaven fighting on their side, because the Lord had mercy on them.

They hurled themselves at the enemy like lions, killed eleven thousand foot soldiers and sixteen hundred horsemen, and made the rest run. Most got away wounded and naked, and Lysias himself ran away in disgrace.

But Lysias was a sensible man. Thinking over his defeat, he saw that the Hebrews could not be beaten, because the Almighty God fought on their side. So he sent word to them again and persuaded them to make peace, with all their rights recognized. He promised to win the king over as their friend too. Judas cared for the good of all, so he agreed. And the king allowed whatever Judas asked Lysias for in writing.

Lysias wrote to the Jews. He said that John and Absalom had brought their request, and that he had told the king whatever needed to go before him. The king had allowed what was possible. If they kept their goodwill toward the government, he would try to do them good, and his men would talk things over with them. The letter was dated the twenty-fourth day of the month Dioscorinthius, in the one hundred forty-eighth year.

The king wrote to Lysias too, calling him his brother. His father, he wrote, had died and gone to the gods, wanting the people of his kingdom to be left in peace. But the Jews would not agree to his father’s plan to make them live like Greeks, and they asked to keep their own customs. So this nation too should be left in peace. Their temple would be given back to them, and they would live by the customs of their ancestors. Lysias should give them the right hand of friendship, so they would know what the king had in mind and take heart.

The king also wrote to the senate of the Jews and to the rest of the Jews, with greetings and good wishes. Menelaus had told him they wanted to go home. Everyone who went home by the thirtieth day of the month Xanthicus would have his friendship, and freedom to eat their own foods and keep their own laws, as before. No one would be troubled for things done without knowing better. He was sending Menelaus to encourage them. It was dated the fifteenth day of Xanthicus, in the same year.

The Roman ambassadors Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius wrote too, agreeing to what Lysias had granted. As for the things Lysias had left for the king to decide, the Jews should think them over and quickly send someone. The ambassadors were on their way to Antioch, and they wanted to learn what the Jews thought, so they could announce the decisions that fit their case. Their letter had the same date.

When this agreement was made, Lysias went back to the king, and the Jews went about their farming.

Men of Joppa did a terribly wicked thing. They invited the Jews living among them, with their wives and children, into boats they had ready, as if they meant no harm. The Jews trusted the city’s public vote. They wanted to live in peace and suspected nothing, so they went. Out at sea, the men of Joppa drowned at least two hundred of them.

When Judas heard of the cruelty, he gave his men orders, called on God the righteous Judge, and came against the murderers of his people. At night he burned the harbor and the boats and killed those who had fled there. But the town gates were shut, so he pulled back, meaning to come again and wipe out all the men of Joppa.

Then he learned that the men of Jamnia meant to do the same to the Jews among them. He attacked them at night and set fire to their harbor and their ships. The glow was seen in Jerusalem, two hundred forty furlongs away, about thirty miles.

They marched on against Timotheus. When they had gone nine furlongs from there, a little over a mile, at least five thousand Arabian foot soldiers and five hundred horsemen attacked Judas. It was a hard battle, but with God’s help Judas and his men won. The beaten nomads begged Judas for friendship and promised livestock and other help. Judas thought they could be very useful, so he made peace with them. They received pledges of friendship and went back to their tents.

“The Gentiles around us have gathered to destroy us,” they wrote. “They are getting ready to take the stronghold where we fled, and Timotheus leads their army. Come and rescue us, because many of us have fallen. All our people in the land of Tubias have been put to death. Their wives, their children and their goods have been carried off, and about a thousand men were killed there.”

While the letters were still being read, more messengers came from Galilee with their clothes torn. They brought the same kind of news: “People of Ptolemais, of Tyre, of Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles have gathered to destroy us.”

When Judas and the people heard this, a great assembly met to decide how to help their people who were in trouble and under attack. Judas told his brother Simon, “Choose men and go rescue our people in Galilee. My brother Jonathan and I will go into Gilead.” He left Joseph son of Zacharias and Azarias with the rest of the army to lead the people and guard Judea. “Take charge of these people,” he ordered, “and don’t fight any battle with the Gentiles until we come back.” Simon was given three thousand men, and Judas eight thousand.

Simon fought many battles in Galilee and beat the Gentiles. He chased them to the gate of Ptolemais. About three thousand of them fell, and he took their goods. Then they took the people of Galilee and Arbatta, along with their wives and children and everything they owned, and brought them into Judea with great gladness.

Judas and his army turned suddenly and took the wilderness road to Bosora. He captured the city, killed all its males with the sword, took its goods and burned it.

He marched on through the night to the stronghold. At dawn they saw a crowd too big to count, with ladders and siege machines, already attacking the stronghold. Judas saw that the battle had begun, and that the cry of the city was going up to heaven, with trumpets and a great noise.

“Fight today for your people!” he told his men. He came at the enemy from behind in three companies. They blew their trumpets and cried out in prayer. When Timotheus’s army saw that it was Judas Maccabaeus, they ran from him, and he killed a great many. About eight thousand of them fell that day.

Then he turned aside to Mizpeh and took it. He killed all its males, took its goods and burned it. From there he marched on and took Casphor, Maked, Bosor and the other cities of Gilead.

2 Maccabees tells how Judas also attacked Caspin, a strong walled city where people of many nations lived. Its people trusted their walls and their food stores, and they jeered at Judas’s men and spoke against God. But Judas and his men called on the great Ruler of the world, who brought down Jericho in Joshua’s time without battering rams or war machines. Then they rushed wildly at the wall. By God’s will they took the city, and the slaughter was beyond words. The lake beside it, two furlongs wide, about a quarter of a mile, looked filled with a flood of blood.

From there they went seven hundred fifty furlongs, about ninety-four miles, to Charax, to the Jews called Tubieni. Timotheus had already left that district without getting anything done, but he had left a very strong garrison of soldiers in one stronghold. Two of Judas’s captains, Dositheus and Sosipater, went out and destroyed the men he had left there, more than ten thousand of them.

As Judas and his army drew near the stream, Timotheus told his captains, “If he crosses over to us first, we won’t be able to stand against him, because he will surely beat us. But if he is afraid and camps across the river, we will cross over to him and beat him.”

When Judas came near the stream, he had the scribes of the people stay beside it, and he gave them an order: “Don’t let anyone camp. Everyone goes into the battle.”

Then he crossed first, with all the people behind him. The Gentiles were beaten, threw away their weapons and fled to the temple at Carnaim. Judas’s men took the city and burned the temple with everyone in it. Carnaim was beaten and could no longer stand against Judas.

2 Maccabees says Judas divided his army into companies, put Dositheus and Sosipater in charge of them, and hurried against Timotheus. Timotheus had a hundred twenty thousand foot soldiers and two thousand five hundred horsemen. When he heard Judas was coming, he at once sent the women, the children and the baggage to Carnion. The fortress was hard to besiege and hard to reach, because the roads to it were narrow.

When Judas’s first company came in sight, terror fell on the enemy, because the one who sees all things showed himself to them. They fled in every direction, so that they were often hurt by their own men and by the points of their own swords. Judas chased them hard, and he cut down as many as thirty thousand of those wicked men.

Timotheus himself ran into the men of Dositheus and Sosipater. He cunningly begged them to let him go alive, because he held the parents of many of them and the relatives of some. “Otherwise,” he said, “they won’t be looked after well.” He promised again and again to send them back unharmed, and they let him go, to save their families.

Then Judas marched against Carnion and the temple of the goddess Atergatis, and killed twenty-five thousand people.

They came to Ephron, a large, very strong city that stood across their road. There was no way around it. The people of the city shut them out and blocked the gates with stones. Judas sent them a message of peace: “We will pass through your land to get to our own, and no one will harm you. We will only walk through.” But they would not open the gates to him.

Judas ordered every man to camp where he stood. They fought the city all that day and all that night, until it was handed over to him. He killed all its males with the sword and tore the city down. He took its plunder and passed through it over the dead.

2 Maccabees says Ephron was full of people of all nations. Strong young men fought hard on the walls, and there were great stores of war machines and darts. But Judas’s men called on the Ruler who shatters the strength of the enemy with his might. They took the city and killed as many as twenty-five thousand of the people in it.

They crossed the Jordan into the great plain near Bethshan. All the way to Judah, Judas gathered those who fell behind and encouraged the people. They went up to Mount Zion with gladness and joy and offered burnt offerings, because not one of them had been killed, and they had come home in peace.

2 Maccabees says they hurried on against Scythopolis, six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem, about seventy-five miles. But the Jews who lived there told how kind and friendly its people had been to them in their hard times. So Judas’s men gave thanks and urged the people of Scythopolis to stay friendly to the Jewish people. Then they went up to Jerusalem, because the Feast of Weeks was near.

Gorgias and his men came out of the city to fight them. Joseph and Azarias were forced to run, and they were chased to the borders of Judea. About two thousand men of Israel fell that day. It was a great disaster for the people, because they hadn’t listened to Judas and his brothers. They had thought they would do some great deed. But they were not of the family of the men through whom Israel was rescued.

Judas and his brothers were greatly honored by all Israel and all the Gentiles, wherever their name was heard, and people crowded around to cheer them.

Judas and his brothers went out and fought Esau’s descendants, in the land toward the south. Judas attacked Hebron and its villages, pulled down its strongholds and burned the towers all around it. He set out for the land of the Philistines and went through Samaria. That day some priests who wanted to do great deeds there went out to battle without thinking, and they were killed. But Judas turned toward Azotus, in the land of the Philistines. He pulled down their altars, burned the carved images of their gods, plundered their cities, and went home to Judah.

A horseman named Dositheus, a strong man of Bacenor’s company, caught Gorgias by his cloak and dragged him along, meaning to take that cursed man alive. But one of the Thracian horsemen charged at Dositheus and disabled his shoulder, and so Gorgias escaped to Marisa.

Esdris’s men had been fighting a long time and were worn out. Judas called on the Lord to show himself, fighting on their side and leading them in the battle. Then he raised the battle cry, with hymns, in the language of his ancestors. He rushed at Gorgias’s troops when they weren’t expecting it and put them to flight.

Judas gathered his army and came to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and kept the Sabbath there.

On the following day, when it had become necessary, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of those who had fallen, and in company with their kinsmen to bring them back to the sepulchres of their ancestors. But under the garments of each one of the dead they found consecrated tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to have anything to do with. It became clear to all that it was for this cause that they had fallen.

All therefore, blessing the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who makes manifest the things that are hidden, turned themselves to supplication, praying that the sin committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the multitude to keep themselves from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.

When he had made a collection man by man to the sum of two thousand drachmas of silver, he sent to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for sin, doing very well and honorably in this, in that he took thought for the resurrection. For if he wasn’t expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would be superfluous and idle to pray for the dead. But if he was looking forward to an honorable memorial of gratitude laid up for those who die in godliness, then the thought was holy and godly. Therefore he made the atoning sacrifice for those who had died, that they might be released from their sin.