2 Maccabees 10
Eight Days of Rejoicing for a Cleansed House
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The Recovery and Purification of the Temple
10:1Maccabeus and those with him, the Lord leading them, recovered the temple and the city.
10:2They tore down the altars built by the foreigners in the marketplace, and also the sacred precincts.
10:3Having purified the temple, they made another altar. They heated stones, took fire from them, and offered sacrifices after a period of two years. They offered incense, lit lamps and set out the loaves.
10:4When they had done this, they fell on their faces and begged the Lord that they might no longer fall into such evils, but that, if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by Him with gentleness and not handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.
10:5On the very day the temple had been profaned by foreigners, the temple’s purification took place: the twenty-fifth of the same month, which is Chislev.
The Eight Days of Rejoicing
10:6They celebrated joyfully for eight days in the manner of the Festival of Booths, remembering how a short time before, during the Festival of Booths, they had roamed the mountains and caves like wild animals.
10:7Therefore, carrying garlanded staffs, beautiful branches and palm fronds, they offered hymns to the One who had prospered the purification of His own place.
10:8By a common ordinance and decree they determined that the entire Jewish nation should observe these days every year.
10:9Thus ended the matters concerning the death of Antiochus, called Epiphanes.
Antiochus Eupator and Ptolemy Macron
10:10Now we shall explain the events under Antiochus Eupator, the son of the impious man, abridging the principal evils of the wars.
10:11For when he took over the kingdom, he appointed a certain Lysias as chief minister and chief governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia.
10:12Ptolemy, called Macron, had taken the lead in maintaining justice toward the Jews because of the wrong done to them, and attempted to conduct relations with them peacefully.
10:13Therefore the friends accused him before Eupator, and at every turn he was called a traitor because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Having failed to make his office honorable, he poisoned himself and departed this life.
Gorgias and the Idumeans
10:14Gorgias, having become governor of the regions, maintained foreign troops and at every turn fostered war against the Jews.
10:15Along with him, the Idumeans, who held strategic fortresses, harassed the Jews. Taking in those driven from Jerusalem, they attempted to maintain the war.
10:16Maccabeus and his men offered an entreaty and asked God to become their ally; then they rushed against the Idumean fortresses.
10:17Attacking them vigorously, they gained control of the places, drove off all who fought on the wall, and slaughtered those they encountered. They killed no fewer than twenty thousand.
10:18No fewer than nine thousand fled together into two very strong towers, which had everything necessary to withstand a siege.
10:19Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, and also Zacchaeus with his men, a sufficient force to besiege them, and himself departed for places requiring urgent attention.
10:20But Simon’s men, in their love of money, were persuaded with silver by some of those in the towers. Receiving seventy thousand drachmas, they let some slip away.
10:21When Maccabeus was informed of what had happened, he gathered the people’s leaders and accused them of selling their brothers for money by releasing enemies against them.
10:22He therefore put these men to death as traitors and immediately captured the two towers.
10:23Succeeding in everything by the weapons in his hands, he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two fortresses.
Timothy Returns with a Great Force
10:24Timothy, who had previously been defeated by the Jews, gathered very numerous foreign forces and assembled not a few horses from Asia. He arrived intending to take Judea by force of arms.
10:25As he approached, Maccabeus and his men sprinkled earth on their heads and girded their waists with sackcloth in supplication to God.
10:26Falling down on the platform opposite the altar, they asked Him to become merciful to them, to be an enemy to their enemies and oppose their opponents, as the law declares.
10:27Rising from their petition, they took up their weapons and advanced some distance from the city. When they had approached the enemy, they remained by themselves.
10:28Just as the sunrise spread, the two sides attacked: the one had, together with courage, their refuge in the Lord as a guarantee of success and victory, while the other appointed anger as the leader of their battles.
10:29As the battle became fierce, five splendid men appeared to the enemy from heaven on horses with golden bridles, leading the Jews.
10:30They took Maccabeus into their midst and sheltered him with their own armor, keeping him unwounded. They hurled arrows and thunderbolts at the enemy, who, confused by blindness and filled with turmoil, were cut down.
10:31Twenty thousand five hundred were slaughtered, and six hundred horsemen.
The Fortress of Gazara and the Death of Timothy
10:32Timothy himself fled into a stronghold called Gazara, a very strong fortress, where Chaereas was commander.
10:33Maccabeus and his men eagerly besieged the fortress for four days.
10:34Those inside, trusting in the strength of the place, blasphemed excessively and uttered unlawful words.
10:35As the fifth day dawned, twenty young men of Maccabeus’s company, burning with anger because of the blasphemies, attacked the wall courageously and cut down whoever they met with a beast-like fury.
10:36Others likewise climbed up while those inside were distracted, set the towers on fire, and kindled fires that burned the blasphemers alive. Others broke through the gates, admitted the rest of the division, and took possession of the city.
10:37They slaughtered Timothy, who was hiding in a cistern, and his brother Chaereas and Apollophanes.
10:38Having done these things, they blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving, for He greatly benefited Israel and gave them victory.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.