taken, Menelans fled into the castle:
[6] But Jason slew his own citizens without mercy, not considering
that to get the day of them of his own nation would be a most unhappy day for him; but thinking they
had been his enemies, and not his countrymen, whom he conquered.
[7] Howbeit for all this he obtained
not the principality, but at the last received shame for the reward of his treason, and fled again into the
country of the Ammonites.
[8] In the end therefore he had an unhappy return, being accused before Aretas
the king of the Arabians, fleeing from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a forsaker of the laws,
and being had in abomination as an open enemy of his country and countrymen, he was cast out into
Egypt.
[9] Thus he that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land, retiring to the
Lacedemonians, and thinking there to find succour by reason of his kindred:
[10] And he that had cast
out many unburied had none to mourn for him, nor any solemn funerals at all, nor sepulchre with his
fathers.
[11] Now when this that was done came to the king's car, he thought that Judea had revolted: whereupon
removing out of Egypt in a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms,
[12] And commanded his men
of war not to spare such as they met, and to slay such as went up upon the houses.
[13] Thus there was
killing of young and old, making away of men, women, and children, slaying of virgins and infants.
[14]
And there were destroyed within the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, whereof forty thousand
were slain in the conflict; and no fewer sold than slain.
[15] Yet was he not content with this, but presumed
to go intothe most holy temple of all the world; Menelans, that traitor to the laws, and to his own country,
being his guide:
[16] And taking the holy vessels with polluted hands, and with profane hands pulling
down the things that were dedicated by other kings to the augmentation and glory and honour of the
place, he gave them away.
[17] And so haughty was Antiochus in mind, that he considered not that the
Lord was angry for a while for the sins of them that dwelt in the city, and therefore his eye was not upon
the place.
[18] For had they not been formerly wrapped in many sins, this man, as soon as he had come,
had forthwith been scourged, and put back from his presumption, as Heliodorus was, whom Seleucus
the king sent to view the treasury.
[19] Nevertheless God did not choose the people for the place's sake,
but the place far the people's sake.
[20] And therefore the place itself, that was partaker with them of the
adversity that happened to the nation, did afterward communicate in the benefits sent from the Lord: and
as it was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty, so again, the great Lord being reconciled, it was set
up with all glory.
[21] So when Antiochus had carried out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred
talents, he departed in all haste unto Antiochia, weening in his pride to make the land navigable, and
the sea passable by foot: such was the haughtiness of his mind.
[22] And he left governors to vex the
nation: at Jerusalem, Philip, for his country a Phrygian, and for manners more barbarous than he that
set him there;
[23] And at Garizim, Andronicus; and besides, Menelans, who worse than all the rest bare
an heavy hand over the citizens, having a malicious mind against his countrymen the Jews.
[24] He sent
also that detestable ringleader Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to
slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort:
[25] Who coming
to Jerusalem, and pretending peace, did forbear till the holy day of the sabbath, when taking the Jews
keeping holy day, he commanded his men to arm themselves.
[26] And so he slew all them that were
gone to the celebrating of the sabbath, and running through the city with weapons slew great multitudes.
[27]
But Judas Maccabeus with nine others, or thereabout, withdrew himself into the wilderness, and lived
in the mountains after the manner of beasts, with his company, who fed on herbs continually, lest they
should be partakers of the pollution.
2Mac.6
[1] Not long after this the king sent an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to depart from the laws
of their fathers, and not to live after the laws of God:
[2] And to pollute also the temple in Jerusalem,
and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius; and that in Garizim, of Jupiter the Defender of strangers,
as they did desire that dwelt in the place.
[3] The coming in of this mischief was sore and grievous to the
people:
[4] For the temple was filled with riot and revelling by the Gentiles, who dallied with harlots, and
had to do with women within the circuit of the holy places, and besides that brought in things that were
not lawful.
[5] The altar also was filled with profane things, which the law forbiddeth.
[6] Neither was it
lawful for a man to keep sabbath days or ancient fasts, or to profess himself at all to be a Jew.
[7] And in
the day of the king's birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices; and
when the fast of Bacchus was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Bacchus, carrying