The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Maccabees 04
1 For a certain man named Simon, who was in
opposition to an honorable and
good man who once held the high
priesthood for life, named Onias.
After slandering Onias in every way,
Simon couldn’t injure him with the
people, so he went away as an exile,
with the intention of betraying his country.
2 When coming to Apollonius, the military
governor of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, he said,
3 “Having good will to the king’s affairs,
I have come to inform you that tens of
thousands in private wealth is laid up in
the treasuries of Jerusalem which do not
belong to the temple, but belong to King
Seleucus.”
4 Apollonius, acquainting himself with
the particulars of this, praised Simon for
his care of the king’s interests, and going
up to Seleucus informed him of the treasure.
5 Getting authority about it, and quickly
advancing into our country with the accursed
Simon and a very heavy force,
6 he said that he came with the commands
of the king that he should take the
private money of the treasury.
7 The nation, indignant at this proclamation,
and replying to the effect that it
was extremely unfair that those who had
committed deposits to the sacred treasury
should be deprived of them, resisted as
well as they could.
8 But Appolonius went away withthreats
into the temple.
9 The priests, with the women and children,
asked God to throw his shield over
the holy, despised place,
10 and Appolonius was going up with his
armed force to seize the treasure, when
angels from heaven appeared riding on
horseback, all radiant in armor, filling
them with much fear and trembling.
11 Apollonius fell half dead on the court
which is open to all nations, and extended
his hands to heaven, and implored the
Hebrews, with tears, to pray for him, and
take away the wrath of the heavenly army.
12 For he said that he had sinned, so as to
be consequently worthy of death, and that
if he were saved, he would proclaim to all
people the blessedness of the holy place.
13 Onias the high priest, induced by these
words, although for other reasons anxious
that King Seleucus wouldn’t suppose that
Apollonius was slain by human device and
not by Divine punishment, prayed for him;
14 andhe being thusunexpectedly saved,
departed to report to the king what had
happened to him.
15 But on the death of Seleucus the king,
his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to
the kingdom—a terrible man of arrogant
pride.
16 He, having deposed Onias from the
high priesthood, appointed his brother
Jason to be high priest,
17 who had made a covenant, if he would
give him this authority, to pay yearly three
thousand six hundred and sixty talents.
18 He committed to him the high priesthood
and rulership over the nation.
19 He both changed the manner of living
of the people, and perverted their civil
customs into all lawlessness.
20 So that he not only erected a gymnasium
on the very citadel of our country, but
neglected the guardianship of the temple.
21 Because ofthat, Divine vengeance was
grieved and instigated Antiochus himself
against them.
22 For being at war with Ptolemy in
Egypt, he heard that on a report of his
death being spread abroad, the inhabitants
of Jerusalem had exceedingly rejoiced,
and he quickly marched against them.
23 Having subdued them, he established
a decree thatif any ofthem lived according
to the ancestral laws, he should die.
24 When he could by no means destroy
by his decrees the obedience to the law
of the nation, but saw all his threats and
punishments without effect,
25 for even women, because they continued to
circumcise their children, were
flung down a precipice along with them,
knowing beforehand of the punishment.
26 When, therefore, his decrees were disregarded
by the people, he himself compelled by means
of tortures every one of this race, by
tasting forbidden meats, to
renounce the Jewish religion.