The Argument between Onias and Simon

¹When Onias was High Priest in Jerusalem, the holy city enjoyed peace and prosperity, and its laws were strictly obeyed, because he was devout and hated evil.

²The kings of Syria and Egypt honored the Temple and presented it with expensive gifts,

³and King Seleucus, ruler of all Asia, even used to pay the costs of the Temple sacrifices from the revenues he collected.

⁴But a man by the name of Simon, of the tribe of Bilgah, the chief administrative official of the Temple, lost an argument he had with Onias over the regulations governing the city market.

⁵At this time Apollonius son of Thraseus was the governor of Greater Syria. Simon went to him

⁶and said that there was so much money in the Temple treasury that it could not be counted, and since the money was not needed for sacrifices, it might as well be placed under the king's control.

Heliodorus Is Sent to Jerusalem

⁷When Apollonius met with the king, he told him about the money, and the king ordered Heliodorus, his chief minister, to get it for him.

⁸Heliodorus set out at once on his mission, but he claimed that he was only making a tour of inspection of the cities of Greater Syria.

⁹After he had arrived in Jerusalem and had been warmly received by the High Priest, he explained the real reason for his visit and asked if what he had been told was true.

^10-11The High Priest then stated that Simon, that devil of a man, had not been telling the truth. There was indeed some money in the Temple treasury, but part of it was set aside for widows and orphans and part of it belonged to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a very important man. He also pointed out that the total amount was only 30,000 pounds of silver and 15,000 pounds of gold.

¹²He added that it was absolutely impossible that anyone should be permitted to take the money of those people who had placed their trust in the sanctity and safety of this world-famous Temple.

Heliodorus Plans to Enter the Temple

¹³But Heliodorus insisted that the money should be taken for the royal treasury, as the king had ordered.

¹⁴So he set a day and went into the Temple to supervise the counting of the money. This caused an uproar throughout the entire city.

¹⁵Priests, wearing their priestly robes, threw themselves face downward before the altar and begged God to keep the money safe, since he had given the laws designed to protect the money that people deposited in the Temple.

¹⁶It was heartbreaking to see the High Priest. His face turned pale, revealing the agony of his soul,

¹⁷and his body was trembling with fear, reflecting the pain in his heart.

¹⁸People ran from their houses to join together in prayer that the Temple might not be defiled.

¹⁹Women, wearing nothing but skirts of sackcloth, crowded the streets. Young girls whose parents had never allowed them to be seen in public ran to the gates or to the walls of the city, or just stared out of their windows.

²⁰But wherever they went, they lifted their hands to God in prayer.

²¹What a pitiful sight it was to see the High Priest in such great agony and frustration and to see everyone in the city confused and lying face down on the ground.

The Lord Protects His Temple

²²While everyone was begging the Lord Almighty to protect the money that had been entrusted to his care,

²³Heliodorus went on with his plan.

²⁴But at the very moment that he and his bodyguards arrived at the treasury, the Lord of all supernatural powers caused such a vision to appear that everyone who had dared to enter with Heliodorus was panic-stricken and weak with fear at this display of the Lord's power.

²⁵In the vision they saw a horse and a rider. The horse had a richly decorated bridle, and its rider, dressed in gold armor, was frightening. Suddenly the horse rushed at Heliodorus, then reared up and struck at him with its hoofs.

²⁶Heliodorus also saw two unusually strong and handsome young men, wearing very fine clothes. They stood on either side of him and beat him unmercifully.

²⁷He immediately fell to the ground unconscious, and his men put him on a stretcher

²⁸and carried him out. Only a moment earlier this man had entered the treasury with a large group of men, including all his bodyguards, but now he was being carried away helpless. So they all openly acknowledged the mighty power of God.

Onias Prays for Heliodorus' Recovery

²⁹Heliodorus lay there unable to speak and without hope of recovery from this demonstration of God's power.

³⁰But the Jews praised Almighty God because he had miraculously protected his Temple and had brought great happiness where only minutes before there had been fear and confusion.

³¹Some of Heliodorus' friends quickly asked Onias the High Priest to pray that the Most High would spare the life of this man who was at the point of death.

³²So the High Priest offered a sacrifice in the hope that God would save Heliodorus, for he did not want the king to think that the Jews had done this to the man he had sent.

³³While Onias was offering the sacrifice, the two young men, wearing the same clothes as before, again appeared to Heliodorus and said, Be grateful to the High Priest; the Lord has spared your life because of him.

³⁴Remember that it was the Lord of heaven who punished you. Now go and tell everyone of his great power. When they had said this, they disappeared.

Heliodorus Praises God

³⁵So Heliodorus offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made many promises, because the Lord had spared his life. Then he said good-bye to Onias and returned with his army to the king.

³⁶There he told everyone what the Lord, the most powerful of all gods, had done.

³⁷When the king asked Heliodorus who would be the best man to send on the next mission to Jerusalem, Heliodorus replied,

³⁸If you have an enemy or know of someone plotting against your government, send him. He will come back badly beaten, if he comes back at all, for some strange power from God is at work there.

³⁹The God of heaven watches over the Temple; he strikes down and destroys anyone who comes to harm it.

⁴⁰That is the story of how the Temple treasury was protected from Heliodorus.

Moses

¹From Jacob's descendants the Lord raised up a godly man who won the favor of everyone, loved by God and people alike. This man was Moses, whose very memory is a blessing.

²The Lord made him as glorious as the angels and made his enemies fear him.

³There in Egypt at his command the disaster struck. The Lord made kings hold him in respect. The Lord gave him his commands for his people and showed him the dazzling light of his presence.

⁴The Lord chose Moses out of the whole human race and consecrated him because of his loyalty and humility.

⁵He let him hear his voice and led him into the dark cloud, where, face-to-face, he gave him the commandments, the Law that gives life and knowledge, so that Moses might teach the covenant regulations to the Israelites.

Aaron

⁶The Lord raised up Aaron, a holy man like his brother Moses, of the tribe of Levi.

⁷He made an eternal covenant with him, giving him the privilege of serving as priest to the Lord's people. He honored him by clothing him with magnificent robes and fine ornaments,

⁸perfect in their splendor. He granted him the symbols of authority: the linen shorts, the shirt, and the robe with the pomegranates around the hem.

⁹Gold bells were also around its hem, so that when he walked, their ringing would be heard in the Temple, and the Lord would remember his people.

¹⁰The Lord gave Aaron the sacred robe with the gold, blue, and purple embroidery; the breastpiece with the Urim and Thummim;

¹¹the red yarn, spun by an expert; the precious stones with names engraved on them, mounted in a gold setting by a jeweler, placed on the breastpiece to remind the Lord of the twelve tribes of Israel.

¹²He gave him the turban with the gold ornament engraved with the words Dedicated to the Lord. It was expertly crafted, a beautiful work of art, and it was a high honor to wear it.

¹³Before Aaron's time such beautiful things were never seen. No one but Aaron and his descendants ever wore them, or ever will.

¹⁴The grain offering is to be presented twice a day and burned completely.

¹⁵Moses ordained Aaron to office by pouring the sacred anointing oil over his head. An eternal covenant was made with him and his descendants, that they would serve the Lord as his priests and bless the people in the Lord's name.

¹⁶The Lord chose Aaron out of the whole human race to offer sacrifices, to burn fragrant incense to remind the Lord of his people, and to take away their sins.

¹⁷He entrusted the commandments to Aaron's keeping and gave him the authority to make legal decisions and to teach Israel the Law.

¹⁸Once, while the people were in the wilderness, an angry group of jealous outsiders conspired against Moses. These were Dathan, Abiram, and Korah with their supporters.

¹⁹The Lord saw what they were doing and became angry, so furious that he performed a miracle and destroyed them in a blazing fire.

²⁰Then he rewarded Aaron again, giving him a special honor: the right to the offerings of the first produce, so that the priests should have enough to eat.

²¹Their food is the sacrifices offered to the Lord; the Lord gave this to Aaron and his descendants.

²²But Aaron, unlike the rest of the people, was to inherit no land, no special portion of his own. The Lord himself would be all he needed.

Phinehas

²³Only Moses and Aaron were more famous for their intense devotion to the Lord than Phinehas son of Eleazar. He brought about forgiveness for Israel's sin by standing firm in brave determination when everyone else was in rebellion.

²⁴And so the Lord made a covenant with him, valid for all time to come, that he should be in charge of the sanctuary and of his people, that he and his descendants should hold the office of High Priest forever.

²⁵Unlike the covenant made with David son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah, where the kingship passed only from father to son, the priesthood was to pass from Aaron to all his descendants.

²⁶Now praise the Lord, who is good, who has crowned you with glory! May he give you wisdom to judge his people fairly, so that their success and your authority may continue for all time to come.

Joshua

¹Joshua son of Nun was a great soldier and the next of the prophets after Moses. He lived up to the meaning of his name as the great deliverer of the Lord's chosen people. He defeated the enemies that attacked them, so that Israel could claim its land.

²How magnificent it was when he raised his arm and then led the attacks on the cities!

³No one could stand up to him; he was fighting a holy war for the Lord.

⁴Remember how he held back the sun and made one day as long as two?

⁵When his enemies were threatening him from every side, he prayed to the mighty Lord Most High, and his prayer was answered with a hailstorm of devastating force.

⁶The Lord hurled the hail down on the enemy and destroyed them at the pass at Beth Horon, so that the nations would realize how strong Joshua was, since he was fighting as a devoted follower of the Lord.

Caleb

⁷Joshua was loyal as long as Moses lived, both he and Caleb son of Jephunneh. They stood up to the whole community, made them stop their ungrateful complaining, and kept them from sinning.

⁸Out of the 600,000 Israelites who marched through the wilderness, these two were the only ones spared and allowed to enter the rich and fertile land that was to be theirs.

⁹The Lord made Caleb strong, and when he was an old man, he was still strong enough to go up into the hill country and capture it for himself and his descendants.

¹⁰Then all of Israel could see how good it is to follow the Lord.

The Judges

¹¹Then there were the judges, each of them famous in their own right, who never fell into idolatry and never abandoned the Lord.

¹²May their memory be honored! May these whom we honor spring from the grave to new life in their descendants!

Samuel

¹³Samuel was loved by the Lord. As the Lord's prophet he established the kingdom and appointed rulers for the people.

¹⁴He judged the nation in accordance with the Law of the Lord, and the Lord protected Israel.

¹⁵Because Samuel was faithful, he was accepted as a true prophet. People trusted him as a seer because of his words.

¹⁶When his enemies were threatening him from every side, he called upon the mighty Lord and offered him a young lamb as a sacrifice.

¹⁷Then the Lord thundered from heaven with a mighty roar

¹⁸and destroyed all the enemy rulers of Philistia.

¹⁹When Samuel was about to die, he gave assurances before the Lord and the anointed king that he had never taken anyone's property, not even so much as a pair of shoes, and no one contradicted him.

²⁰Even after he died, he prophesied to King Saul how he would die. Out of the grave he spoke as a prophet, to blot out his people's wickedness.

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¹⁰If you are weak in a crisis, you are weak indeed.

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¹¹Don't hesitate to rescue someone who is about to be executed unjustly.

¹²You may say that it is none of your business, but God knows and judges your motives. He keeps watch on you; he knows. And he will reward you according to what you do.