The Rededication of the Temple

¹Judas Maccabeus and his followers, under the leadership of the Lord, recaptured the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.

²They tore down the altars which foreigners had set up in the marketplace and destroyed the other places of worship that had been built.

³They purified the Temple and built a new altar. Then, with new fire started by striking flint, they offered sacrifice for the first time in two years, burned incense, lighted the lamps, and set out the sacred loaves.

⁴After they had done all this, they lay face down on the ground and prayed that the Lord would never again let such disasters strike them. They begged him to be merciful when he punished them for future sins and not hand them over any more to barbaric, pagan Gentiles.

⁵They rededicated the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, the same day of the same month on which the Temple had been desecrated by the Gentiles.

⁶The happy celebration lasted eight days, like the Festival of Shelters, and the people remembered how only a short time before, they had spent the Festival of Shelters wandering like wild animals in the mountains and living in caves.

⁷But now, carrying green palm branches and sticks decorated with ivy, they paraded around, singing grateful praises to him who had brought about the purification of his own Temple.

⁸Everyone agreed that the entire Jewish nation should celebrate this festival each year.

Ptolemy Macron Commits Suicide

⁹The days of Antiochus Epiphanes had come to an end.

¹⁰Now we will tell about Antiochus Eupator, the son of this godless man, and give a summary of the evil effects of his wars.

¹¹When he became king he appointed a man by the name of Lysias to be in charge of the affairs of state and to be chief governor of Greater Syria,

¹²replacing Ptolemy Macron, who had been the first governor to treat the Jews fairly. Macron had established peaceful relations with them in an attempt to make up for the wrongs they had suffered.

¹³As a result the King's Friends went to Eupator and accused Macron of treachery, because he had abandoned the island of Cyprus, which King Philometor of Egypt had placed under his command, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. In fact, everyone called Macron a traitor. No longer able to maintain the respect that his office demanded, he committed suicide by taking poison.

Judas Maccabeus Defeats the Idumeans

¹⁴When Gorgias became governor of Idumea, he kept a force of mercenaries and attacked the Jews at every opportunity.

¹⁵Not only this, but the Idumeans themselves controlled certain strategic fortresses and were constantly harassing the Jews. They welcomed those who fled from Jerusalem and did everything they could to keep the country in a perpetual state of war.

¹⁶So Judas Maccabeus and his men, after offering prayers for God's help, rushed out and made a vigorous attack against the Idumean fortresses.

¹⁷They beat back those who were defending the walls and captured the fortresses, killing everyone they found, a total of about 20,000 people.

¹⁸About 9,000 of the enemy, however, managed to take refuge in two easily defended forts, with everything they needed to withstand a siege.

¹⁹Judas had to go on to some other places in the country, where he was more urgently needed, but he left behind Simon and Joseph, together with Zacchaeus and his men. This force was large enough to continue the siege,

²⁰but some of Simon's men were greedy, and when they were offered 140 pounds of silver, they let some of the enemy escape from the forts.

²¹When Judas heard what had happened, he called together the leaders of his troops and accused those men of selling their brothers by setting their enemies free to fight against them.

²²Then he executed the traitors and immediately captured the two forts.

²³Judas was always successful in battle, and in his assault on those two forts he killed more than 20,000 men.

Judas Defeats Timothy

²⁴Timothy, who had been defeated by the Jews once before, had gathered a large number of cavalry from Asia and a tremendous force of mercenary troops and was now advancing to take Judea by armed attack.

²⁵But as the enemy forces were approaching, Judas and his men prayed to God. They put on sackcloth, threw dirt on their heads,

²⁶and lay face downward on the steps of the altar, begging God to help them by fighting against their enemies, as he had promised in his Law.

²⁷When they had finished praying, they took up their weapons, went out a good distance from Jerusalem, and stopped for the night not far from the enemy.

²⁸At daybreak the two armies joined in battle. The Jewish forces depended upon both their bravery and their trust in the Lord for victory, while the enemy relied only on their ability to fight fiercely.

²⁹When the fighting was at its worst, the enemy saw five handsome men riding on horses with gold bridles and leading the Jewish forces.

³⁰These five men surrounded Judas, protecting him with their own armor and showering the enemy with arrows and thunderbolts. The enemy forces then became so confused and bewildered that they broke ranks, and the Jews cut them to pieces,

³¹slaughtering 20,500 infantry and 600 cavalry.

³²Timothy himself escaped to the strongly defended fort of Gezer, where his brother Chaereas was in command.

³³Judas and his men besieged the fort for four days with great enthusiasm,

³⁴but those inside trusted to the security of their positions and shouted all sorts of terrible insults against the Jews and their God.

³⁵At dawn on the fifth day, twenty of Judas' men, burning with anger at these insults, bravely climbed the wall and with savage fury chopped down everyone they met.

³⁶At the same time, others climbed the walls on the other side of the fort and set the towers on fire. Many of the enemy were burned to death as the flames spread. A third force broke down the gates and let in the rest of Judas' men to capture the city.

³⁷Timothy had hidden in a cistern, but they killed him, as well as his brother Chaereas and Apollophanes.

³⁸When it was over, the Jews celebrated by singing hymns and songs of thanksgiving to the Lord, who had shown them great kindness and had given them victory.

Solomon Prays for Wisdom

¹God of my ancestors, merciful Lord, by your word you created everything.

²By your Wisdom you made us humans to rule all creation,

³to govern the world with holiness and righteousness, to administer justice with integrity.

⁴Give me the Wisdom that sits beside your throne; give me a place among your children.

⁵I am your slave, as was my mother before me. I am only human. I am not strong, and my life will be short. I have little understanding of the Law or of how to apply it.

⁶Even if someone is perfect, he will be thought of as nothing without the Wisdom that comes from you.

⁷You chose me over everyone else to be the king of your own people, to judge your sons and daughters.

⁸You told me to build a temple on your sacred mountain, an altar in Jerusalem, the city you chose as your home. It is a copy of that temple in heaven, which you prepared at the beginning.

⁹Wisdom is with you and knows your actions; she was present when you made the world. She knows what pleases you, what is right and in accordance with your commands.

¹⁰Send her from the holy heavens, down from your glorious throne, so that she may work at my side, and I may learn what pleases you.

¹¹She knows and understands everything, and will guide me intelligently in what I do. Her glory will protect me.

¹²Then I will judge your people fairly, and be worthy of my father's throne. My actions will be acceptable.

¹³Who can ever learn the will of God?

¹⁴Human reason is not adequate for the task, and our philosophies tend to mislead us,

¹⁵because our mortal bodies weigh our souls down. The body is a temporary structure made of earth, a burden to the active mind.

¹⁶All we can do is make guesses about things on earth; we must struggle to learn about things that are close to us. Who, then, can ever hope to understand heavenly things?

¹⁷No one has ever learned your will, unless you first gave him Wisdom, and sent your holy spirit down to him.

¹⁸In this way people on earth have been set on the right path, have learned what pleases you, and have been kept safe by Wisdom.

Wisdom Protected Adam

¹Wisdom protected the father of the world, the first man that was ever formed, when he alone had been created. She saved him from his own sinful act

²and gave him the strength to master everything on earth.

Cain Abandoned Wisdom

³But there was an unrighteous man who abandoned Wisdom; he destroyed himself by killing his brother in a fit of anger.

Wisdom Protected Noah

⁴Because of that sin, the earth was flooded, but Wisdom saved it again. She guided a righteous man in his flimsy wooden boat.

Wisdom Helped Abraham

⁵Once when the nations were frustrated in their wicked plans, Wisdom recognized a righteous man and kept him innocent in God's sight. She gave him strength to obey God's command in spite of his love for his son.

Wisdom Rescued Lot

⁶Wisdom rescued a righteous man while ungodly people were dying. He escaped the flames that destroyed the Five Cities.

⁷You can still see the evidence of their wickedness. The land there is barren and smoking. The plants bear fruit that never ripens, and a pillar of salt stands as a monument to one who did not believe.

⁸The people of those cities ignored Wisdom and could not tell right from wrong. Not only that, but the remains of their cities still remind us of the foolish way they lived, so that their failure can never be forgotten.

⁹But Wisdom rescued her servants from the danger.

Wisdom Protected Jacob

¹⁰A righteous man once had to escape from his brother's anger, and Wisdom guided him in the right way. She showed him God's kingdom and allowed him to know about holy things. She made him prosperous and successful in his work.

¹¹When others were greedy for what he had, and wanted to take it away from him, Wisdom stood by him and made him rich.

¹²She protected him from his enemies who were waiting for a chance to attack him. She gave him victory in a hard fight, so that he might realize that nothing can make a person stronger than serving God.

Wisdom Rescued Joseph

¹³Once a righteous man was sold into slavery, but Wisdom did not abandon him. She kept him safe from sin. She went to prison with him

¹⁴and never left him until she had given him power over an empire and made him the ruler of people who had once oppressed him. She let it be known that a false accusation had been made against him, and she gave him eternal honor.

Wisdom Led the Israelites Out of Egypt

¹⁵Wisdom once rescued an innocent and holy people from a nation of oppressors.

¹⁶She entered the soul of one of God's servants and stood up to dreaded kings by performing miracles.

¹⁷She rewarded God's people for their hardships. She guided them along a miraculous journey. She gave them shade during the day and brilliant starlight at night.

¹⁸She led them through the deep waters of the Red Sea,

¹⁹but she drowned their enemies and washed their bodies up on the shore.

²⁰And so the righteous looted the ungodly. They sang hymns to your holy name, O Lord; together they praised you for defending them.

²¹Wisdom gave speech to those who could not speak; she even caused babies to speak clearly.

⁴Take the impurities out of silver and the artist can produce a thing of beauty.

⁵Keep evil advisers away from the king and his government will be known for its justice.

⁶When you stand before the king, don't try to impress him and pretend to be important.

⁷It is better to be asked to take a higher position than to be told to give your place to someone more important.