Alcimus Speaks against Judas

¹Three years later, Judas and his men learned that Demetrius son of Seleucus had sailed into the port of Tripolis with a powerful army and a fleet.

²It was reported that he had killed King Antiochus and his guardian Lysias and had taken over the country.

³There was a man by the name of Alcimus, who had formerly been High Priest but who had gladly adopted the Greek way of life during the revolt. Realizing that he could never again be High Priest and fearful of what the Jews might do to him,

⁴he went to see King Demetrius in the year 151. On this occasion he presented the king with a gold crown and a palm branch, together with some olive branches traditionally presented to the Temple, but he said nothing about his plans.

⁵Later, however, he got the chance to put his foolish plans into effect when Demetrius summoned him to a meeting of his advisers and asked him what the Jews were intending to do. Alcimus said,

⁶The followers of Judas Maccabeus think of themselves as devout and patriotic; they love war and are constantly inciting the people to rebellion and will never leave the nation in peace.

⁷It is their fault that I no longer hold the glorious position of High Priest, to which I am entitled by birth. And so I have come here,

⁸primarily out of a genuine concern for your interests as king, but also out of consideration for my own people, for the foolish policies of Judas and his followers have brought terrible suffering on our entire nation.

⁹When Your Majesty has examined all the details of these matters, please act in your usual kind and generous manner to relieve the oppression of our nation and its people.

¹⁰As long as Judas is alive, it will be impossible for our nation to enjoy peace.

Demetrius Sends Nicanor to Attack Judas

¹¹As soon as Alcimus had finished his speech, the other advisers quickly seized this opportunity to arouse Demetrius' anger against Judas, because they also hated him.

¹²So King Demetrius immediately appointed Nicanor, who was the commander of his elephant forces, to be governor of Judea, and sent him there

¹³with orders to kill Judas, scatter his followers, and make Alcimus High Priest of the greatest Temple in all the world.

¹⁴All the foreigners in Judea, who had fled from Judas' attacks, now rushed to join forces with Nicanor, because they thought that any defeat or trouble that came to the Jews would be to their own advantage.

¹⁵The Jews heard that Nicanor was attacking and that the foreigners in their country were giving him their support. So they threw dirt on themselves and prayed to their God, who had chosen their nation as his possession forever and had never failed to help them in time of need.

¹⁶Then Judas, their leader, gave the orders, and they immediately marched out to engage the enemy in battle near the village of Adasa.

¹⁷Judas' brother Simon was fighting Nicanor but was gradually losing the battle because of an unexpected move on the part of the enemy.

¹⁸However, when Nicanor heard how bravely and courageously Judas and his men were fighting for their country, he decided not to settle the matter in battle.

¹⁹Instead, he sent Posidonius, Theodotus, and Mattathias to make a treaty with the Jews.

²⁰After the terms of the treaty had been worked out in detail, Nicanor informed his troops, and they unanimously agreed.

²¹Then a day was set on which the leaders would meet in private. Ceremonial chairs were brought out from each camp and set up.

²²Judas had taken the precaution of placing battle-ready troops in strategic places, in case of sudden treachery on the part of the enemy. But the two leaders had a friendly meeting.

²³Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem for some time after that. He did not mistreat the Jews in any way, and even sent away the people who had come over to his side.

²⁴The two men became the best of friends, and Judas was Nicanor's constant companion.

²⁵Nicanor urged him to marry and start a family. So Judas did this and settled down to a peaceful life.

Nicanor Turns against Judas

²⁶When Alcimus noticed how well Nicanor and Judas were getting along, he obtained a copy of the treaty and went to see King Demetrius. He told the king that Nicanor was disloyal to the government, because he had appointed the traitor Judas to be his successor.

²⁷These false accusations infuriated the king, and in his anger he wrote to Nicanor, informing him that he was dissatisfied with the treaty and ordering him to arrest Judas Maccabeus and send him to Antioch at once.

²⁸When this message reached Nicanor, he was hurt and didn't know what to do, because he did not like having to break an agreement with a man who had kept his part of the bargain.

²⁹Yet it was impossible for him to ignore the king's command, so he began looking for a way to trap Judas.

³⁰Judas, however, noticed that Nicanor was becoming hostile and rude toward him, and he knew that this was a bad sign. So he gathered a large number of his followers and went into hiding.

³¹When Nicanor realized that Judas had outsmarted him, he went to the great and holy Temple at the time when the priests were offering sacrifice and ordered them to surrender Judas to him.

³²But the priests declared under oath that they had no idea where Judas was hiding.

³³Then Nicanor raised his right arm in the direction of the Temple and made a solemn threat: If you do not hand Judas over to me as a prisoner, I will level God's Temple to the ground, demolish this altar, and on this spot build a glorious temple to Dionysus.

³⁴Then he left, and immediately the priests lifted their arms toward heaven and prayed to God, the faithful Defender of our nation:

³⁵Lord, you are in need of nothing, yet it has pleased you to place your Temple here and to live among us.

³⁶You alone are holy, and your Temple has only recently been purified, so now protect its holiness forever.

Razis Dies for His Country

³⁷One of the leaders in Jerusalem, a man by the name of Razis, was denounced to Nicanor. It was said that he had helped his people in many ways and was so highly respected by them that he was known as the Father of the Jews.

³⁸During the early days of the revolution he had risked his life for Judaism and had been brought to trial because of his loyalty.

³⁹Wanting to show clearly how much he disliked the Jews, Nicanor sent more than 500 soldiers to arrest Razis,

⁴⁰because he thought his arrest would be a crippling blow to the Jews.

⁴¹The soldiers were about to capture the tower where Razis had gone. They were forcing open the gates to the courtyard, and the order had been given to set the door on fire. Razis realized there was no escape, so he tried to commit suicide with his sword,

⁴²preferring to die with honor rather than suffer humiliation at the hands of evil men.

⁴³Under the pressure of the moment, Razis misjudged the thrust of the sword, and it did not kill him. So, while the soldiers were swarming into the room, he rushed to the wall and jumped off like a brave hero into the crowd below.

⁴⁴The crowd quickly moved back, and he fell in the space they left.

⁴⁵Still alive, and burning with courage, he got up, and with blood gushing from his wounds, he ran through the crowd and finally climbed a steep rock.

⁴⁶Now completely drained of blood, he tore out his intestines with both hands and threw them at the crowd, and as he did so, he prayed for the Lord of life and breath to give them back to him. That was how he died.

Terror Strikes the Egyptians at Night

¹O Lord, your acts of judgment are marvelous and hard to explain; that is why people who had not been taught about them went astray.

²When lawless people imagined that they had your holy nation in their power, they were themselves imprisoned in a long night of darkness. They lay in their own houses, shut off from your eternal care.

³They thought that their sins had been secret and unnoticed, shielded from view by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, but now they were horribly afraid, confused, and terrified by ghostly forms.

⁴Not even the dark corners where they lay could protect them from fear. They were surrounded by horrible noises; grim ghosts with gloomy faces appeared before their eyes.

⁵No fire had power to give them light, and the brilliant stars could do nothing to relieve that deathly darkness.

⁶There was only a dreadful fire, lit by no human hand, that shone on them, and in their terror they believed that the real world was even worse than the things they imagined.

⁷The illusions produced by their magic tricks were put to shame, and all the wisdom they had boasted of came to nothing.

⁸They had claimed they could drive away all the fears and illnesses of sick minds, but now they themselves were sick with silly, groundless fears.

⁹Even though nothing dangerous had actually happened, they were terrified by hissing snakes and animals advancing on them.

¹⁰And so they died, shaking with fear, afraid even to open their eyes, yet unable to keep them shut.

¹¹Wickedness is cowardly in itself and stands self-condemned. Someone with a guilty conscience will always imagine things to be worse than they really are.

¹²Fear is nothing but the failure to use the help that reason gives.

¹³When you lack the confidence to rely on reason, you give in to the fears caused by ignorance.

¹⁴All night long those people slept the same restless sleep, even though the night held no power over them, since it came from the powerless depths of the world of the dead.

¹⁵They were chased by hideous forms and lay paralyzed as they surrendered themselves to the sudden, unexpected fear that came over them.

¹⁶People would suddenly collapse and lie locked in the chains of their own fear.

¹⁷Farmers, shepherds, and laborers out in the countryside were captured by the same inevitable fate and bound in the darkness by the same invisible chain.

^18-19They were panic-stricken by the sighing of the wind or by the singing of birds in the trees or by the roar of rushing water or by the rumble of falling rock or by the sound of unseen creatures running about or by the savage roaring of wild animals or by the echoes from the mountains.

²⁰In the full light of day, the rest of the world went about its business undisturbed.

²¹Only those people were covered by this heavy night, a foretaste of the darkness of death that was waiting for them. They were a burden to themselves that was even heavier than the darkness.

Light Shines on the Israelites

¹Yet all the while a brilliant light was shining for your holy people. Their enemies heard their voices, but couldn't see them. They envied the good fortune of your people, who were not suffering.

²Those enemies could at least be thankful that the people they had wronged were not taking vengeance on them now, and so they begged them to leave.

³Then you guided your people as they traveled through a country they did not know. You guided them with a pillar of fire. It was like a sun that would not harm them on that glorious journey.

⁴But their enemies, who were not allowed to see the light, deserved to be prisoners in darkness, because they had made prisoners of your people. And it was through your people that the eternal light of the Law was going to be given to the world.

The Death of the Egyptian First-Born

⁵When your enemies were carrying out their resolve to kill the babies of your holy people, there was one child who was abandoned but later rescued. Then you punished your enemies by killing a great number of their own children. You drowned their whole army at one time in the rushing waters.

⁶But our ancestors had been told in advance of what would happen that night, so that they would be cheered and encouraged by confident trust in your promises to them.

⁷Your people knew that you would rescue the righteous nation and destroy their enemies.

⁸With the same act you punished our enemies and did us the glorious honor of calling us to yourself.

⁹During all this time devout people from this righteous nation were secretly offering sacrifices, giving their word to each other that they would keep God's law and share each other's blessings and dangers. Already they were chanting those ancient hymns of praise.

¹⁰But their enemies' pitiful cries of grief echoed everywhere, as they mourned for their dead children.

¹¹Masters suffered the same punishment as their slaves; the king endured the same loss as the common people.

¹²There were too many dead bodies to count. There were not enough people left to bury them all. In a single moment their dearest children died; all of them met death in the same way.

¹³These people had paid no attention to any warning, but relied instead on their magical powers. But when their first-born sons were killed, then they recognized that Israel was God's son.

¹⁴The short night was half over, and all was quiet and peaceful,

¹⁵when suddenly your threats were carried out! An invincible word of judgment sped from your royal throne in heaven, straight down to that doomed land. It came like a soldier in fierce attack,

¹⁶carrying out your firm command with a fearful weapon, standing with feet on the ground and head touching the sky, filling the land with death.

¹⁷At that moment the people who were about to die had terrible nightmares and were seized by sudden fear.

¹⁸All over the land they lay half-dead and let it be known why they were dying.

¹⁹They knew why they were dying, because their horrible dreams had told them.

Aaron's Prayer Saves the Israelites from Death

²⁰Death also came to the righteous nation, for an epidemic struck many of them while they were in the desert, but your anger did not last long.

²¹There was a certain blameless man who quickly took action to defend them. Acting as their priest, Aaron offered prayers and burned the incense used in asking forgiveness of sins. With prayers and incense as his weapons, he withstood your anger and ended the disaster. By doing this he proved that he was your servant.

²²He overcame the bitter difficulty, but not by his own strength or by military force. Instead, he used prayer to stop the punishment, appealing to the promises you solemnly gave to our ancestors.

²³Dead bodies were already lying in piles, but he stepped in to hold your anger back and to keep it from harming those who were left alive.

²⁴He wore a long robe decorated with symbols of the universe. In honor of our ancestors he wore four rows of engraved stones on his chest, and your own majesty was represented by the ornament on his turban.

²⁵The Angel of Death was afraid of these things, and gave up. It was only a slight experience of your wrath, but it was enough.

¹⁸A false accusation is as deadly as a sword, a club, or a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Depending on an unreliable person in a crisis is like trying to chew with a loose tooth or walk with a crippled foot.

²⁰Singing to a person who is depressed is like taking off a person's clothes on a cold day or like rubbing salt in a wound.