A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 311. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7.2 MAC. iii—x. JOS, HIST, b. xi.c. 7—b. xii, c. 14, slain by the people of Jerusalem; yet such was the power of bribery at the Syrian court, that by the strength of this Menelaus, who was the contriver of all these mischiefs, found means to clear himself before Antiochus, and to get the three delegates from the sanhedrim, who came from Jerusalem on purpose to accuse him, condemned and executed. polluted, by his presence, both the holy place, and the holy of holies. He sacrificed a great sow upon the altar of burnt-offerings, and caused the broth (which was made of some part of the flesh) to be sprinkled all over the temple, that he might defile it as much as possible. He took away the altar of incense, the showbread table, the candlestick of seven branches, and several other golden vessels, utensils, and donatives of former kings, to the value of 800 talents of gold; and making the like plunder in the city, he returned to Antioch, leaving behind him Philip a Phrygian, a man of a cruel and barbarous temper, to be governor of Judea; Andronicus, another of the like disposition, to be governor of Samaria; and Menelaus, who was worse than all the rest, to continue still over them in the office of high priest. 3 2 While Antiochus was engaged in war with Egypt, a false rumour was spread in Palestine that he was dead; and Jason thinking this a fine opportuity for him to recover his station in Jerusalem as high priest, marched thither with above a thousand men; and having, by the assistance of the party which he had there, taken the city, and driven Menelaus into the castle, he acted all manner of cruelties upon his fellow-citizens, and put to death, | without mercy, all that he could light on, whom he took Not long after this, there were seen at Jerusalem, to be his adversaries. for forty days together, strange sights in the air of horsemen and footmen, armed with shields, spears, and swords, and in great companies fighting against, and charging each other, as in battle array; which foreboded those calamities of war and desolation that soon after happened in that city and nation. For Antiochus, still breathing out rage against the poor Jews, sent Apollonius, one of his generals, with an army of 22,000 men, and an express order to kill all the men that remained in Jerusa lem, and to sell the women and children for slaves. 'On his first arrival, Apollonius, carried himself peaceably, concealing his intent, and forbearing all hostilities, till the return of the sabbath, when he put his bloody commission in execution. For, falling upon the city while 11 Mac. i. 20, &c.; 2 Mac. v. 5, 6.-Joseph. Antiq. b. xii. the people were at their devotion, he massacred many Antiochus, hearing of this, and supposing that the whole Jewish nation had revolted from him, marched with all haste out of Egypt into Judea; and 'being informed, on his march, that the people of Jerusalem, on the news which came of his death, had made great rejoicings; the sense of this so provoked him against them, that laying siege to the city, and taking it by storm," he slew of the inhabitants, in three days' time, 40,000 persons, and having taken as many more captives, sold them to the neighbouring nations. Nor did all this satisfy his rage; for, notwithstanding his father's edict, he forced himself into the temple, and c. 8. rage, and defend himself; yet the mob fell on them with such fury, that wounding some, and killing others, they forced the rest to flee; and then seizing upon Lysimachus, him they slew beside the treasury within the temple, and thereby, for that time, put an end to this sacrilege.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 172. a Both the author of the second book of the Maccabees, (chap. v. 11.) and Diodorus Siculus, (b. xlvi.) tell us, that Antiochus took Jerusalem by force; and yet Josephus (in his 12th book of Antiquities, c. 7.) affirms, that he made himself master of it without any manner of difficulty, because the gates were set open to him by the treachery of a party he made in the town: but herein he is contrary to himself. For in his history of the Jewish wars, (b. i. c. 1.) he says, that Antiochus took it narà xáros, that is, by force; and there represents him as enraged by what he had suffered in the siege; and in the same history, (b. vi. c. 11.) he speaks of those who were slain at the siege, fighting in defence of the place. But the history of the Jewish wars, and that of his Antiquities, he wrote at different times, which might make him, in some places, not so consistent.-Prideaux's Connection. of the inhabitants, plundered the place, led away the women and children captives, and forced the few that escaped to betake themselves to deserts and caves for shelter. Nor was this all; for in a short time after Antiochus made a decree, commanding all nations to leave their ancient rites and usages, and to conform to the religion of the king; which, however expressed in general terms, was chiefly designed against the Jews. The officer who was sent to see this decree put in execution, was one Athenæus, a man well versed in all the ceremonies of the Grecian idolatry, and therefore thought a proper person to initiate the people into the observance of them. On his coming to Jerusalem, all sacrifices to the God of Israel were superseded, and the rites of the Jewish religion suppressed. The temple itself was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, (whose image 22 Mac. v. 22, 23. 6 с 3 Ibid. ver. 2, 3. 52 Mac. v. 24, &c. Chap. vi. 1. 71 Mac. i. 44, &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c.7. ly burning." But several of these circumstances, (more especially that of a man mounted on an ass,) are no where to be found in any other history; and may therefore, not improperly, be placed among those fables, which the heathens invented and published, on purpose to give some colour for their inveterate hatred against the Jews.-Calmet's Commentary on 1 Mac. i. 23. b Several heathen authors, in their account of their king Antiochus, make mention of his taking a city, that was at peace and in alliance with him, meaning thereby Jerusalem, committing many cruelties there, and plundering the temple, wherein he found great riches; but Diodorus Siculus, in his relation of this matter, (b. xxxiv.) is more particular and express." That this prince having intruded into the most sacred place of the temple, which none but the high priest was permitted to enter,) found there a stone statue of a man with a long beard, and a book in his hand, mounted upon an ass. This he took for Moses, the author of the law, and founder of the nation of the Jews, and e This profanation of the temple, and the erecting of this of the city of Jesusalem; and, therefore, to remove the cause of idol in it, had long before been foretold by the prophet Daniel, that universal hatred which all nations bore to the Jews, he went under the name of abomination of desolation,' chap. xi. 31. For about abolishing of their law; and, to this purpose, caused a large this is the description which he gives of the reign of Antiochus, sow to be sacrificed to this image of their legislator, on an altar and the bitter persecutions which he raised: He shall return which he found there; and, having sprinkled the blood and the broth with indignation against the holy covenant, and have intelligence that he made of the victim, and therewith polluted the sacred with them that forsake it. Armies shall stand on his side, and volume of their law, he made the high priest, and other Jews, eat of he shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the its flesh, and put out the lamp which used to be kept perpetual-daily sacrifice, and there place the abomination, or abominable T 4 A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i—vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS, HIST. b. xi. c. 7-b. xii. c. 14. was set up on the altar of burnt-offerings,) and all the | have compelled him to eat swine's flesh, which they people, upon pain of death, were obliged to sacrifice to forced into his mouth, he spit it out, and even when it. Those who met in caves to keep the sabbath, if they some, in pity to his age, would have given him leave to happened to be discovered, were burned. The book of elude the sentence, by taking a piece of any other flesh the law was torn and cast into the fire; the circumcising and eating it as swine's flesh, he scorned to purchase his of infants was forbidden; and women accused of having life at so sordid a rate, desiring them to dispatch him, circumcised their children, were led about the streets rather than suffer him to be guilty of dissimulation, and with those children hanging about their necks, and then stain the honour of his grey hairs with so mean an act. both cast headlong over the steepest part of the walls. Nor were the seven brothers and their mother inferior to No less severity was used to enforce upon the people him in religious courage and magnanimity for when the heathen worship, which the decree enjoined, than the king, pretending pity to their youth, and respect to there was to deter them from their own. In every city, their family, which was noble, persuaded them to realtars, groves, and chapels, for idols were set up, and nounce their religion, and embrace that of the Gentiles, officers sent to compel them, once every month, to offer promising them great rewards and promotions, if they victims to the Grecian gods, and to eat of the flesh of would comply; and when finding that this would have swine, and of other unclean beasts, that were at that no effect, he ordered the great variety of torments, which time sacrificed. In short, no manner of cruelty was he had provided, to be shown them, thinking thereby omitted to force the Jews to abandon their religion, and to affright them with the sad prospect of what they were turn idolaters; but though, in this terrible persecution, to suffer; the instruments of death did no more terrify, some of these wretched people yielded to violence, many than the allurements of the tyrant did persuade them; of thein chose rather to die, than to forsake the law of but inspired with a truly holy zeal and celestial bravery, their God. they unanimously declared their obedience to the law of God, and the precepts which he had delivered by Moses; assuring him, that all his cruelty could not hurt them; that the only effect their tortures could have, would be to secure to them the glorious rewards of unshaken patience and injured virtue; but, at the same time, ad 1 Among the latter sort, those of the most memorable note were a Eleazar, a chief doctor of the law, and that heroine Solomona, and her seven sons. Eleazar was a very aged man; yet, when his persecutors would 2 Mac. vi.; Joseph. on Maccab. 66 men, he would arm the divine vengeance against him, and for the momentary pains which he inflicted on them, would himself become obnoxious to everlasting torments." thing, that maketh desolate, or (as in the margin) quite astonish-monishing him, that, by the murder of so many innocent eth. Such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that know their God, shall do great exploits; and they that have understanding, shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, by famine, by captivity, and by spoil: and the king shall do according to his will, and shall exalt and magnify himself above every God. He shall speak wonderfal things gainst the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done,' ver. 30. a Some interpreters are of opinion, that this was the same * Eleazar, who, at the head of the seventy-two interpreters that were to translate the Sacred Scriptures, was sent into Egypt, and that he suffered at Jerusalem, in the presence of the governor named Felix; but Ruffinus (in his Latin paraphrase on the book of Josephus, concerning the Maccabees) will needs have it, that not only Eleazar, but the mother and her seven sons, namely, Maccabæus, Aber, Machir, Judas, Achas, Areth, and Jacob, (for these are the names which he gives them,) were all carried from Judea to Antioch, and there suffered martyrdom. The reason of the thing, however, as well as the tenor of the history, which is given us by the author of the second book g of Maccabees, chap. vi. and vii. and by Josephus in the abovementioned book, made it much more likely, that Jerusalem, and not Antioch, was made the scene of this cruelty; especially since it being designed for an example of terror to the Jews in Judea, it would have lost its force had it been executed in any other country. But wherever this happened, it is certain that Eleazar deserved all the commendation which the fathers have given him: for, whether we consider the purity of his sentiments or the sublimity of his doctrine, or the delicacy of his conscience, we must acknowledge, that there are few saints in the Old Testament that have given us a more exact pattern of charity, sincerity, and magnanimity. It becometh not our age,' saith he, in any wise to dissemble, whereby many young persons might think, that Eleazar being fourscore years old and ten, was now gone to a strange religion, and so they, through my hypocrisy, and desire to live a little time, and a moment longer, should be deceived by me, and I get a stain in my old age, and make it abominable. For though, for the present time, I should be delivered from the punishment of men, yet should not I escape the hand of the Almighty, neither alive nor dead; wherefore now, manfully changing his life, I will show myself such a one, as my age requireth,' 2 Mac. vi. 24, &c.-Calmet's Commentary, and Prideaux's Connection, anno 167. This is the main purport of most of their speeches; but the variety of their tortures was almost innumerable, and for the horror of them inexpressible. All this while their mother stood by, beholding their sufferings, and exhorting every one, as it came to his turn, to behave gallantly. At length when herself was only left, and the soldiers were approaching to carry her to execution, she prevented their rage, and all attempts upon her person, by throwing herself voluntarily into the fire. Thus ended this doleful, but glorious day, with the death of the victorious Solomona, who triumphed in the sharpest agonies of her sons, and her own sufferings, and through a sea of the most exquisite pains, waded to the port of eternal rest! While this persecution raged at Jerusalem, 2 Mattathias, the son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of Asmonæus, from whom the family had the name of Asmonæans, a priest of the course of Joarib, with his five 21 Mac. ii. &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c. 8. ¿ The Latin version says, that she was dragged on the ground to execution, where having cut off her breasts, and scourging her naked body, they flung her into a boiling caldron: but the Arabic version, on the contrary, confirms, that, having lived to see her seven sons martyred, and lying dead on the ground before her, she flung herself into the midst of them, and praying to God to take her out of the world, immediately expired.- Universal History, b. ii. c. 11. c This was the first of the twenty-four courses of the priests that served in the temple, (1 Chron. xxiv. 7.) and because Mattathias undertook to determine for the necessity of fighting on the sahbath, in case they were assaulted by the enemy, some have from hence inferred, that the people had made choice of him for their high priest: but, besides that, this decision is not sufficient to prove this, and that it no where appears, that he ever performed M.3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi, 7. 2 MAC, iii-x. JOS, HIST. b. xi. c. 7-b. xii, c. 14, sons, John, Simeon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan, re- | beginning of this resistance, had like to have ruined tired to Modin, a little place in the tribe of Dan, and them quite, and that was the scrupulous observation of there bemoaned the hard fate of their religion and coun- the sabbath, even to such a degree, as not to defend try. But they had not been long in this retreat, before themselves on that day; whereof their enemies taking Antiochus sent one of his military officers, named Apel- the advantage, destroyed great numbers of them, withles, to put his decree in execution. out their making the least opposition. Mattathias however and his followers, finding the fatality of their mistake in this particular, ' made a decree, (which was confirmed by the unanimous consent of all the priests and elders among them,) that, whenever they were attacked on the sabbath day, it was lawful for them to fight for their lives, and to defend themselves in the best manner they could, which afterwards became a general rule in | all their wars. Apelles having called the people together, and told them the intent of his coming, addressed himself more particularly to Mattathias; persuading him to comply with the king's commands, that, by his example, he might influence others; and promising him withal, that in case he would do so, he should be taken into the number of the king's friends, and promoted to great honour and riches. But to this Mattathias made answer, with a loud voice, and in the audience of all the people, that no consideration whatever should ever induce him, or any of his family, to forsake the law of their God; that the examples of those who had apostatized, were no rule to him, nor the commandments of the greatest monarch of any validity, when they were sent to oblige him to embrace idolatry: and with these words, seeing a Jew of the place presenting himself at the heathen altar, in order to offer sacrifice according to the king's injunctions, he ran up to the apostate, and, with a zeal like that of Phineas, slew him with his own hand; and then turning upon the king's commissioner, by the assistance of his sons, and those that were with them, dispatched him likewise, and all that attended him. After this, Mattathias overturned the altars, and pulled down the idols that were in the place; and, having got together his own family, and invited all that were zealous for the law, to follow him, he retired to the mountains, in order to make there the best defence he could but the Jews had one principle, which, in the the office of high priest, but only put himself at the head of a poor distressed people, as being a person of the greatest power and authority among them, it is certain, that both Menelaus and Alcimus were then alive; and though they were wicked men, and intruders into the office, yet they were nominated by king Antiochus, who then assumed the right of nomination, and so were looked upon as high priests.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Mattathias. While Mattathias abode in the mountains, great multitudes of Jews, who had any true concern for their holy religion, came, and joined him; and, among these, there was a good company of Assidæans, men mighty in valour, and extremely zealous for the law; so that, when he had got together such a number, as made the appearance of a small army, he came out of his fastnesses, and, going round the cities of Judah, pulled down the heathen altars; re-established the true worship; caused the children to be circumcised; cut off all apostates, that fell in his way; and destroyed all persecutors, wherever he came. Having thus acted the part of a brave and prudent general, for the small time he had the command of his little army, Mattathias was 11 Mac. ii. 40, 41; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c. 8. they were only permitted to repel force by force; and therefore we read, that, when Pompey besieged the temple, observing that the Jews did barely defend themselves on the seventh day, he ordered his men to offer no hostilities, but only to raise the batteries, plant their engines, and make their approaches on that day, being well assured, that in doing of this, he should meet with no molestation from them; and, by this means, he carried the place much sooner, than he otherwise would have done.— Jewish Antiq. b. xiv. c. 8; Jewish Wars, b. i. c. 5; and Cal met's Commentary on 1 Mac. ii. 14. b When the Jewish church came to be settled again in Judea, after the return of the Babylonish captivity, there were two sorts a By the law of Moses, the Jews were commanded to do no of men among the members of it; the one, who contented themmanner of work on the sabbath day' but this was a precept selves with that only, which was written in the law of Moses, which would admit of some exceptions, and what some people and these were called zadikim, that is, the righteous; and the took in a more rigorous sense than others. The Samaritans, for other, who, over and above the law, added the constitutions and instance, thought themselves obliged to observe it to such a de- traditions of the elders, and, by way of supererogation, devoted gree of strictness, as not to stir out of their places on that day, themselves to many rigorous observances; and these being because the law is literally so expressed. (Exod. xvi. 29;) but reckoned in a degree of holiness, above the others, were called the Jews were of opinion, that they were permitted to make chasidim, that is, the pious. From the former of these were their escape from danger, or to walk such a compass of ground, derived the sects of the Samaritans, Sadducees, and Karaites, which they called a sabbath day's journey,' if it were for any and from the latter the Pharisees, the Essenes, and Assidaans. necessary occasion on that day. In our Saviour's time, it was These Assidæans, or Chasidæans, rather, as they should be writ allowable, they thought, to pull any animal out of a pit, or a ditch, ten, were a kind of religious society, whose chief and distinguish on that day, (Mat. xii. 11.); but the Talmudical doctors were ing character was, to maintain the honour of the temple; and for revoking that permission, and found fault with him for even therefore they were not only content to pay the usual tribute healing the sick and the lame, on the sabbath. Mattathias, and the reparation of it, but charged themselves with farther expenses his company, by sundry experiences, were convinced, that too upon that account; for every day, except that of the great exscrupulous an observance of the sabbath had brought several piation, they sacrificed a lamb, besides those of daily oblation calamities upon their nation; that Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, the which was called the sin-offering of the Assidæans.' They rst king of Egypt of that name, by assaulting Jerusalem on the practised greater hardships and mortifications than the rest, aind eabbath day, (wherein the Jews would do nothing to defend their common oath was by the temple, for which our Sarkar themselves,) became master of it without opposition; and that, reproves the Pharisees, (Mat. xxiii. 16. who had learned th but just lately, a great number of their brethren had been passive- oath of them. Mattathias, however, being joined by men of th ly slain, because they would not so much as handle their arms on principle, who made it one of the main points of their piety that day; and thereupon they came to a resolution to defend fight zealously for the defence of the temple, which was then a themselves, whenever they were attacked, be the day what it len into the hands of the heathen, was not a little strengthened would; but we do not find that they came to any decision, in his party, and in some measure able to take the field.-Sowhether they themselves were to attack the enemy on the sab-ger, in Elench. Traheresii, &c.; Prideaux's Connection, ato 1974 bath. On the contrary, it seems as if they had determined, that and Calmet's Commentary. C A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5073. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i—vi.”7, 2 ̧MAC. iii-x, JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7-b. xii. c. 14. forced at last to submit to the weight of 146 years; but | in the same manner as his father had done, destroying before his death, he called his five sons together, and, every where all utensils and implements of idolatry; having exhorted a them to stand up valiantly for the law slaying all idolaters and apostate Jews; rescuing the of God, and, with a steady courage and constancy, to true worshippers of God from the hands of their oppresfight the battles of Israel against the present persecutors, sors; and for their better security for the future, fortifyhe appointed Judas to be their captain in his stead, and ing their towns, rebuilding their fortresses, and placing Simeon to be their counsellor; and so, giving up the strong garrisons in them. These proceedings gave the ghost, he was buried at Modin, in the sepulchres of his Syrian court some umbrage; and therefore Antiochus forefathers, and all the faithful in Israel made great ordered Apollonius, his governor in Samaria, to raise lamentation for him. forces, and go against him; but Judas having defeated and slain him, made a great havock among his troops, and, finding the governor's sword among the spoils, he took it for his own use, and generally fought with it all his life after. Seron, the deputy governor of some part of Cœlo-Syria, hearing of Apollonius's defeat, got together all the forces that were under his command, and, in hopes of gaining himself honour, came in pursuit of Judas; but, instead of that, he met with the same fate, being vanquished and slain in the manner that Apollonius was. Judas, who is surnamed Maccabæus, as he had taken upon him the command, went round the cities of Judea, 1 Mac. ii. 49, &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c. 8. a The speech which Josephus puts in the mouth of old Mattathias upon this occasion, is widely different from what we find in 1 Mac. ii. 49, &c., but not undeserving of our observation. "My dear sons," says he, " my life is drawing to an end; but I am to charge you, upon my blessing, before I leave you, that you stand firm to the cause that your father has asserted before you without any staggering or shrinking. Remember what I have told you, and do as I have advised you. Do your utmost to support the rights and laws of your country, and to restore the order of a nation that wants but very little of being swallowed up in confusion. Have nothing to do with those that, either for fear or for interest, have betrayed it. Show yourselves to be sons worthy of such a father; and, in contempt of all force and extremity, carry your lives in your hands, and deliver them up with comfort, if any occasion should require it, in defence of your country; computing with yourselves, that this is the way to preserve yourselves in God's favour, and that, in consideration of so unshaken a virtue, he will in time restore you to the liberty of your former life and manners. Our bodies, it is true, are mortal; but great and generous actions will make us immortal in our memory; and that is the glory I would that you aspire to, that is to say, the glory of making the history of your lives famous to after ages by your illustrious actions." The rest of his speech agrees with what we find in the book of Mattathias, wherein he distributes to each son the office that he knew him best qualified for; and then concludes, "Do but mind your business, and depend upon it, that all men of honour and piety will join with you."-Jewish Antiq, b. xii. c. 8. 6 Why Judas and his successors were called Maccabees is uncertain. The book from which this epithet is derived, being written in Greek, we have no certainty which were the original letters of the word. It might seem, at first sight, to be derived from the Hebrew term macchabeh, a word which signifies hid, as a contemptuous epithet bestowed on them by their adversaries, or their apostate countrymen, because they concealed themselves in caves and rocks; but who having afterwards wiped off that reproach by their bravery, still retained that appellation in memory of their former concealment; or, from the word makkebah, a cavern; and so, they might be called caverners, or those who lurked in caverns. The book itself, which contains the history of Judas and his successors, down to the death of the high priest Simona period of forty years, was originally written in that dialect of the Hebrew which the Jews used after their return from the Babylonish captivity, but of which book we now possess only the Greek version; but by whom the translation was made, or the original composed, is unknown. It is plain, however, that the author of this book has forfeited all title to an honest veracious historian; his exaggerations are so monstrous, and his discrepancies so manifest. I by no means dispute the fact, that a number of faithful Jews stood out against the invaders of their country, and were zealous for the God of their fathers. I as really believe this, as I believe in the existence of Wallace, the hero of Scottish romance. It is the tissue of gross exaggeration which runs through the whole narrative of the Jewish hero's exploits, with which fault is here found. Of this I am firmly persuaded, that no sensible, wellinformed man, will ever place such a romantic history as that of the first book of the Maccabees on a level with the historical books of the Old Testament; as the facts there narrated bear internal evidence of their truth, and are perfect sobriety compared with the deeds of a hero, whom his biographer has made; Enraged at these two defeats, Antiochus sent three eminent commanders, Ptolemy-Macron, Nicanor, and Gorgias, to manage the war against the Jews; who, with an army of forty thousand foot, and seven thousand horse, together with a great number of auxiliaries from neighbouring nations, and renegado Jews, came, and encamped at Emmaus, & not far from Jerusalem. Judas, on the other hand, marched with his men to Mizpeh, where, having implored God's merciful assistance in this time of distress, and ƒ encouraged them in words 21 Mac. iii. 10; Jewish Antiq. b. xi. c. 10. 1 Mac. iii. 13, &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c. 10. 1 Mac. iii. 39, &c., and Josephus, ibid. in the number and splendour of his victories, to exceed all those recorded of a Joshua and a Jephthah, a Barak and a Gideon: with this difference, that, in the former, the Israelites obtained peace and rest in consequence of divine interpositions, whilst, in the latter, such were wholly unavailing, till the growing weakness of the Syrian power, and the frequent political struggles for the crown among the worthless descendants of Seleucus, enabled the Jews gradually to throw off the yoke of their pagan rulers, and secure their independence.-Bell's Rollin, vol. ii. p. 609. ED. c This, in all probability, was the same Apollonius whom Antiochus sent at first to plunder Jerusalem, and afterwards to set up the statue of Jupiter Olympius, and to compel the Jews to relinquish their religion.-Calmet's Commentary. d This was a village lying to the west of Jerusalem, and between seven and eight miles from it. It was honoured with our Saviour's presence after his resurrection, and therein were hot baths, for Emmaus comes from the Hebrew Chamath, which signifies baths of hot water, that were very beneficial to those that used them.-Calmet's Dictionary under the word. e At this time Jerusalem was in the hands of the heathen, and the sanctuary trodden under foot; so that Judas could not assemble his men there, to implore the assistance of God in this time of imminent danger; and therefore he repaired to Mizpeh, a place where the people oftentimes used to assemble for prayer, (Jud. xx. 1. 1 Kings xv. 22. 2 Chron. xvi. 6.) Here he and all his army addressed themselves to God, in solemn fasting and prayer, for his assistance and protection: and herein he acted the part of a wise and religious commander, as knowing that the battle was the Lord's, and that therefore it would be impious to begin any such enterprise, without first imploring the divine aid.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 166. The speech which Judas makes to his men upon this occasion, as we have it in Josephus, is a very excellent one:—“ We shall never have," says he, "my fellow soldiers and companions, such an opportunity again of showing our bravery in the defence of our country, and the contempt of all dangers, as we have now A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070, A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST, b. xi, c. 7—b. xii, c. 14. 1 proper on such an occasion to fight for their religion, | together, in order to invade him, marched directly laws, and liberties, with a courage undaunted, and, as against them; and, having overthrown them in a great the cause was God's, with a firm assurance of success, battle, slew above twenty thousand of their men, enriched he led them forth to the engagement. But, having first | his army with their spoils, and, out of them, provided caused proclamation to be made, that all such as had himself with arms, and other things necessary for the that year built houses, planted vineyards, betrothed wives, future carrying on of the war. or were in any degree fearful, should depart, his six thousand men, which he had at first, were reduced to three thousand. 2 With this handful of men, however, he was resolved to give the enemy battle. But hearing that Gorgias was detached from them with five thousand foot, and a thousand horse, to surprise his camp by night, he countermined his plot by another of the same kind: for, quitting his own camp, and marching towards the enemy, he fell upon them, while Gorgias with the best of his forces was absent, and put them into such a surprise and confusion, that they took to their heels, and fled, leav- | ing him master of their camp, and three thousand of their men dead upon the spot. Gorgias, coming to the Jewish camp, found it empty; and concluding from thence, that Judas had fled into the mountains for fear, he pursued him thither; but, when he found him not, and was returning to his own camp, he understood that it had been entered and burned; that the main army was broken and fled; and that Judas was ready in the plains to give him a warm reception. Hereupon he could no longer keep his men together; for, seized with a panic fear, they flung down their arms, and fled: when Judas, putting himself in pursuit of them, slew great numbers more, so that the whole amounted to nine thousand, and of those that escaped from the battle, most were sorely wounded and maimed. Judas, 3 with his victorious army, returning from the chase, entered the enemy's camp, where he found plenty of rich plunder; and so proceeding in triumph to Jerusalem, celebrated the next day, which was the Sabbath, with great devotion, rejoicing and praising God for this signal and merciful deliverance. Judas, after this, having intelligence, that Timotheus, 4 governor of the country beyond Jordan, and Bacchides, another lieutenant in those parts, were drawing forces 31 Mac. iv. 23, &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xi. c. 10. before us; for, upon the issue of to-morrow's combat depends, a 5 Lysias, whom the king, when he went upon his expedition into Persia, had constituted chief governor of all the country from Euphrates to Egypt, being vexed and ashamed at all these defeats, put himself at the head of an army of sixty thousand foot, and five thousand horse; and marched into Judea, with a full intent to destroy the country, and all its inhabitants, he pitched his camp at Bethzura, a a strong place lying to the south of Jerusalem, near the confines of Idumea. There Judas met him with ten thousand men only; and having engaged his numerous army, and slain five thousand of them, the rest he put to flight, and sent Lysias back again with his baffled forces to Antioch, but with a purpose to come again with a greater strength another year. By this retreat of his, Judas having made himself master of all Judea, thought it his duty to purge the house of the Lord, and to remove those profanations, which for three years last past it had been forced to submit to. To this purpose, he appointed a certain number of priests to cleanse the sanctuary, to pull down the altar which the heathens had set up, and to build another of 6 unhewn stones, to consecrate the courts anew, and to make all things again fit and commodious for the service of God. Antiochus, in his sacrilegious pillage of the temple, which we have related, had taken away the altar of incense, the table of the showbread, the golden candlestick, and several other vessels and utensils, without which the service could not regularly be performed ; but out of the spoils 7 which Judas had taken from the enemy he was able to have all these things made anew, of the same metal, and in the same manner as they were before; and having thus put all things in their proper Mac. iv. 26, &c.; Jewish Antiq. b. xi. c. 10. Exod. xx. 25; Deut. xxviii. 5; Josh, viii. 31. 71 Mac. iv, 49. a It had been fortified by king Rehoboam, (2 Chron. xi. 7.) and was, at this time, a very important fortress, as being one the keys of Judea on the south side of Idumea.-Universal Hist. b. ii. c. 11. b Wherever the name of Idumea, or the land of Edom, occurs in any of the writings of the Old Testament, it is to be understood of that Idumea, or land of Edom, which lay between the Lake of Sodom and the Red Sea, and was afterwards called Arabia Petræa. But the inhabitants of this country, being driven out by the Nabathæans, while the Jews were in the Babylonish captivity, and their land laid desolate, they then took possession of as much of the southern part of it as contained what had formerly been the whole inheritance of the tribe of Simeon, and half of the tribe of Judah, where, at this time, they dwell, but had not as yet embraced the Jewish religion. And this is the only Idumea, and the inhabitants of it the only Idumeans, or Edomites, which are any where spoken of after the Babylonish captivity. After their coming into this country, Hebron, which had formerly been the metropolis of the tribe of Judah, became the capital of Idumea, and between that and Jerusalem lay Bethzura, a strong fortress, which the author of the second book of Maccabees, (ch. xi. 5.) places at no more than five furlongs distance from Jerusalem; but this is a visible mistake; for Eusebius makes it, at least, twenty miles distant from it.— Prideaux's Connection, anno 165. |