[Sidenote:  Jos.  Jew.  War, I, 2:4d] And since the siege was delayed in this way, the year of rest came on, during which the Jews rest every seventh year as they do on every seventh day.  In this year, therefore, Ptolemy was freed from being besieged.  He also slew the brothers of Hyrcanus with their mother, and fled to Zeno, who was the tyrant of Philadelphia.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  Jew.  War, I, 2:5] And now Antiochus [Sidetes] was so angry at what he had suffered from Simon that he made an expedition into Judea and laid siege to Jerusalem and shut up Hyrcanus.  But Hyrcanus opened the tomb of David, who was the richest of all kings, took from there more than three thousand talents of money and induced Antiochus upon the promise of three thousand talents to raise the siege.  Moreover he was the first of the Jews who had plenty of money, and so began to hire foreign mercenaries.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  Jew.  War, I, 2:6] At another time, when Antiochus had gone upon an expedition against the Medes and thus given Hyrcanus an opportunity to be revenged upon him, Hyrcanus made an attack upon the cities of Syria, thinking, as proved to be the case, that he would find them empty of good troops.  So he took Medeba and Samaga with their surrounding towns; likewise Shechem and Mount Gerizim.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  Ant.  XIII, 9:1d, e] Hyrcanus also took Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans.  He permitted them to stay in their country, if they would undergo circumcision and conform to the Jewish laws.  They were so desirous of living in the country of their fathers that they submitted to circumcision and the other Jewish ways of living.  From this time on, therefore, they were none other than Jews.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  Jew.  War, I, 2:7a-b] Hyrcanus also proceeded as far as Samaria and invested it on all sides with a wall, and placed his sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus in charge of the siege.  They pushed it with such vigor that a famine prevailed within the city, so that the inhabitants were forced to eat what was never before regarded as food.  They also invited Antiochus to come to their assistance and he readily responded to their invitation, but he was beaten by Aristobulus and Antigonus, and he was pursued as far as Scythopolis by these brothers and fled away from them.  So they returned to Samaria and shut up the multitude within the wall again, and when they had taken the city, they tore it down and made slaves of its inhabitants.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  Ant.  XIII, 10:5] However the prosperity of Hyrcanus caused the Jews to envy him; and they who were worst disposed to him were the Pharisees.  Now Hyrcanus was one of their disciples and had been greatly beloved by them.  But once when he invited them to a feast and entertained them kindly and saw them in a good humor, he began to say to them that they knew that he desired to be a righteous man and do all things by which he might