THE FIRST BOOK OF THE MACCABEES

Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, reigned in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks.  In those days certain wicked men of Israel went to the king, who gave them licence to do after the ordinances of the heathen.  Whereupon, they built a place of exercise at Jerusalem according to the custom of the heathen.  Now, Antiochus made war against Egypt, and when he had smitten the strong cities, and taken the spoils thereof, he returned in the hundred forty and third year and went up against Israel and Jerusalem, and captured the city with great massacre and spoiled the Temple, and took away the vessels of gold and silver and hidden treasures which he found therein.  Therefore, there was great mourning in Israel.  Two years after, the king sent his chief collector of tribute unto the cities of Juda, and he fell suddenly upon Jerusalem, set fire to it, and pulled down the houses and walls thereof.  And the women and children he took away captive, and defiled the sanctuary.

But the enemy builded the city of David, with a great and strong wall and mighty towers, and stored it with armour and victuals and the spoils of Jerusalem, so that it became a sore snare against the sanctuary and an evil adversary to Israel.  Moreover, King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and sent letters unto Jerusalem and the cities of Juda commanding that the Israelites should abandon their own worship, cease to circumcise their children, and adore his idols.  Then was the abomination of desolation set up in the Temple, and idol altars were builded throughout the cities of Juda, and the books of the law were burned.  Howbeit many in Israel chose rather to die that they might not be defiled with meats and profane the Holy Covenant.  In those days arose Mattathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib.  He dwelt in Modin, and had five sons—­Joannan, Simon, Judas who was called Maccabeus, Eleazar, and Jonathan.  The king’s officers came to Modin and asked Mattathias to fulfil the king’s commandment; but Mattathias said:  Though all the nations consent, yet will I and my sons walk in the covenant of our fathers.  And he slew a Jew that did sacrifice to idols in his presence, and the king’s messenger also.  So he and his sons fled into the mountains, and, being joined by a company of mighty men of Israel, went round about, and pulled down idol altars and circumcised the children valiantly.  And the work prospered in their hands, and they recovered the law out of the hands of the Gentiles.  When Mattathias came to die he appointed Simon as a man of counsel, and Judas Maccabeus, who had been mighty and strong in battle even from his youth up, to be their captain to avenge the wrongs of their people.  So he died in his hundred forty and sixth year, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers at Modin, and all Israel made great lamentation for him.