2 Maccabees 5

Geneva^{(i) 1} About the same time Antiochus vndertooke his second voyage into Egypt. ² And then were there seene throughout all the citie of Ierusalem, fourtie daies long, horsemen running in the aire, with robes of gold, & as bands of speare men, ³ And as troupes of horsemen set in aray, incountering and coursing one against another with shaking of shields and multitude of darts, and drawing of swordes, and shooting of arrowes, and the glittering of the golden armour seene, and harnesse of all sortes. ⁴ Therefore euery man praied, that those tokens might turne to good. ⁵ Nowe when there was gone forth a false rumour, as though Antiochus had beene dead, Iason tooke at the least a thousand men, & came suddenly vpon the citie, and they that were vpon the wals, being put backe, and the citie at length taken, ⁶ Menelaus fled into the castell, but Iason slew his owne citizens without mercie, not considering, that to haue the aduantage against his kinsemen is greatest disaduantage, but thought that hee had gotten the victorie of his enemies, and not of his owne nation. ⁷ Yet hee gate not the superioritie, but at the last receiued shame for the rewarde of his treason, and went againe like a vagabounde into the countrey of the Ammonites. ⁸ Finally he had this ende of his wicked conuersation, that hee was accused before Areta the king of the Arabians, and fled from citie to citie, being pursued of euery man, and hated as a forsaker of the Lawes, and was in abomination, as an enemie of his countrey and citizens, and was driuen into Egypt. ⁹ Thus hee that had chased many out of their owne coutrey, perished as a banished man, after that he was gone to the Lacedemonians, thinking there to haue gotten succour by reason of kinred. ¹⁰ And hee that had cast many out vnburied, was throwen out himselfe, no man mourning for him, nor putting him in his graue: neither was hee partaker of his fathers sepulchre. ¹¹ Nowe when these thinges that were done, were declared to the king, hee thought that Iudea would haue fallen from him: wherefore hee came with a furious minde out of Egypt, and tooke the citie by violence. ¹² He commaunded his men of warre also, that they should kill and not spare such as they met, and to slaie such as went into their houses. ¹³ Thus was there a slaughter of yong men, and olde men, and a destruction of men & women and children, and virgins, and infants were murthered: ¹⁴ So that within three daies were slaine fourescore thousand, & fourtie thousand taken prisoners, and there were as many solde as were slaine. ¹⁵ Yet was hee not content with this, but durst goe into the most holy Temple of all the worlde, hauing Menelaus that traitour to the Lawes, and to his owne countrey, to be his guide, ¹⁶ And with his wicked handes tooke the holy vessels, which other kings had giuen for the garnishing, glorie and honour of that place, and handled them with his wicked hands. ¹⁷ So hautie in his minde was Antiochus, that he considered not, that God was not a litle wroth for the sinnes of them that dwelt in the citie, for the which such contempt came vpon that place. ¹⁸ For if they had not beene wrapped in many sinnes, hee, assoone as he had come, had suddenly beene punished, and put backe from his presumption, as Heliodorus was, whom Seleucus the king sent to viewe the treasurie. ¹⁹ But God hath not chosen the nation for the places sake, but the place for the nations sake. ²⁰ And therefore is the place become partaker of the peoples trouble, but afterward shal it be partaker of the benefites of the Lord, and as it is nowe forsaken in the wrath of the Almightie, so when the great Lord shalbe reconciled, it shalbe set vp in great worship againe. ²¹ So when Antiochus had taken eighteene hundred talents out of the Temple, he gate him to Antiochia in all haste, thinking in his pride to make men saile vpon the dry land, and to walke vpon the sea: such an hie minde had he. ²² But he left deputies to vexe the people: at Ierusalem Philip a Phrigian by birth, in maners more cruell then he that set him there: ²³ And at Garizin Andronicus, and with them Menelaus, which was more grieuous to the citizens then the other, and was despiteful against the Iewes his citizens. ²⁴ He sent also Apollonius a cruell prince, with an armie of two and twentie thousande, whome he commanded to slaie those that were towarde mans age, and to sell the women, and the yonger sort. ²⁵ So when hee came to Ierusalem, hee fained peace, and kept him still vntil the holy day of Sabbath: and then finding the Iewes keeping the feast, he commanded his men to take their weapons. ²⁶ And so he slew al them that were gone forth to the shewe, and running through the citie with his men armed, he murthered a great number. ²⁷ But Iudas Maccabeus, being as it were the tenth, fled into the wildernesse, and liued there in the mountaines with his companie among the beastes, and dwelling there, and eating grasse, least they should be partakers of the filthinesse.