Page 1257 - bible

Second Book of Machabees 1251

30 But the Jews that were among the plainly saw, that for this cause they were slain.
Scythopolitans testifying that they were used 41 Then they all blessed the just judgment
kindly by them, and that even in the times of of the Lord, who had discovered the things that
their adversity they had treated them with hu- were hidden.
manity: 42 And so betaking themselves to prayers,
31 They gave them thanks, exhorting them they besought him, that the sin which had been
to be still friendly to their nation, and so they committed might be forgotten. But the most
came to Jerusalem, the feast of the weeks being valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep them-
at hand. selves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before
32 And after Pentecost they marched against their eyes what had happened, because of the
Gorgias, the governor of Idumea. sins of those that were slain.
33 And he came out with three thousand foot- 43 And making a gathering, he sent twelve
men and four hundred horsemen. thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sac-
34 And when they had joined battle, it hap- rifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, think-
pened that a few of the Jews were slain. ing well and religiously concerning the resurrec-
35 But Dositheus, a horseman, one of Ba- tion.
cenor’s band, a valiant man, took hold of Gor- 44 (For if he had not hoped that they that
gias: and when he would have taken him alive, were slain should rise again, it would have
a certain horseman of the Thracians came upon seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the
him, and cut off his shoulder: and so Gorgias dead,)
escaped to Maresa. 45 And because he considered that they who
36 But when they that were with Esdrin had had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace
fought long, and were weary, Judas called upon laid up for them.
the Lord to be their helper, and leader of the 46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome
battle: thought to pray for the dead, that they may be
37 Then beginning in his own language, and loosed from sins.
singing hymns with a loud voice, he put Gor-
gias’s soldiers to flight.
38 So Judas having gathered together his Chapter 13
army, came into the city Odollam: and when
the seventh day came, they purified themselves In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas
according to the custom, and kept the sabbath understood that Antiochus Eupator was coming
in the same place. with a multitude against Judea,
39 And the day following Judas came with his 2 And with him Lysias, the regent, who had
company, to take away the bodies of them that charge over the affairs of the realm, having with
were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen, him a hundred and ten thousand footmen, five
in the sepulchres of their fathers. thousand horsemen, twenty-two elephants, and
40 And they found under the coats of the three hundred chariots.
slain, some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, 3 Menelaus also joined himself with them: and
which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all with great deceitfulness besought Antiochus, not