# verses

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Day after day they asked him this, but he took no notice of them. In the end they reported the matter to Haman, to see whether Mordecai would persist in his attitude, since he had told them that he was a Jew.


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Haman could see for himself that Mordecai did not bow or prostrate himself in his presence; he became furiously angry.


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And, on being told what race Mordecai belonged to, he thought it beneath him merely to get rid of Mordecai, but made up his mind to wipe out all the members of Mordecai's race, the Jews, living in Ahasuerus' entire empire.


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In the first month, that is the month of Nisan, of the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in Haman's presence, to determine the day and the month. The lot falling on the twelfth month, which is Adar,


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Haman said to King Ahasuerus, 'There is a certain unassimilated nation scattered among the other nations throughout the provinces of your realm; their laws are different from those of all the other nations, and the royal laws they ignore; hence it is not in the king's interests to tolerate them.


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If their destruction be signed, so please the king, I am ready to pay ten thousand talents of silver to the king's receivers, to be credited to the royal treasury.'


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The king then took his signet ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the persecutor of the Jews.


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The royal scribes were therefore summoned for the thirteenth day of the first month, when they wrote out the orders addressed by Haman to the king's satraps, to the governors ruling each province and to the principal officials of each people, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. The edict was signed in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with his ring,


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and letters were sent by runners to every province of the realm, ordering the destruction, slaughter and annihilation of all Jews, young and old, including women and children, on the same day -- the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar -- and the seizing of their possessions. (a) The text of the letter was as follows: 'The Great King, Ahasuerus, to the governors of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, and to their subordinate district commissioners: (b) 'Being placed in authority over many nations and ruling the whole world, I have resolved never to be carried away by the insolence of power, but always to rule with moderation and clemency, so as to assure for my subjects a life ever free from storms and, offering my kingdom the benefits of civilisation and free transit from end to end, to restore that peace which all men desire. (c) In consultation with our advisers as to how this aim is to be effected, we have been informed by one of them, eminent among us for prudence and well proved for his unfailing devotion and unshakeable trustworthiness, and in rank second only to our majesty, Haman by name, (d) that there is, mingled among all the tribes of the earth, a certain ill-disposed people, opposed by its laws to every other nation and continually defying the royal ordinances, in such a way as to obstruct that form of government assured by us to the general good. (e) 'Considering therefore that this people, unique of its kind, is in complete opposition to all humanity from which it differs by its outlandish laws, that it is hostile to our interests and that it commits the most heinous crimes, to the point of endangering the stability of the realm: (f) 'We command that those persons designated to you in the letters written by Haman, who was appointed to watch over our interests and is a second father to us, be all destroyed, root and branch, including women and children, by the swords of their enemies, without any pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of the present year, (g) so that, these past and present malcontents being in one day forcibly thrown down to Hades, our government may henceforward enjoy perpetual stability and peace.'


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Copies of this decree, to be promulgated as law in each province, were published to the various peoples, so that each might be ready for the day aforementioned.


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At the king's command, the runners set out with all speed; the decree was first promulgated in the citadel of Susa. While the king and Haman gave themselves up to feasting and drinking, consternation reigned in the city of Susa.


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When Mordecai learned what had happened, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he walked into the centre of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly,


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until he arrived in front of the Chancellery, which no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter.


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And in every province, no sooner had the royal command and edict arrived, than among the Jews there was great mourning, fasting, weeping and wailing, and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.


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When Queen Esther's maids and officers came and told her, she was overcome with grief. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he refused them.


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Esther then summoned Hathach, an officer whom the king had appointed to wait on her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai and enquire what the matter was and why he was acting in this way.


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and Mordecai told him what had happened to him personally, and also about the sum of money which Haman had offered to pay into the royal treasury to procure the destruction of the Jews.


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He also gave him a copy of the edict of extermination published in Susa for him to show Esther for her information, with the message that she was to go to the king and implore his favour and plead with him for the race to which she belonged. (a) 'Remember your humbler circumstances,' he said, 'when you were fed by my hand. Since Haman, the second person in the realm, has petitioned the king for our deaths, (b) invoke the Lord, speak to the king for us and save us from death!'


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'Royal officials and people living in the provinces alike all know that for anyone, man or woman, who approaches the king in the private apartments without having been summoned there, there is only one law: he must die, unless the king, by pointing his golden sceptre towards him, grants him his life. And I have not been summoned to the king for the last thirty days.'


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who sent back the following reply, 'Do not suppose that, because you are in the king's palace, you are going to be the one Jew to escape.


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No; if you persist in remaining silent at such a time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, but both you and your father's whole family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to the throne for just such a time as this.'


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'Go and assemble all the Jews now in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink day or night for three days. For my part, I and my waiting-women shall keep the same fast, after which I shall go to the king in spite of the law; and if I perish, I perish.'


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Mordecai went away and carried out Esther's instructions. (a) Then calling to mind all the wonderful works of the Lord, he offered this prayer: (b) Lord, Lord, Almighty King, everything is subject to your power, and there is no one who can withstand you in your determination to save Israel. (c) You have made heaven and earth, and all the marvels that are under heaven. You are the Master of the universe and no one can resist you, Lord. (d) You know all things, you, Lord, know that neither pride, self-esteem nor vainglory prompted me to do what I have done: to refuse to prostrate myself before proud Haman. Gladly would I have kissed the soles of his feet, had this assured the safety of Israel. (e) But what I have done, I have done, rather than place the glory of a man above the glory of God; and I shall not prostrate myself to anyone except, Lord, to you, and, in so doing, I shall not be acting in pride. (f) And now, Lord God, King, God of Abraham spare your people! For our ruin is being plotted, there are plans to destroy your ancient heritage. (g) Do not overlook your inheritance, which you redeemed from Egypt to be yours. (h) Hear my supplication, have mercy on your heritage, and turn our grief into rejoicing, so that we may live, Lord, to hymn your name. Do not suffer the mouths of those who praise you to perish. (i) And all Israel cried out with all their might, since death was staring them in the face. (k) Queen Esther also took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her. She took off her sumptuous robes and put on sorrowful mourning. Instead of expensive perfumes, she covered her head with ashes and dung. She mortified her body severely, and the former scenes of her happiness and elegance were now littered with tresses torn from her hair. She besought the Lord God of Israel in these words: (l) My Lord, our King, the Only One, come to my help, for I am alone and have no helper but you and am about to take my life in my hands. (m) I have been taught from infancy in the bosom of my family that you, Lord, have chosen Israel out of all the nations and our ancestors out of all before them, to be your heritage for ever; and that you have treated them as you promised. (n) But we have sinned against you and you have handed us over to our enemies for paying honour to their gods. Lord, you are upright. (o) But they are not satisfied with the bitterness of our slavery: they have pledged themselves to their idols to abolish the decree that your own lips have uttered, to blot out your heritage, to stop the mouths of those who praise you, to quench your altar and the glory of your House, (p) and instead to open the mouths of the heathen, to sing the praise of worthless idols and for ever to idolise a king of flesh. (q) Do not yield your sceptre, Lord, to what does not exist. Never let our ruin be matter for laughter. Turn these plots against their authors, and make an example of the man who leads the attack on us. (r) Remember, Lord; reveal yourself in the time of our distress. As for me, give me courage, King of gods and Master of all powers! (s) Put persuasive words into my mouth when I face the lion; change his feeling into hatred for our enemy, so that he may meet his end, and all those like him! (t) As for ourselves, save us by your hand, and come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord. (u) You have knowledge of all things, and you know that I hate honours from the godless, that I loathe the bed of the uncircumcised, of any foreigner whatever. (w) You know I am under constraint, that I loathe the symbol of my high position bound round my brow when I appear at court; I loathe it as if it were a filthy rag and do not wear it on my days of leisure. (x) Your servant has not eaten at Haman's table, nor taken pleasure in the royal banquets, nor drunk the wine of libations. (y) Nor has your servant found pleasure from the day of her promotion until now except in you, Lord, God of Abraham. (z) O God, whose strength prevails over all, listen to the voice of the desperate, save us from the hand of the wicked, and free me from my fear!


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(a) On the third day, when she had finished praying, she took off her suppliant's mourning attire and dressed herself in her full splendour. Radiant as she then appeared, she invoked God who watches over all people and saves them. With her, she took two ladies-in-waiting. With a delicate air she leaned on one, while the other accompanied her carrying her train. (b) Rosy with the full flush of her beauty, her face radiated joy and love: but her heart shrank with fear. (c) Having passed through door after door, she found herself in the presence of the king. He was sitting on his royal throne, dressed in all his robes of state, glittering with gold and precious stones -- a formidable sight. (d) He looked up, afire with majesty and, blazing with anger, saw her. The queen sank to the floor. As she fainted, the colour drained from her face and her head fell against the lady-in-waiting beside her. (e) But God changed the king's heart, inducing a milder spirit. He sprang from his throne in alarm and took her in his arms until she recovered, comforting her with soothing words. (f) 'What is the matter, Esther?' he said. 'I am your brother. Take heart, you are not going to die; our order applies only to ordinary people. Come to me.' (g) And raising his golden sceptre he laid it on Esther's neck, embraced her and said, 'Speak to me.'


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(a) 'Sire,' she said, 'to me you looked like one of God's angels, and my heart was moved with fear of your majesty. For you are a figure of wonder, my lord, and your face is full of graciousness.' (b) But as she spoke she fell down in a faint. The king grew more agitated, and his courtiers all set about reviving her.


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'What is the matter, Queen Esther?' the king said. 'Tell me what you want; even if it is half my kingdom, I grant it you.'


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'Would it please the king,' Esther replied, 'to come with Haman today to the banquet I have prepared for him?'


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So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared and, during the banquet, the king again said to Esther, 'Tell me your request; I grant it to you. Tell me what you want; even if it is half my kingdom, it is yours for the asking.'


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'If I have found favour in the king's eyes, and if it is his pleasure to grant what I ask and to agree to my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet I intend to give them tomorrow, and then I shall do as the king says.'


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Haman left full of joy and high spirits that day; but when he saw Mordecai at the Chancellery, neither standing up nor stirring at his approach, he felt a gust of anger.


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and held forth to them about his dazzling wealth, his many children, how the king had raised him to a position of honour and promoted him over the heads of the king's officers-of-state and ministers.


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'What is more,' he added, 'Queen Esther has just invited me and the king -- no one else except me -- to a banquet she was giving, and better still she has invited me and the king again tomorrow.


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But what do I care about all this when all the while I see Mordecai the Jew sitting there at the Chancellery?'


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'Have a fifty-cubit gallows run up,' said Zeresh his wife and all his friends, 'and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then you can go with the king to the banquet, without a care in the world!' Delighted with this advice, Haman had the gallows erected.


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That night the king could not sleep; he called for the Record Book, or Annals, to be brought and read to him.


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They contained an account of how Mordecai had denounced Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs serving as Guards of the Threshold, who had plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.


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'And what honour and dignity', the king asked, 'was conferred on Mordecai for this?' 'Nothing has been done for him,' the gentlemen-in-waiting replied.


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The king then said, 'Who is outside in the antechamber?' Haman had, that very moment, entered the outer antechamber of the private apartments, to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows which he had just put up for the purpose.


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So the king's gentlemen-in-waiting replied, 'It is Haman out in the antechamber.' 'Bring him in,' the king said,


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and, as soon as Haman came in, went on to ask, 'What is the right way to treat a man whom the king wishes to honour?' 'Whom', thought Haman, 'would the king wish to honour, if not me?'


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royal robes should be brought from the king's wardrobe, and a horse from the king's stable, sporting a royal diadem on its head.


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The robes and horse should be entrusted to one of the noblest of the king's officers-of-state, who should then array the man whom the king wishes to honour and lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him: "This is the way a man shall be treated whom the king wishes to honour." '


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'Hurry,' the king said to Haman, 'take the robes and the horse, and do everything you have just said to Mordecai the Jew, who works at the Chancellery. On no account leave out anything that you have mentioned.'


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So taking the robes and the horse, Haman arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him: 'This is the way a man shall be treated whom the king wishes to honour.'


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After this Mordecai returned to the Chancellery, while Haman went hurrying home in dejection and covering his face.


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He told his wife Zeresh and all his friends what had just happened. His wife Zeresh and his friends said, 'You are beginning to fall, and Mordecai to rise; if he is Jewish, you will never get the better of him. With him against you, your fall is certain.'


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While they were still talking, the king's officers arrived in a hurry to escort Haman to the banquet that Esther was giving.


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and this second day, during the banquet, the king again said to Esther, 'Tell me your request, Queen Esther. I grant it to you. Whatever you want; even if it is half my kingdom, it is yours for the asking.'


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'If I have found favour in your eyes, O king,' Queen Esther replied, 'and if it please your majesty, grant me my life -- that is my request; and the lives of my people -- that is what I want.


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For we have been handed over, my people and I, to destruction, slaughter and annihilation; had we merely been sold as slaves and servant-girls, I should not have said anything; but in the present case, it will be beyond the persecutor's means to make good the loss that the king is about to sustain.'


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King Ahasuerus interrupted Queen Esther, 'Who is this man?' he exclaimed. 'Where is the man who has thought of doing such a thing?'


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Esther replied, 'The persecutor, the enemy? Why, this wretch Haman!' Haman quaked with terror in the presence of the king and queen.


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In a rage the king got up from the banquet and went into the palace garden; while Haman, realising that the king was determined on his ruin, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.


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When the king came back from the palace garden into the banqueting hall, he found Haman sprawled across the couch where Esther was reclining. 'What!' the king exclaimed. 'Is he going to rape the queen in my own palace?' The words were scarcely out of his mouth than a veil was thrown over Haman's face.


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In the royal presence, Harbona, one of the officers, said, 'There is that fifty-cubit gallows, too, which Haman ran up for Mordecai, who spoke up to the king's great advantage. It is all ready at his house.' 'Hang him on it,' said the king.


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So Haman was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai, and the king's wrath subsided.


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That same day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the persecutor of the Jews. Mordecai was presented to the king, Esther having revealed their mutual relationship.


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The king, who had recovered his signet ring from Haman, took it off and gave it to Mordecai, while Esther gave Mordecai charge of Haman's house.


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Esther again went to speak to the king. She fell at his feet, weeping and imploring his favour, to frustrate the malice that Haman the Agagite had been plotting against the Jews.


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'If such is the king's good pleasure,' she said, 'and if I have found favour before him, if my petition seems proper to him and if I myself am pleasing to his eyes, may he be pleased to issue a written revocation of the letters which Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, has had written, ordering the destruction of the Jews throughout the royal provinces.


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For how can I look on, while my people suffer what is proposed for them? How can I bear to witness the extermination of my relatives?'


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King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, 'I for my part have given Esther Haman's house, and have had him hanged on the gallows for planning to destroy the Jews.


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You, for your part, write what you please as regards the Jews, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's signet; for any edict written in the king's name and sealed with his signet is irrevocable.'


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The royal scribes were summoned at once -- it was the third month, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day -- and at Mordecai's dictation an order was written to the Jews, the satraps, governors and principal officials of the provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script, and to each people in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.


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These letters, written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet, were carried by couriers mounted on horses from the king's own stud-farms.


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In them the king granted the Jews, in whatever city they lived, the right to assemble in self-defence, with permission to destroy, slaughter and annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, together with their women and children, and to plunder their possessions,


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with effect from the same day throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus -- the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar. (a) The text of the letter was as follows: (b) 'The Great King, Ahasuerus, to the satraps of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces which stretch from India to Ethiopia, to the provincial governors and to all our loyal subjects, greeting: (c) 'Many people, repeatedly honoured by the extreme bounty of their benefactors, only grow the more arrogant. It is not enough for them to seek our subjects' injury, but unable as they are to support the weight of their own surfeit they turn to scheming against their benefactors themselves. (d) Not content with banishing gratitude from the human heart, but elated by the plaudits of people unacquainted with goodness, notwithstanding that all is for ever under the eye of God, they expect to escape his justice, so hostile to the wicked. (e) Thus it has often happened to those placed in authority that, having entrusted friends with the conduct of affairs and allowed themselves to be influenced by them, they find themselves sharing with these the guilt of innocent blood and involved in irremediable misfortunes, (f) the upright intentions of rulers having been misled by false arguments of the evilly disposed. (g) This may be seen without recourse to the history of earlier times to which we have referred; you have only to look at what is before you, at the crimes perpetrated by a plague of unworthy officials. (h) For the future, we shall exert our efforts to assure the tranquillity and peace of the realm for all, (i) by adopting new policies and by always judging matters that are brought to our notice in the most equitable spirit. (k) 'Thus Haman son of Hammedatha, a Macedonian, without a drop of Persian blood and far removed from our goodness, enjoyed our hospitality (l) and was treated by us with the benevolence which we show to every nation, even to the extent of being proclaimed our 'father' and being accorded universally the prostration of respect as second in dignity to the royal throne. (m) But he, unable to keep within his own high rank, schemed to deprive us of our realm and of our life. (n) Furthermore, by tortuous wiles and arguments, he would have had us destroy Mordecai, our saviour and constant benefactor, with Esther the blameless partner of our majesty, and their whole nation besides. (o) He thought by these means to leave us without support and so to transfer the Persian empire to the Macedonians. (p) 'But we find that the Jews, marked out for annihilation by this arch-scoundrel, are not criminals: they are in fact governed by the most just of laws. (q) They are children of the Most High, the great and living God to whom we and our ancestors owe the continuing prosperity of our realm. (r) You will therefore do well not to act on the letters sent by Haman son of Hammedatha, since their author has been hanged at the gates of Susa with his whole household: a fitting punishment, which God, Master of the Universe, has speedily inflicted on him. (s) Put up copies of this letter everywhere, allow the Jews to observe their own customs without fear, and come to their help against anyone who attacks them on the day originally chosen for their maltreatment, that is, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar. (t) For the all-powerful God has made this day a day of joy and not of ruin for the chosen people. (u) You, for your part, among your solemn festivals celebrate this as a special day with every kind of feasting, so that now and in the future, for you and for Persians of good will, it may commemorate your rescue, and for your enemies may stand as a reminder of their ruin. (v) 'Every city and, more generally, every country, which does not follow these instructions, will be mercilessly devastated with fire and sword, and made not only inaccessible to human beings but hateful to wild animals and even birds for ever.'


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Copies of this edict, to be promulgated as law in each province, were published to the various peoples, so that the Jews could be ready on the day stated to avenge themselves on their enemies.


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The couriers, mounted on the king's horses, set out in great haste and urgency at the king's command. The edict was also published in the citadel of Susa.


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Mordecai left the royal presence in a princely gown of violet and white, with a great golden crown and a cloak of fine linen and purple. The city of Susa shouted for joy.


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In every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and decree arrived, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and holiday-making. Of the country's population many became Jews, since now the Jews were feared.


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The king's command and decree came into force on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, and the day on which the enemies of the Jews had hoped to crush them produced the very opposite effect: the Jews it was who crushed their enemies.


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In their towns throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews assembled to strike at those who had planned to injure them. No one resisted them, since the various peoples were now all afraid of them.


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Provincial officers-of-state, satraps, governors and royal officials, all supported the Jews for fear of Mordecai.


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And indeed Mordecai was a power in the palace and his fame was spreading through all the provinces; Mordecai was steadily growing more powerful.


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So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, with resulting slaughter and destruction, and worked their will on their opponents.


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The king said to Queen Esther, 'In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men and also the ten sons of Haman. What must they have done in the other provinces of the realm? Tell me your request; I grant it to you. Tell me what else you would like; it is yours for the asking.'


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'If such is the king's pleasure,' Esther replied, 'let the Jews of Susa be allowed to enforce today's decree tomorrow as well. And as for the ten sons of Haman, let their bodies be hanged on the gallows.'


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Whereupon, the king having given the order, the edict was promulgated in Susa and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.


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Thus the Jews of Susa reassembled on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in the city. But they took no plunder.


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The other Jews who lived in the king's provinces also assembled to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies. They slaughtered seventy-five thousand of their opponents. But they took no plunder.


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This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.


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But for the Jews of Susa, who had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, the fifteenth was the day they rested, making that a day of feasting and gladness.


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This is why Jewish country people, those who live in undefended villages, keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of gladness, feasting and holiday-making, and the exchanging of presents with one another, (a) whereas for those who live in cities the day of rejoicing and exchanging presents with their neighbours is the fifteenth day of Adar.


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Mordecai committed these events to writing. Then he sent letters to all the Jews living in the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,


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as the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies, and the month in which their sorrow had been turned into gladness, and mourning into a holiday. He therefore told them to keep these as days of festivity and gladness when they were to exchange presents and make gifts to the poor.


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Once having begun, the Jews continued observing these practices, Mordecai having written them an account


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of how Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the persecutor of all the Jews, had plotted their destruction and had cast the pur, that is, the lot, for their overthrow and ruin;


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but how, when he went back to the king to ask him to order the hanging of Mordecai, the wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews recoiled on his own head, and both he and his sons were hanged on the gallows;


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and that, hence, these days were called Purim, from the word pur. And so, because of what was written in this letter, and because of what they had seen for themselves and of what had happened to them,


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the Jews willingly bound themselves, their descendants and all who should join them, to celebrate these two days without fail, in the manner prescribed and at the time appointed, year after year.


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Thus commemorated and celebrated from generation to generation, in every family, in every province, in every city, these days of Purim will never be abrogated among the Jews, nor will their memory perish from their race.


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and sent letters to all the Jews of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the realm of Ahasuerus, in terms of peace and loyalty


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enjoining them to observe these days of Purim at the appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew had recommended, and in the manner prescribed for themselves and their descendants, with additional ordinances for fasts and lamentations.


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All his feats of power and valour, and the account of the high honour to which he raised Mordecai: all this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia.


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And Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. He was a man held in respect among the Jews, esteemed by thousands of his brothers, a man who sought the good of his people and cared for the welfare of his entire race. (a) And Mordecai said, 'All this is God's doing. (b) I remember the dream I had about these matters, nothing of which has failed to come true: (c) the little spring that became a river, the light that shone, the sun, the flood of water. Esther is the river -- she whom the king married and made queen. (d) The two dragons are Haman and myself. (e) The nations are those that banded together to blot out the name of Jew. (f) The single nation, mine, is Israel, those who cried out to God and were saved. Yes, the Lord has saved his people, the Lord has delivered us from all these evils, God has worked such signs and great wonders as have never occurred among the nations. (g) 'Two destinies he appointed, one for his own people, one for the nations at large. (h) And these two destinies were worked out at the hour and time and day laid down by God, involving all the nations. (i) In this way God has remembered his people and vindicated his heritage; (k) and for them these days, the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month of Adar, are to be days of assembly, of joy and of gladness before God, through all generations and for ever among his people Israel.' (l) In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who affirmed that he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemy his son brought the foregoing letter concerning Purim. They vouched for its authenticity, the translation having been made by Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, a member of the Jerusalem community.


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Alexander of Macedon son of Philip had come from the land of Kittim and defeated Darius king of the Persians and Medes, whom he succeeded as ruler, at first of Hellas.


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He undertook many campaigns, gained possession of many fortresses, and put the local kings to death.


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So he advanced to the ends of the earth, plundering nation after nation; the earth grew silent before him, and his ambitious heart swelled with pride.


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He assembled very powerful forces and subdued provinces, nations and princes, and they became his tributaries.


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He summoned his officers, noblemen who had been brought up with him from his youth, and divided his kingdom among them while he was still alive.


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All assumed crowns after his death, they and their heirs after them for many years, bringing increasing evils on the world.


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From these there grew a wicked offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes son of King Antiochus; once a hostage in Rome, he became king in the 107th year of the kingdom of the Greeks.


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It was then that there emerged from Israel a set of renegades who led many people astray. 'Come,' they said, 'let us ally ourselves with the gentiles surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.'


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and a number of the people eagerly approached the king, who authorised them to practise the gentiles' observances.


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disguised their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant, submitting to gentile rule as willing slaves of impiety.


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Once Antiochus had seen his authority established, he determined to make himself king of Egypt and the ruler of both kingdoms.


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He engaged Ptolemy king of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy turned back and fled before his advance, leaving many casualties.


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After his conquest of Egypt, in the year 143, Antiochus turned about and advanced on Israel and Jerusalem in massive strength.


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Insolently breaking into the sanctuary, he removed the golden altar and the lamp-stand for the light with all its fittings,


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together with the table for the loaves of permanent offering, the libation vessels, the cups, the golden censers, the veil, the crowns, and the golden decoration on the front of the Temple, which he stripped of everything.


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He made off with the silver and gold and precious vessels; he discovered the secret treasures and seized them


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and, removing all these, he went back to his own country, having shed much blood and uttered words of extreme arrogance.


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Two years later the king sent the Mysarch through the cities of Judah. He came to Jerusalem with an impressive force,


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and addressing them with what appeared to be peaceful words, he gained their confidence; then suddenly he fell on the city, dealing it a terrible blow, and destroying many of the people of Israel.


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They then rebuilt the City of David with a great strong wall and strong towers and made this their Citadel.


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storing arms and provisions, and depositing there the loot they had collected from Jerusalem; they were to prove a great trouble.


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The citizens of Jerusalem fled because of them, she became a dwelling-place of strangers; estranged from her own offspring, her children forsook her.


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Her sanctuary became as forsaken as a desert, her feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbaths into a mockery, her honour into reproach.


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The king then issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each nation renouncing its particular customs.


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The king also sent edicts by messenger to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, directing them to adopt customs foreign to the country,


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banning burnt offerings, sacrifices and libations from the sanctuary, profaning Sabbaths and feasts,


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leaving their sons uncircumcised, and prostituting themselves to all kinds of impurity and abomination,


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Writing in such terms to every part of his kingdom, the king appointed inspectors for the whole people and directed all the towns of Judah to offer sacrifice city by city.


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Many of the people -- that is, every apostate from the Law -- rallied to them and so committed evil in the country,


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On the fifteenth day of Chislev in the year 145 the king built the appalling abomination on top of the altar of burnt offering; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah


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Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king's decree sentenced him to death.


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Month after month they took harsh action against any offenders they discovered in the towns of Israel.


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On the twenty-fifth day of each month, sacrifice was offered on the altar erected on top of the altar of burnt offering.


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with their babies hung round their necks, and the members of their household and those who had performed the circumcision were executed with them.


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They chose death rather than contamination by such fare or profanation of the holy covenant, and they were executed.


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About then, Mattathias son of John, son of Simeon, a priest of the line of Joarib, left Jerusalem and settled in Modein.


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he said, 'Alas that I should have been born to witness the ruin of my people and the ruin of the Holy City, and to sit by while she is delivered over to her enemies, and the sanctuary into the hand of foreigners.


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the vessels that were her glory have been carried off as booty, her babies have been slaughtered in her streets, her young men by the enemy's sword.


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Is there a nation that has not claimed a share of her royal prerogatives, that has not taken some of her spoils?


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See how the Holy Place, our beauty, our glory, is now laid waste, see how the gentiles have profaned it!


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The king's commissioners who were enforcing the apostasy came to the town of Modein for the sacrifices.


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The king's commissioners then addressed Mattathias as follows, 'You are a respected leader, a great man in this town; you have sons and brothers to support you.


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Be the first to step forward and conform to the king's decree, as all the nations have done, and the leaders of Judah and the survivors in Jerusalem; you and your sons shall be reckoned among the Friends of the King, you and your sons will be honoured with gold and silver and many presents.'


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Raising his voice, Mattathias retorted, 'Even if every nation living in the king's dominions obeys him, each forsaking its ancestral religion to conform to his decrees,


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As for the king's orders, we will not follow them: we shall not swerve from our own religion either to right or to left.'


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As he finished speaking, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein as the royal edict required.


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When Mattathias saw this, he was fired with zeal; stirred to the depth of his being, he gave vent to his legitimate anger, threw himself on the man and slaughtered him on the altar.


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At the same time he killed the king's commissioner who was there to enforce the sacrifice, and tore down the altar.


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Then Mattathias went through the town, shouting at the top of his voice, 'Let everyone who has any zeal for the Law and takes his stand on the covenant come out and follow me.'


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taking with them their sons, their wives and their cattle, so oppressive had their sufferings become.


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Word was brought to the royal officials and forces stationed in Jerusalem, in the City of David, that those who had repudiated the king's edict had gone down to the hiding places in the desert.


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A strong detachment went after them, and when it came up with them ranged itself against them in battle formation, preparing to attack them on the Sabbath day,


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The others, however, replied, 'We refuse to come out, and we will not obey the king's orders and profane the Sabbath day.'


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but the others offered no opposition; not a stone was thrown, there was no barricading of the hiding places.


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They only said, 'Let us all die innocent; let heaven and earth bear witness that you are massacring us with no pretence of justice.'


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The attack was pressed home on the Sabbath itself, and they were slaughtered, with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of one thousand persons.


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and said to one another, 'If we all do as our brothers have done, and refuse to fight the gentiles for our lives and institutions, they will only destroy us the sooner from the earth.'


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So then and there they came to this decision, 'If anyone attacks us on the Sabbath day, whoever he may be, we shall resist him; we must not all be killed, as our brothers were in the hiding places.'


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Soon they were joined by the Hasidaean party, stout fighting men of Israel, each one a volunteer on the side of the Law.


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They organised themselves into an armed force, striking down the sinners in their anger, and the renegades in their fury, and those who escaped them fled to the gentiles for safety.


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They wrested the Law out of the control of the gentiles and the kings and reduced the sinners to impotence.


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As the days of Mattathias were drawing to a close, he said to his sons, 'Arrogance and outrage are now in the ascendant; it is a period of turmoil and bitter hatred.


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This is the time, my children, for you to have a burning zeal for the Law and to give your lives for the covenant of our ancestors.


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Remember the deeds performed by our ancestors, each in his generation, and you will win great honour and everlasting renown.


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Phinehas, our father, in return for his burning zeal, received the covenant of everlasting priesthood.


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Exalted today, tomorrow he is nowhere to be found, for he has returned to the dust he came from and his scheming is brought to nothing.


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'Here is your brother Simeon, I know he is a man of sound judgement. Listen to him all your lives; let him take your father's place.


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Judas Maccabaeus, strong and brave from his youth, let him be your general and conduct the war against the gentiles.


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The rest of you are to enrol in your ranks all those who keep the Law, and to assure the vengeance of your people.


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He died in the year 146 and was buried in his ancestral tomb at Modein, and all Israel mourned him deeply.


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All his brothers, and all who had attached themselves to his father, supported him, and they fought for Israel with a will.


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He extended the fame of his people. Like a giant, he put on the breastplate and buckled on his war harness; he engaged in battle after battle, protecting the ranks with his sword.


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He pursued and tracked down the renegades, he consigned those who troubled his people to the flames.


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The renegades quailed with the terror he inspired, all evil-doers were utterly confounded, and deliverance went forward under his leadership.


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He brought bitterness to many a king and rejoicing to Jacob by his deeds, his memory is blessed for ever and ever.


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He went through the towns of Judah eliminating the irreligious from them, and diverted the Retribution from Israel.


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When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and routed and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the survivors took to flight.


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Their spoils were seized and the sword of Apollonius was taken by Judas, who used it to fight with throughout his life.


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Seron, commander of the Syrian troops, said, 'I shall make a name for myself and gain honour in the kingdom if I fight Judas and those supporters of his who are so contemptuous of the king's orders.'


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He therefore launched another expedition, with a strong army of unbelievers to support him in taking revenge on the Israelites.


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He had nearly reached the descent of Beth-Horon when Judas went out to confront him with a handful of men.


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But as soon as these saw the force advancing to meet them, they said to Judas, 'How can we, few as we are, engage such overwhelming numbers? We are exhausted as it is, not having had anything to eat today.'


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'It is easy', Judas answered, 'for a great number to be defeated by a few; indeed, in the sight of Heaven, deliverance, whether by many or by few, is all one;


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They are coming against us in full-blown insolence and lawlessness to destroy us, our wives and our children, and to plunder us;


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When he had finished speaking, he made a sudden sally against Seron and his force and overwhelmed them.


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Judas pursued them down from Beth-Horon as far as the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest took refuge in the country of the Philistines.


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His name even reached the king's ears, and among the nations there was talk of Judas and his battles.


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The news of these events infuriated Antiochus, and he ordered mobilisation of all the forces in his kingdom, a very powerful army.


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Opening his treasury, he distributed a year's pay to his troops, telling them to be prepared for any eventuality.


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He then found that the money in his coffers had run short and that the tribute of the province had decreased, as a result of the dissension and disaster brought on the country by his own abrogation of laws that had been in force from antiquity.


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He began to fear that, as had happened more than once, he would not have enough to cover the expenses and the lavish bounties he had previously been accustomed to make on a larger scale than his predecessors on the throne.


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In this grave quandary he resolved to invade Persia, there to levy tribute on the provinces and so accumulate substantial funds.


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He therefore left Lysias, a nobleman and member of the royal family, to manage the royal affairs between the River Euphrates and the Egyptian frontier,


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To him Antiochus made over half his forces, with the elephants, giving him instructions about what he wanted done, particularly with regard to the inhabitants of Judaea and Jerusalem,


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against whom he was to send a force, to crush and destroy the power of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, to wipe out their very memory from the place,


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The king took the remaining half of his troops with him and set out from Antioch, the capital of his kingdom, in the year 147; he crossed the River Euphrates and made his way through the Upper Provinces.


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Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, with Nicanor and Gorgias, influential men from among the Friends of the King,


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and, under their command, despatched forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse to invade the land of Judah and devastate it, as the king had ordered.


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The entire force set out and reached the neighbourhood of Emmaus in the lowlands, where they pitched camp.


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The local merchants, hearing the news of this, arrived at the camp, bringing with them a large amount of gold and silver, and fetters as well, proposing to buy the Israelites as slaves; they were accompanied by a company from Idumaea and the Philistine country.


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Judas and his brothers saw that the situation was going from bad to worse and that armies were camping in their territory; they were also well aware that the king had ordered the people's total destruction.


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So they said to each other, 'Let us restore the ruins of our people and fight for our people and our sanctuary.'


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Jerusalem was as empty as a desert, none of her children to go in and out. The sanctuary was trodden underfoot, men of an alien race held the Citadel, which had become a lodging for gentiles. There was no more rejoicing for Jacob, the flute and lyre were mute.


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After mustering, they made their way to Mizpah, opposite Jerusalem, since Mizpah was traditionally a place of prayer for Israel.


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That day they fasted and put on sackcloth, covering their heads with ashes and tearing their garments.


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For the guidance that the gentiles would have sought from the images of their false gods, they opened the Book of the Law.


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They also brought out the priestly vestments, with first-fruits and tithes, and marshalled the Nazirites who had completed the period of their vow.


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Then, raising their voices to Heaven, they cried, 'What shall we do with these people, and where are we to take them?


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Those who were in the middle of building a house, or were about to be married, or were planting a vineyard, or were afraid, he told to go home again, as the Law allowed.


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'Stand to your arms,' Judas told them, 'acquit yourselves bravely, in the morning be ready to fight these gentiles massed against us to destroy us and our sanctuary.


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Gorgias took with him five thousand foot and a thousand picked cavalry, and the force moved off by night


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with the object of attacking the Jewish position and dealing them an unexpected blow; the men from the Citadel were there to guide him.


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Hence, when Gorgias reached Judas' camp, he found no one and began looking for the Jews in the mountains. 'For', he said, 'we have got them on the run.'


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First light found Judas in the plain with three thousand men, although these lacked the armour and swords they would have wished.


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They could now see the gentile encampment with its strong fortifications and cavalry surrounding it, clearly people who understood warfare.


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And now let us call on Heaven: if he cares for us, he will remember his covenant with our ancestors and will destroy this army confronting us today;


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and all the stragglers fell by the sword. The pursuit continued as far as Gezer and the plains of Idumaea, Azotus and Jamnia, and the enemy lost about three thousand men.


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Gorgias and his troops are still near us in the mountains. First stand up to our enemies and fight them, and then you can safely collect the booty.'


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The words were hardly out of Judas' mouth, when a detachment came into view, peering down from the mountain.


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Observing that their own troops had been routed and that the camp had been fired -- since the smoke, which they could see, attested the fact-


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they were panic-stricken at the sight; and when, furthermore, they saw Judas' troops drawn up for battle on the plain,


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Judas then turned back to plunder the camp, and a large sum in gold and silver, with violet and sea-purple stuffs, and many other valuables were carried off.


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On their return, the Jews chanted praises to Heaven, singing, 'He is kind and his love is everlasting!'


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The news shocked and dismayed him, for affairs in Israel had not gone as he intended, and the result was quite the opposite to what the king had ordered.


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The next year he mobilised sixty thousand picked troops and five thousand cavalry with the intention of finishing off the Jews.


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They advanced into Idumaea and made their base at Beth-Zur, where Judas met them with ten thousand men.


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When he saw their military strength he offered this prayer, 'Blessed are you, Saviour of Israel, who shattered the mighty warrior's attack at the hand of your servant David, and delivered the Philistine camp into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul, and his armour-bearer.


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Crush this expedition in the same way at the hands of your people Israel; let their troops and cavalry bring them nothing but shame.


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Sow panic in their ranks, confound the confidence they put in their numbers and send them reeling in defeat.


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Overthrow them by the sword of those who love you, and all who acknowledge your name will sing your praises.'


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Seeing the rout of his army and the courage of Judas' troops and their readiness to live or die nobly, Lysias withdrew to Antioch, where he recruited mercenaries for a further invasion of Judaea in even greater strength.


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Judas and his brothers then said, 'Now that our enemies have been defeated, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it.'


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There they found the sanctuary deserted, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt down, and vegetation growing in the courts as it might in a wood or on some mountain, while the storerooms were in ruins.


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They prostrated themselves on the ground, and when the trumpets gave the signal they cried aloud to Heaven.


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Judas then ordered his men to keep the Citadel garrison engaged until he had purified the sanctuary.


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and very properly decided to pull it down, rather than later be embarrassed about it since it had been defiled by the gentiles. They therefore demolished it


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and deposited the stones in a suitable place on the hill of the Dwelling to await the appearance of a prophet who should give a ruling about them.


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They made new sacred vessels, and brought the lamp-stand, the altar of incense, and the table into the Temple.


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They burned incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lamp-stand, and these shone inside the Temple.


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They placed the loaves on the table and hung the curtains and completed all the tasks they had undertaken.


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The altar was dedicated, to the sound of hymns, zithers, lyres and cymbals, at the same time of year and on the same day on which the gentiles had originally profaned it.


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For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar, joyfully offering burnt offerings, communion and thanksgiving sacrifices.


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They ornamented the front of the Temple with crowns and bosses of gold, renovated the gates and storerooms, providing the latter with doors.


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There was no end to the rejoicing among the people, since the disgrace inflicted by the gentiles had been effaced.


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Judas, with his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel, made it a law that the days of the dedication of the altar should be celebrated yearly at the proper season, for eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, with rejoicing and gladness.


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They then proceeded to build high walls with strong towers round Mount Zion, to prevent the gentiles from coming and riding roughshod over it as in the past.


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Judas stationed a garrison there to guard it; he also fortified Beth-Zur, so that the people would have a fortress confronting Idumaea.


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When the surrounding nations heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary restored to what it had been before, they became very angry


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and decided to destroy the descendants of Jacob living among them; they began to murder and evict our people.


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Judas made war on the sons of Esau in Idumaea, in the region of Acrabattene where they were besieging the Israelites. He dealt them a serious blow, drove them off and despoiled them.


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He also remembered the wickedness of the sons of Baean, who were a menace and a trap for the people with their ambushes on the roads.


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Having blockaded them in their town and besieged them, he put them under the curse of destruction; he then set fire to their towers and burned them down with everyone inside.


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Next, he crossed over to the Ammonites where he found a strong fighting force and a numerous people, commanded by Timotheus.


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Next, the gentiles of Gilead banded together to destroy the Israelites living in their territory. The latter, however, took refuge in the fortress of Dathema,


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and sent the following letter to Judas and his brothers: 'The gentiles round us have banded themselves together against us to destroy us,


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and they are preparing to storm the fortress in which we have taken refuge; Timotheus is in command of their forces.


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All our countrymen living in Tobias' country have been killed, their women and children have been taken into captivity, their property has been seized, and about a thousand men have been destroyed there.'


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While the letter was being read, other messengers arrived from Galilee with their garments torn, bearing similar news,


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'The people of Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon have joined forces with the whole of gentile Galilee to destroy us!'


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When Judas and the people heard this, they held a great assembly to decide what should be done for their oppressed countrymen who were under attack from their enemies.


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Judas said to his brother Simon, 'Pick your men and go and relieve your countrymen in Galilee, while my brother Jonathan and I make our way into Gilead.'


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He left Joseph son of Zechariah and the people's leader Azariah with the remainder of the army in Judaea to keep guard, and gave them these orders,


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Simon was allotted three thousand men for the expedition into Galilee, Judas eight thousand for Gilead.


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he pursued them to the gate of Ptolemais, and they lost about three thousand men, whose spoils he collected.


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With him, he took away the Jews of Galilee and Arbatta, with their wives and children and all their possessions, and brought them into Judaea with great rejoicing.


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Meanwhile Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan and made a three-days' march through the desert,


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where they encountered the Nabataeans, who gave them a friendly reception and told them everything that had been happening to their brothers in Gilead,


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many of whom, they said, were shut up in Bozrah and Bosor, Alema, Chaspho, Maked and Carnaim, all large fortified towns.


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Others were blockaded in the other towns of Gilead, and the enemy planned to attack and capture these strongholds the very next day, and destroy all the people inside them on one day.


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Judas and his army at once turned off by the desert road to Bozrah. He took the town and, having put all the males to the sword and collected the booty, burned it down.


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In the light of dawn they looked, and there was an innumerable horde, setting up ladders and engines to capture the fortress; the assault was just beginning.


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When Judas saw that the attack had begun and that the war cry was rising to heaven from the city, mingled with trumpet calls and a great clamour,


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Dividing them into three commands, he advanced on the enemy's rear, with trumpets sounding and prayers shouted aloud.


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The troops of Timotheus, recognising that this was Maccabaeus, fled before his advance; Maccabaeus dealt them a crushing defeat; about eight thousand of their men fell that day.


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Then, wheeling on Alema, he attacked and captured it and, having killed all the males and collected the booty, burned the place down.


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After these events, Timotheus mustered another force and pitched camp opposite Raphon, on the far side of the stream-bed.


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Judas sent men to reconnoitre the camp, and these reported back as follows, 'With him are massed all the gentiles surrounding us, making a very numerous army,


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with Arab mercenaries as auxiliaries; they are encamped on the far side of the stream-bed, and ready to launch an attack on you.' Judas then advanced to engage them,


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and was approaching the watercourse with his troops when Timotheus told the commanders of his army, 'If he crosses first we shall not be able to resist him, because he will have a great advantage over us;


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but if he is afraid and camps on the other side of the stream, we shall cross over to him and the advantage will then be ours.'


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As soon as Judas reached the watercourse, he posted people's scribes along it, giving them this order: 'Do not let anyone pitch his tent; all are to go into battle!'


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He was himself the first across to the enemy side, with all the people following. He defeated all the opposing gentiles, who threw down their arms and ran for refuge in the sanctuary of Carnaim.


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The Jews first captured the town and then burned down the temple with everyone inside. And so Carnaim was overthrown, and the enemy could offer no further resistance to Judas.


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Next, Judas assembled all the Israelites living in Gilead, from the least to the greatest, with their wives, children and belongings, an enormous muster, to take them to Judaea.


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They reached Ephron, a large town straddling the road and strongly fortified. As it was impossible to by-pass it either to right or to left, there was nothing for it but to march straight through.


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Judas sent them a conciliatory message in these terms, 'We want to pass through your territory to reach our own; no one will do you any harm, we only want to go through on foot.' But they would not open up for him.


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The fighting men took up their positions; Judas attacked the town all day and night, and the town fell to him.


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He put all the males to the sword, rased the town to the ground, plundered it and marched through the town square over the bodies of the dead.


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Judas all the time rallying the stragglers and encouraging the people the whole way until they reached Judaea.


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They climbed Mount Zion in joy and gladness and presented burnt offerings because they had returned safe and sound without having lost a single man.


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Joseph son of Zechariah, and Azariah, who were in command of the army, heard of their valiant deeds and of the battles they had been fighting,


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Joseph and Azariah were routed and pursued as far as the frontiers of Judaea. That day about two thousand Israelites lost their lives.


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Our people thus met with a great reverse, because they had not listened to Judas and his brothers, thinking that they would do something equally valiant.


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They were not, however, of the same breed of men as those to whom the deliverance of Israel was entrusted.


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The noble Judas and his brothers, however, were held in high honour throughout Israel and among all the nations wherever their name was heard,


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Judas marched out with his brothers to fight the Edomites in the country towards the south; he stormed Hebron and its dependent villages, threw down its fortifications and burned down its encircling towers.


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Among the fallen in that day's fighting were some priests who sought to prove their courage there by joining in the battle, a foolhardy venture.


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Judas next turned on Azotus, which belonged to the Philistines; he overthrew their altars, burned the statues of their gods and, having pillaged their towns, withdrew to Judaea.


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King Antiochus, meanwhile, was making his way through the Upper Provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold,


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and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons, left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king of Macedon, the first to reign over the Greeks.


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He therefore went and attempted to take the city and pillage it, but without success, the citizens having been forewarned.


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They resisted him by force of arms. He was routed, and began retreating, very gloomily, towards Babylon.


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But, while he was still in Persia, news reached him that the armies which had invaded Judaea had been routed,


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and that Lysias in particular had advanced in massive strength, only to be forced to turn and flee before the Jews; that the latter were now stronger than ever, thanks to the arms, supplies and abundant spoils acquired from the armies they had cut to pieces,


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and that they had pulled down the abomination which he had erected on the altar in Jerusalem, had encircled the sanctuary with high walls as in the past, and had fortified Beth-Zur, one of his cities.


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When the king heard this news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell sick with grief, since things had not turned out for him as he had planned.


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And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he realised that he was dying.


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Then, summoning all his Friends, he said to them, 'Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety.


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I have been wondering how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me -- I who was so generous and well-loved in my heyday.


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But now I recall how wrongly I acted in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there and ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all.


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This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a foreign land.'


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He entrusted him with his diadem, his robe and his signet, on the understanding that he was to educate his son Antiochus and train him for the throne.


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Lysias, learning that the king was dead, established on the throne in succession to him his son Antiochus, whom he had brought up from childhood -- and styled him Eupator.


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The people in the Citadel at the time were blockading Israel round the sanctuary and were taking every opportunity to harm them and to support the gentiles.


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But some of the besieged broke through the blockade, and to these a number of renegades from Israel attached themselves.


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They made their way to the king and said, 'How much longer are you going to wait before you see justice done and avenge our fellows?


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As a result our own people will have nothing to do with us; what is more, they have killed all those of us they could catch, and looted our family property.


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At this moment, they are laying siege to the Citadel of Jerusalem, to capture it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Beth-Zur.


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Unless you forestall them at once, they will go on to even bigger things, and then you will never be able to control them.'


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The king was furious when he heard this and summoned all his Friends, the generals of his forces and the marshals of horse.


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His forces numbered a hundred thousand foot soldiers, twenty thousand cavalry and thirty-two elephants with experience of battle conditions.


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They advanced through Idumaea and besieged Beth-Zur, pressing the attack for days on end; they also constructed siege-engines, but the defenders made a sortie and set these on fire, putting up a brave resistance.


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The king rose at daybreak and marched his army at top speed down the road to Beth-Zechariah, where his forces took up their battle formations and sounded the trumpets.


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These animals were distributed among the phalanxes, to each elephant being allocated a thousand men dressed in coats of mail with bronze helmets on their heads; five hundred picked horsemen were also assigned to each beast.


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The horsemen anticipated every move their elephant made; wherever it went they went with it, never quitting it.


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On each elephant, to protect it, was a stout wooden tower, kept in position by girths, each with its three combatants, as well as its mahout.


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The remainder of the cavalry was stationed on one or other of the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and cover the phalanxes.


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When the sun glinted on the bronze and golden shields, the mountains caught the glint and gleamed like fiery torches.


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One part of the royal army was deployed on the upper slopes of the mountain and the other in the valley below; they advanced in solid, well-disciplined formation.


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Everyone trembled at the noise made by this vast multitude, the thunder of the troops on the march and the clanking of their armour, for it was an immense and mighty army.


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Eleazar, called Avaran, noticing that one of the elephants was royally caparisoned and was also taller than all the others, and supposing that the king was mounted on it,


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Boldly charging towards the creature through the thick of the phalanx, dealing death to right and left, so that the enemy scattered on either side at his onslaught,


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he darted in under the elephant, thrust at it from underneath, and killed it. The beast collapsed on top of him, and he died on the spot.


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The Jews however realising how strong the king was and how ferocious his army, retreated ahead of them.


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The royal army moved up to encounter them outside Jerusalem, and the king began to blockade Judaea and Mount Zion.


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He granted peace terms to the people of Beth-Zur, who evacuated the town; it lacked store of provisions to withstand a siege, since the land was enjoying a sabbatical year.


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He besieged the sanctuary for a long time, erecting batteries and siege-engines, flame-throwers and ballistas, scorpions to discharge arrows, and catapults.


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The defenders countered these by constructing their own engines and were thus able to prolong their resistance.


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But they had no food in their stores since it was the seventh year, and because those who had taken refuge in Judaea from the gentiles had eaten up the last of their reserves.


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Only a few men were left in the Holy Place, owing to the severity of the famine; the rest had dispersed and gone home.


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Meanwhile Philip, whom King Antiochus before his death had appointed to train his son Antiochus for the throne,


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had returned from Persia and Media with the forces that had accompanied the king, and was planning to seize control of affairs.


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On hearing this, Lysias at once decided to leave, and said to the king, the generals of the army and the men, 'We are growing weaker every day, we are short of food, and the place we are besieging is well fortified; moreover the affairs of the kingdom demand our attention.


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Let us offer the hand of friendship to these men and make peace with them and with their whole nation.


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Let us grant them permission to follow their own customs as before, since it is our abolition of these customs that has provoked them into acting like this.'


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The king and his commanders approved this argument, and he offered the Jews peace terms, which they accepted.


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The king and the generals ratified the treaty by oath, and the besieged accordingly left the fortress.


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The king then entered Mount Zion, but on seeing how impregnable the place was, he broke the oath he had sworn and gave orders for the encircling wall to be demolished.


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He then hurriedly withdrew, making off for Antioch, where he found Philip already master of the city. Antiochus gave battle and captured the city by force of arms.


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In the year 151, Demetrius son of Seleucus left Rome and arrived with a few men at a town on the coast, where he inaugurated his reign.


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It so happened that, as he was entering the royal residence of his ancestors, the army captured Antiochus and Lysias, and intended to bring them to him.


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Next, all those Israelites without law or piety, led by Alcimus, whose ambition was to become high priest,


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approached the king and denounced our people to him. 'Judas and his brothers', they said, 'have killed all your friends, and he has driven us out of our country.


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Send someone now whom you can trust; let him go and see the wholesale ruin Judas has brought on us and on the king's dominions, and let him punish the wretches and all who assist them.'


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The king chose Bacchides, one of the Friends of the King, governor of Transeuphrates, an important personage in the kingdom and loyal to the king.


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He sent him with the godless Alcimus, whom he confirmed in the high priesthood, with orders to exact retribution from the Israelites.


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So they set out with a large force and, on reaching Judaea, sent emissaries to Judas and his brothers with proposals peaceable yet treacherous.


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The latter, however, did not put any faith in their words, aware that they had come with a large force.


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Nevertheless, a commission of scribes presented themselves before Alcimus and Bacchides, to sue for just terms.


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who reasoned thus, 'This is a priest of Aaron's line who has come with the armed forces; he will not wrong us.'


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He did in fact discuss peace terms with them and gave them his oath, 'We shall not attempt to injure you or your friends.'


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They believed him, but he arrested sixty of them and put them to death on one day, fulfilling the words of scripture:


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They have scattered the bodies of your faithful, and shed their blood all round Jerusalem, leaving no one to bury them!


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At this, fear and dread gripped the whole people. 'There is no truth or virtue in them,' they said, 'they have broken their agreement and their sworn oath.'


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Bacchides then left Jerusalem and encamped at Beth-Zeth, and from there sent and arrested many of the men who had deserted him and a few of our people too; he had them killed and thrown down the great well.


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He then put Alcimus in charge of the province, leaving an army with him to support him; Bacchides himself returned to the king.


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and all who were disturbing the peace of their own people rallied to him, and, having won control of Judaea, did much harm in Israel.


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Seeing that all the wrongs done to the Israelites by Alcimus and his supporters exceeded what the gentiles had done,


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Judas went right round the whole territory of Judaea to take vengeance on those who had deserted him and to prevent their free movement about the country.


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When Alcimus saw how strong Judas and his supporters had grown and realised that he was powerless to resist them, he went back to the king, to whom he made malicious accusations against them.


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The king sent Nicanor, one of his generals ranking as Illustrious and a bitter enemy of Israel, with orders to exterminate the people.


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Reaching Jerusalem with a large force, Nicanor sent a friendly, yet treacherous, message to Judas and his brothers, as follows:


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'Let us have no fighting between you and me; I shall come with a small escort for a peaceful meeting with you.'


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He met Judas and they exchanged friendly greetings; the enemy, however, had made preparations to abduct Judas.


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When Judas became aware of Nicanor's treacherous purpose in coming to see him, he took fright and refused any further meeting.


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Nicanor then realised that his plan had been discovered, and took the field against Judas, to give battle near Caphar-Salama.


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After these events Nicanor went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests came out of the Holy Place with some elders, to give him a friendly welcome and show him the burnt offering being presented for the king.


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But he ridiculed them, laughed at them, defiled them and used insolent language, swearing in his rage,


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'Unless Judas is handed over to me this time with his army, as soon as I am safely back, I promise you, I shall burn this building down!'


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Then he went off in a fury. At this, the priests went in again, and stood weeping in front of the altar and the Temple, saying,


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'You have chosen this house to be called by your name, to be a house of prayer and petition for your people.


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Take vengeance on this man and on his army, and let them fall by the sword; remember their blasphemies and give them no respite.'


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'When the king's envoys blasphemed, your angel went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men.


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In the same way let us see you crush this army today, so that everyone else may know that this man has spoken blasphemously against your sanctuary: pass judgement on him as his wickedness deserves!'


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The armies met in battle on the thirteenth of the month Adar, and Nicanor's army was crushed, he himself being the first to fall in the battle.


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The Jews pursued them a day's journey, from Adasa to the approaches of Gezer; they sounded their trumpets in warning as they followed them,


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and people came out of all the surrounding Judaean villages to encircle the fugitives, who then turned back on their own men. All fell by the sword, not one being left alive.


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Having collected the spoils and booty, they cut off Nicanor's head and the right hand he had stretched out in a display of insolence; these were taken and displayed within sight of Jerusalem.


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Now Judas had heard of the reputation of the Romans: how strong they were, and how well disposed towards any who made common cause with them, making a treaty of friendship with anyone who approached them.


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(And, indeed, they were extremely powerful.) He had been told of their wars and of their prowess among the Gauls, whom they had conquered and put under tribute;


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and of all they had done in the province of Spain to gain possession of the silver and gold mines there,


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making themselves masters of the whole country by their determination and perseverance, despite its great distance from their own; of the kings who came from the ends of the earth to attack them, only to be crushed by them and overwhelmed with disaster, and of others who paid them annual tribute;


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Philip, Perseus king of the Kittim, and others who had dared to make war on them, had been defeated and reduced to subjection,


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while Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who had advanced to attack them with a hundred and twenty elephants, cavalry, chariots and a very large army, had also suffered defeat at their hands;


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they had taken him alive and imposed on him and his successors, on agreed terms, the payment of an enormous tribute, the surrender of hostages, and the cession


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of the Indian territory, with Media, Lydia, and some of their best provinces, which they took from him and gave to King Eumenes.


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the latter had got wind of it and, sending a single general against them, had fought a campaign in which they inflicted heavy casualties, carried their women and children away into captivity, pillaged their goods, subdued their country, tore down their fortresses and reduced them to a slavery lasting to the present day;


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But where their friends and those who relied on them were concerned, they had always stood by their friendship. They had subdued kings far and near, and all who heard their name went in terror of them.


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One man, if they determined to help him and advance him to a throne, would certainly occupy it, while another, if they so determined, would find himself deposed; their influence was paramount.


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In spite of all this, no single one of them had assumed a crown or put on the purple for his own aggrandisement.


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They had set up a senate, where three hundred and twenty councillors deliberated daily, constantly debating how best to regulate public affairs.


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They entrusted their government to one man for a year at a time, with absolute power over their whole empire, and this man was obeyed by all without envy or jealousy.


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Having chosen Eupolemus son of John, of the family of Accos, and Jason son of Eleazar, Judas sent them to Rome to make a treaty of friendship and alliance with these people,


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in the hope of being rid of the yoke, for they could see that Greek rule was reducing Israel to slavery.


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The envoys made the lengthy journey to Rome and presented themselves before the Senate with their formal proposal:


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'Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, with the Jewish people, have sent us to you to conclude a treaty of alliance and peace with you, and to enrol ourselves as your allies and friends.'


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Here is a copy of the rescript which they engraved on bronze tablets and sent to Jerusalem to be kept there by the Jews as a record of peace and alliance:


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'Good fortune attend the Romans and the Jewish nation by sea and land for ever; may sword or enemy be far from them!


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They will not give or supply to the enemy any grain, arms, money or ships: thus has Rome decided, and they are to honour their obligations without guarantees.


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In the same way, if war comes first to the Jewish nation, the Romans will support them energetically as occasion may offer,


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and the aggressor will not be furnished with grain, arms, money or ships: such is the Roman decision, and they will honour these obligations without treachery.


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If, later, either party should decide to make any addition or deletion, they will be free to do so, and any such addition or deletion will be binding.


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'As regards the wrongs done to them by King Demetrius, we have written to him in these terms: Why have you made your yoke lie heavy on our friends and allies the Jews?


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If they appeal against you again, we shall uphold their rights and make war on you by sea and land.'


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Demetrius, hearing that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, sent Bacchides and Alcimus a second time into Judaea, and with them the right wing of his army.


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They took the road to Galilee and besieged Mesaloth in Arbela, and captured it, putting many people to death.


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they then moved on, making their way to Beer-Zaith with twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse.


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When they saw the huge size of the enemy forces they were terrified, and many slipped out of the camp, until no more than eight hundred of the force were left.


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With battle now inevitable, Judas realised that his army had melted away; he was aghast, for he had no time to rally them.


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Yet, dismayed as he was, he said to those who were left, 'Up! Let us face the enemy; we may yet have the strength to fight them.'


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His men tried to dissuade him, declaring, 'We have no strength for anything but to escape with our lives this time; then we can come back with our brothers to fight them; by ourselves we are too few.'


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Judas retorted, 'That I should do such a thing as run away from them! If our time has come, at least let us die like men for our countrymen, and leave nothing to tarnish our reputation.'


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The army marched out of camp and drew up, facing the enemy. The cavalry was drawn up in two squadrons; the slingers and archers marched in the van of the army, and all the best fighters were put in the front rank;


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Bacchides was on the right wing. The phalanx advanced from between the two squadrons, sounding the trumpets; the men on Judas' side also blew their trumpets,


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Judas saw that Bacchides and the main strength of his army lay on the right; all the stout-hearted rallied to him,


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But when the Syrians on the left wing saw that the right had been broken, they turned and followed hot on the heels of Judas and his men to take them in the rear.


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The other deeds of Judas, the battles he fought, the exploits he performed, and all his titles to greatness have not been recorded; but they were very many.


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After the death of Judas, the renegades came out of hiding throughout Israel and all the evil-doers reappeared.


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These traced and searched out the friends of Judas and brought them before Bacchides, who ill-treated and mocked them.


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A terrible oppression began in Israel; there had been nothing like it since the disappearance of prophecy among them.


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'Since your brother Judas died, there has been no one like him to head the resistance against our enemies, people like Bacchides and others who hate our nation.


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Accordingly, we have today chosen you to take his place as our ruler and leader and to fight our campaigns.'


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But this became known to Jonathan, his brother Simon and all his supporters, and they took refuge in the desert of Tekoa, camping by the water-supply at Asphar storage-well.


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(Bacchides came to know of this on the Sabbath day, and he too crossed the Jordan with his entire army.)


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Jonathan sent his brother, who was one of his commanders, to ask his friends the Nabataeans to store their considerable baggage for them.


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The sons of Amrai, however, those of Medeba, intercepted them, captured John and everything he had and made off with their prize.


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Later, Jonathan and his brother Simon were told that the sons of Amrai were celebrating an important wedding, and were escorting the bride, a daughter of one of the great notables of Canaan, from Nabata with a large retinue.


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As they were keeping watch, a noisy procession came into sight with a great deal of baggage, and the bridegroom, with his groomsmen and his family, came out to meet it with tambourines and a band, and rich, warlike display.


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The Jews rushed down on them from their ambush and killed them, inflicting heavy casualties; the survivors escaped to the mountain, leaving their entire baggage train to be captured.


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Having in this way avenged in full the blood of their brother, they returned to the marshes of the Jordan.


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As soon as Bacchides heard this, he came on the Sabbath day with a considerable force to the steep banks of the Jordan.


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You can see, we shall have to fight on our front and to our rear; we have the waters of the Jordan on one side, the marsh and scrub on the other, and we have no line of withdrawal.


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The engagement was begun by Jonathan, who aimed a blow at Bacchides, but the Syrian disengaged himself and withdrew,


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whereupon Jonathan and his men leapt into the Jordan and swam to the other bank; the enemy did not, however, cross the Jordan in pursuit.


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Bacchides went back to Jerusalem and began fortifying some of the Judaean towns: the fortresses of Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-Horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pharathon and Tephon, with high walls and barred gates,


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He also fortified the town of Beth-Zur, Gezer and the Citadel, and placed troops in them with supplies of provisions.


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He took the sons of the leading men of the country as hostages, and had them placed under guard in the Citadel of Jerusalem.


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In the year 153, in the second month, Alcimus ordered the demolition of the wall of the inner court of the sanctuary, destroying the work of the prophets. Alcimus had just begun the demolition


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when he suffered a stroke, and his work was interrupted. His mouth became obstructed, and his paralysis made him incapable of speaking at all or giving directions to his household;


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On the death of Alcimus, Bacchides went back to the king, and Judaea was left in peace for two years.


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The renegades then all agreed on a plan. 'Now is the time,' they said, 'while Jonathan and his supporters are living in peace and are full of confidence, for us to bring back Bacchides, and he will arrest the lot of them in one night.'


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Bacchides at once set out with a large force, and sent secret instructions to all his allies in Judaea to seize Jonathan and his supporters. But they were unable to do this because their plan became known,


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and Jonathan and his men arrested some fifty of the men of the country who were ringleaders in the plot, and put them to death.


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Jonathan and Simon then retired with their partisans to Beth-Bassi in the desert; they rebuilt the ruinous parts of the place and fortified it.


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He then proceeded to lay siege to Beth-Bassi, the fighting was protracted, and he constructed siege-engines.


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Jonathan, however, leaving his brother Simon in the town, broke out into the countryside with a handful of men.


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He launched a blow at Odomera and his brothers, and at the sons of Phasiron in their encampment; whereupon, these too came into the struggle, joining forces with him.


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Taking the offensive against Bacchides, they defeated him. He was greatly disconcerted to find that his plan and his assault had come to nothing,


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and vented his anger on those renegades who had induced him to enter the country, putting many of them to death; he then decided to take his own troops home.


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Discovering this, Jonathan sent envoys to negotiate peace terms and the release of prisoners with him.


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Bacchides agreed to this, accepting his proposals and swearing never to seek occasion to harm him for the rest of his life.


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Having surrendered to Jonathan those prisoners he had earlier taken in Judaea, he turned about and withdrew to his own country, and never again came near their frontiers.


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The sword no longer hung over Israel, and Jonathan settled in Michmash, where he began to judge the people and to rid Israel of the godless.


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In the year 160, Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, raised an army and occupied Ptolemais. He was well received, and there inaugurated his reign.


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for, as he said, 'We had better move first to come to terms with these people before he makes common cause with Alexander against us;


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He even authorised him to raise an army, to manufacture arms, and to describe himself as his ally, and ordered the hostages in the Citadel to be surrendered to him.


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Jonathan went straight to Jerusalem and read the letter in the hearing of the whole people and of the men in the Citadel.


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He ordered those responsible for the work to build the walls and the defences round Mount Zion of squared stone blocks to make them stronger, and this was done.


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Only at Beth-Zur were a few left of those who had forsaken the Law and the precepts, since this was their refuge.


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King Alexander heard of all the promises Demetrius had sent to Jonathan, and he was also given an account of the battles and exploits of this man and his brothers and of the hardships they had endured.


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'You have been brought to our notice as a strong man of action and as someone who deserves to be our friend.


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Accordingly, we have today appointed you high priest of your nation, with the title of "Friend of the King" ' -- he also sent him a purple robe and a golden crown-'and you are to study our interests and maintain friendly relations with us.'


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Jonathan put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the year 160, on the feast of Shelters; he then set about raising troops and manufacturing arms in quantity.


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'What have we been doing,' he said, 'for Alexander to forestall us in winning the friendship of the Jews and so improving his own position?


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I too shall address an appeal to them, offering them advancement and riches as an inducement to support me.'


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'We have heard how you have kept your agreement with us and have maintained friendly relations with us and have not gone over to our enemies, and it has given us great satisfaction.


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If you now continue to keep faith with us, we shall make you a handsome return for what you do on our behalf.


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'Henceforth I release you and exempt all the Jews from the tribute, the salt dues and the crown levies,


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and whereas I am entitled to one-third of the grain and one-half of the fruit of the trees, I release from this levy, from today and for the future, Judaea and the three districts annexed to it from Samaria-Galilee, from this day henceforth in perpetuity.


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I relinquish control of the Citadel in Jerusalem and make it over to the high priest, so that he may man it with a garrison of his own choosing.


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Every Jewish person taken from Judaea into captivity in any part of my kingdom I set free without ransom, and decree that all will be exempt from taxes, even on their livestock.


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All festivals, Sabbaths, New Moons and days of special observance, and the three days before and three days after a festival, will be days of exemption and quittance for all the Jews in my kingdom,


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and no one will have the right to exact payment from, or to molest, any of them for any matter whatsoever.


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'Jews will be enrolled in the king's forces to the number of thirty thousand men and receive maintenance on the same scale as the rest of the king's forces.


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Some of them will be stationed in the king's major fortresses, and from among others appointments will be made to positions of trust in the kingdom. Their officers and commanders will be appointed from their own number and will live under their own laws, as the king has prescribed for Judaea.


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'As regards the three districts annexed to Judaea from the province of Samaria, these will be integrated into Judaea and considered as coming under one governor, obeying the high priest's authority and no other.


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Ptolemais and the land thereto pertaining I present to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, to meet the necessary expenses of public worship.


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And I make a personal grant of fifteen thousand silver shekels annually chargeable to the royal revenue from appropriate places.


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And the entire surplus, which has not been paid in by the officials as in previous years, will henceforth be paid over by them for work on the Temple.


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In addition, the sum of five thousand silver shekels, levied annually on the profits of the sanctuary, as shown in the annual accounts, is also relinquished as the perquisite of the priests who perform the liturgy.


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Anyone who takes refuge in the Temple in Jerusalem or any of its precincts, when in debt to the royal exchequer or otherwise, will be discharged in full possession of all the goods he owns in my kingdom.


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As regards the building and restoration of the sanctuary, the expense of the work will be met from the royal exchequer.


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The reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem and the fortification of the perimeter will also be a charge on the royal exchequer, as also the reconstruction of other city walls in Judaea.'


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When Jonathan and the people heard these proposals, they put no faith in them and refused to accept them, remembering what great wrongs Demetrius had done to Israel and how cruelly he had oppressed them.


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They decided in favour of Alexander, since he seemed to offer the better inducements of the two, and they became his constant allies.


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The two kings met in battle. Alexander's army was routed, and Demetrius pursued him and defeated his troops.


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He continued the battle with vigour until sunset. Demetrius himself, however, was killed the same day.


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'Since I have returned to my kingdom, have ascended the throne of my ancestors, have gained control by crushing Demetrius, and so recovered our country-


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let us now make a treaty of friendship. Give me your daughter in marriage: as your son-in-law, I shall give you, and her, presents which are worthy of you.'


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King Ptolemy replied as follows: 'Happy the day when you returned to the land of your ancestors and ascended their royal throne!


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I shall at once do for you what your letter proposes; but meet me at Ptolemais, so that we can see one another, and I shall become your father-in-law, as you have asked.'


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King Alexander went to meet him, and Ptolemy gave him the hand of his daughter Cleopatra and celebrated her wedding in Ptolemais with great magnificence, as kings do.


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Jonathan made his way in state to Ptolemais and met the two kings; he gave them and their friends silver and gold, and many gifts, and made a favourable impression on them.


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A number of scoundrels, the pest of Israel, combined to denounce him, but the king paid no attention to them.


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In fact, the king commanded that Jonathan should be divested of his own garments and clothed in the purple, which was done.


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The king then seated him by his side and said to his officers, 'Escort him into the centre of the city and proclaim that no one is to bring charges against him on any count; no one is to molest him for any reason.'


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And so, when his accusers saw the honour done him by this proclamation, and Jonathan himself invested in the purple, they all fled.


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The king did him the honour of enrolling him among the First Friends, and appointed him commander-in-chief and governor-general.


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Demetrius confirmed Apollonius as governor of Coele-Syria; the latter assembled a large force, encamped at Jamnia and sent the following message to Jonathan the high priest:


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'You are entirely alone in rising against us, and now I find myself ridiculed and reproached on your account. Why do you use your authority to our disadvantage in the mountains?


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If you are so confident in your forces, come down now to meet us on the plain and let us take each other's measure there; on my side I have the strength of the towns.


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Ask and learn who I am and who the others supporting us are. You will hear that you cannot stand up to us, since your ancestors were twice routed on their own ground,


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nor will you now be able to withstand the cavalry or so great an army on the plain, where there is neither rock, nor stone, nor refuge of any kind.'


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On hearing Apollonius' words, Jonathan's spirit was roused; he picked ten thousand men and left Jerusalem, and his brother Simon joined him with reinforcements.


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He drew up his forces outside Joppa, the citizens having shut him out, since Apollonius had a garrison in Joppa. When they began the attack,


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Hearing this, Apollonius marshalled three thousand cavalry and a large army and made his way to Azotus as though intending to march through, while in fact pressing on into the plain, since he had a great number of cavalry on which he was relying.


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Jonathan knew of this enemy position behind him; the horsemen surrounded his army, firing their arrows into his men from morning till evening.


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The cavalry scattered over the plain and fled to Azotus, where they took sanctuary in Beth-Dagon, the temple of their idol.


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Jonathan, however, set fire to Azotus and the surrounding towns, plundered them, and burned down the temple of Dagon, with all the fugitives who had crowded into it.


text:
The enemy losses, counting those who fell by the sword and those burnt to death, totalled about eight thousand men.


text:
Jonathan then left and pitched camp outside Ascalon, where the citizens came out to meet him with great ceremony.


text:
he sent him the golden brooch, of the kind customarily presented to the King's Cousins, and gave him proprietary rights over Ekron and the land adjoining it.


text:
The king of Egypt then assembled an army as numerous as the sands of the seashore, with many ships, and set out to take possession of Alexander's kingdom by a ruse and add it to his own kingdom.


text:
He set off for Syria with protestations of peace, and the people of the towns opened their gates to him and came out to meet him, since King Alexander's orders were to welcome him, Ptolemy being his father-in-law.


text:
When he reached Azotus he was shown the burnt-out temple of Dagon, with Azotus and its suburbs in ruins, corpses scattered here and there, and the charred remains of those whom Jonathan had burnt to death in the battle, piled into heaps along his route.


text:
They explained to the king what Jonathan had done, hoping for his disapproval; but the king said nothing.


text:
Jonathan went in state to meet the king at Joppa, where they greeted each other and spent the night.


text:
Jonathan accompanied the king as far as the river called Eleutherus, and then returned to Jerusalem.


text:
King Ptolemy for his part occupied the coastal towns as far as Seleucia on the coast, all the while maturing his wicked designs against Alexander.


text:
He sent envoys to King Demetrius to say, 'Come and let us make a treaty; I shall give you my daughter, whom Alexander now has, and you shall rule your father's kingdom.


text:
Having carried off his daughter and bestowed her on Demetrius, he broke with Alexander, and their enmity became open.


text:
Ptolemy next entered Antioch and assumed the crown of Asia; he now wore on his head the two crowns of Egypt and Asia.


text:
but when he heard the news, he advanced on his rival to give battle, while Ptolemy for his part also took the field, met him with a strong force and routed him.


text:
Three days later King Ptolemy died, and the Egyptian garrisons in the strongholds were killed by the local inhabitants.


text:
At the same time, Jonathan mustered the men of Judaea for an assault on the Citadel of Jerusalem, and they set up numerous siege-engines against it.


text:
But some renegades who hated their nation made their way to the king and told him that Jonathan was besieging the Citadel.


text:
The king was angered by the news. No sooner had he been informed than he set out and came to Ptolemais. He wrote to Jonathan, telling him to raise the siege and to meet him for a conference in Ptolemais as soon as possible.


text:
When Jonathan heard this, he gave orders for the siege to continue; he then selected a deputation from the elders of Israel and the priests, and took the deliberate risk


text:
of himself taking silver and gold, clothing and numerous other presents, and going to Ptolemais to face the king, whose favour he succeeded in winning;


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the king treated him as his predecessors had treated him, and promoted him in the presence of all his friends.


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He confirmed him in the high-priesthood and whatever other distinctions he already held, and had him ranked among the First Friends.


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Jonathan asked the king to exempt Judaea and the three Samaritan districts from taxation, promising him three hundred talents in return.


text:
'We have written to Lasthenes our cousin concerning you, and now send you this copy of our rescript for your own information:


text:
"The nation of the Jews is our ally; they fulfil their obligations to us, and in view of their goodwill towards us we have decided to show them our bounty.


text:
We confirm them in their possession of the territory of Judaea and the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda and Ramathaim; these were annexed to Judaea from Samaritan territory, with all their dependencies, in favour of all who offer sacrifice in Jerusalem, instead of the royal dues which the king formerly received from them every year, from the yield of the soil and the fruit crops.


text:
As regards our other rights over the tithes and taxes due to us, over the salt marshes, and the crown taxes due to us, as from today we release them from them all.


text:
You will make yourself responsible for having a copy of this made, to be given to Jonathan and displayed on the holy mountain in a conspicuous place." '


text:
When King Demetrius saw that the country was at peace under his rule and that no resistance was offered him, he dismissed his forces, and sent all the men home, except for the foreign troops that he had recruited in the foreign island, thus incurring the enmity of the veterans who had served his ancestors.


text:
Now Trypho, one of Alexander's former supporters, noting that all the troops were muttering against Demetrius, went to see Iamleku, the Arab who was bringing up Antiochus, Alexander's young son,


text:
and repeatedly urged him to let him have the boy, so that he might succeed his father as king; he told him of Demetrius' decision and of the resentment it had aroused among his troops. He spent a long time there.


text:
Jonathan, meanwhile, sent to ask King Demetrius to withdraw the garrisons from the Citadel in Jerusalem and from the other fortresses, since they were constantly fighting Israel.


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Demetrius sent word back to Jonathan, 'Not only will I do this for you and for your nation, but I shall heap honours on you and your nation if I find a favourable opportunity.


text:
Jonathan sent three thousand experienced soldiers to him in Antioch; when they reached the king, he was delighted at their arrival.


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The citizens crowded together in the centre of the city, to the number of some hundred and twenty thousand, intending to kill the king.


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The king took refuge in the palace, while the citizens occupied the thoroughfares of the city and began to attack.


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The king then called on the Jews for help; and these all rallied round him, then fanned out through the city, and that day killed about a hundred thousand of its inhabitants.


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They fired the city, seizing a great deal of plunder at the same time, and secured the king's safety.


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When the citizens saw that the Jews had the city at their mercy, their courage failed them, and they made an abject appeal to the king,


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They threw down their arms and made peace. The Jews were covered in glory, in the eyes of the king and of everyone else in his kingdom. Having won renown in his kingdom, they returned to Jerusalem laden with booty.


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Thus, King Demetrius sat all the more securely on his royal throne, and the country was quiet under his government.


text:
But he gave the lie to all the promises he had made, and changed his attitude to Jonathan, giving nothing in return for the services Jonathan had rendered him, but thwarting him at every turn.


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All the troops that Demetrius had summarily dismissed rallied to Antiochus, and made war on Demetrius, who turned tail and fled.


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Young Antiochus then wrote as follows to Jonathan: 'I confirm you in the high-priesthood and set you over the four districts and appoint you one of the Friends of the King.'


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He sent him a service of gold plate, and granted him the right to drink from gold vessels, and to wear the purple and the golden brooch.


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He appointed his brother Simon commander-in-chief of the region from the Ladder of Tyre to the frontiers of Egypt.


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Jonathan then set out and made a progress through Transeuphrates and its towns, and the entire Syrian army rallied to his support. He came to Ascalon and was received in state by the inhabitants.


text:
From there he proceeded to Gaza, but the people of Gaza shut him out, so he laid siege to it, burning down its suburbs and plundering them.


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The people of Gaza then pleaded with Jonathan, and he made peace with them; but he took the sons of their chief men as hostages and sent them away to Jerusalem. He then travelled through the country as far as Damascus.


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Jonathan now learned that Demetrius' generals had arrived at Kadesh in Galilee with a large army, intending to remove him from office,


text:
till they sued for peace, which he granted them, though he expelled them from the town and occupied it, stationing a garrison there.


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Jonathan and his army, meanwhile, having pitched camp by the Lake of Gennesar, rose early, and by morning were already in the plain of Hazor.


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The foreigners' army advanced to fight them on the plain, having first positioned an ambush for him in the mountains. While the main body was advancing directly towards the Jews,


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All the men with Jonathan fled; no one was left, except Mattathias son of Absalom and Judas son of Chalphi, the generals of his army.


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When the fugitives from his own forces saw this, they came back to him and joined in the pursuit as far as Kadesh where the enemy encampment was, and there they themselves pitched camp.


text:
When Jonathan saw that circumstances were working in his favour, he sent a select mission to Rome to confirm and renew his treaty of friendship with the Romans.


text:
The envoys made their way to Rome, entered the Senate and said, 'Jonathan the high priest and the Jewish nation have sent us to renew your treaty of friendship and alliance with them as before.'


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The Senate gave them letters to the authorities of each place, to procure their safe conduct to Judaea.


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'Jonathan the high priest, the senate of the nation, the priests and the rest of the Jewish people to the Spartans their brothers, greetings.


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'In the past, a letter was sent to Onias, the high priest, from Areios, one of your kings, stating that you are indeed our brothers, as the copy subjoined attests.


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Onias received the envoy with honour, and accepted the letter, in which a clear declaration was made of friendship and alliance.


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For our part, though we have no need of these, having the consolation of the holy books in our possession,


text:
we venture to send to renew our fraternal friendship with you, so that we may not become strangers to you, a long time having elapsed since you last wrote to us.


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We, for our part, on every occasion, at our festivals and on other appointed days, unfailingly remember you in the sacrifices we offer and in our prayers, as it is right and fitting to remember brothers.


text:
'We ourselves, however, have had many trials and many wars, the neighbouring kings making war on us.


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since we have the support of Heaven to help us, thanks to which we have been delivered from our enemies, and they are the ones who have been brought low.


text:
We have therefore chosen Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, and sent them to the Romans to renew our former treaty of friendship and alliance,


text:
and we have ordered them also to visit you, to greet you and deliver you this letter of ours concerning the renewal of our brotherhood;


text:
'It has been discovered in records regarding the Spartans and Jews that they are brothers, and of the race of Abraham.


text:
Now that this has come to our knowledge, we shall be obliged if you will send us news of your welfare.


text:
Our own message to you is this: your flocks and your possessions are ours, and ours are yours, and we are instructing our envoys to give you a message to this effect.'


text:
Jonathan learned that Demetrius' generals had returned with a larger army than before to make war on him.


text:
He therefore left Jerusalem and went to engage them in the area of Hamath, not giving them the time to invade his own territory.


text:
He sent spies into their camp, who told him on their return that the enemy were taking up positions for a night attack on the Jews.


text:
At sunset, Jonathan ordered his men to keep watch with their weapons at hand, in readiness to fight at any time during the night, and posted advance guards all round the camp.


text:
On learning that Jonathan and his men were ready to fight, the enemy took fright and, with quaking hearts, lit fires in their bivouac and decamped.


text:
Jonathan and his men, watching the glow of the fires, were unaware of their withdrawal until morning,


text:
and although Jonathan pursued them, he failed to overtake them, for they had already crossed the river Eleutherus.


text:
Simon, meanwhile, had also set out and had penetrated as far as Ascalon and the neighbouring towns. He then turned on Joppa and moved quickly to occupy it,


text:
for he had heard of their intention to hand over this strong point to the supporters of Demetrius; he stationed a garrison there to hold it.


text:
Jonathan, on his return, called a meeting of the elders of the people and decided with them to build fortresses in Judaea


text:
and to heighten the walls of Jerusalem and erect a high barrier between the Citadel and the city, to cut the former off from the city and isolate it, to prevent the occupants from buying or selling.


text:
Rebuilding the city was a co-operative effort: part of the wall over the eastern ravine had fallen down; he restored the quarter called Chaphenatha.


text:
He was apprehensive that Jonathan might not allow him to do this, and might even make war on him, so he set out and came to Beth-Shean, in the hopes of finding some pretext for having him arrested and put to death.


text:
Jonathan went out to intercept him, with forty thousand picked men in battle order, and arrived at Beth-Shean.


text:
He even received him with honour, commended him to all his friends, gave him presents and ordered his friends and his troops to obey him as they would himself.


text:
He said to Jonathan, 'Why have you given all these people so much trouble, when there is no threat of war between us?


text:
Send them back home; pick yourself a few men as your bodyguard, and come with me to Ptolemais, which I am going to hand over to you, with the other fortresses and the remaining troops and all the officials; after which, I shall take the road for home. This was my purpose in coming here.'


text:
With him he retained three thousand men, of whom he left two thousand in Galilee, while a thousand accompanied him.


text:
But as soon as Jonathan had entered Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais closed the gates, seized him, and put all those who had entered with him to the sword.


text:
Trypho sent troops and cavalry into Galilee and the Great Plain to destroy all Jonathan's supporters.


text:
These, concluding that he had been taken and had perished with his companions, encouraged one another, marching with closed ranks and ready to give battle,


text:
All reached Judaea safe and sound, and there they lamented Jonathan and his companions, being very frightened indeed; all Israel was plunged into mourning.


text:
The surrounding nations were all now looking for ways of destroying them: 'They have no leader,' they said, 'no ally; we have only to attack them now, and we shall blot out their very memory from all peoples.'


text:
and when he saw how the people were quaking with fear, he went up to Jerusalem, called the people together,


text:
and exhorted them thus, 'You know yourselves how much I and my brothers and my father's family have done for the laws and the sanctuary; you know what wars and hardships we have experienced.


text:
Far be it from me, then, to be sparing of my own life in any time of oppression, for I am not worth more than my brothers.


text:
Rather will I avenge my nation and the sanctuary and your wives and children, now that the foreigners are all united in malice to destroy us.'


text:
So he assembled all the fighting men and hurried on with completing the walls of Jerusalem, fortifying the whole perimeter.


text:
He sent a considerable force to Joppa under Jonathan son of Absalom who drove out the inhabitants and remained there in occupation.


text:
When Trypho learned that Simon had taken the place of his brother Jonathan and that he intended to join battle with him, he sent envoys to him with this message,


text:
'Your brother Jonathan was in debt to the royal exchequer for the offices he held; that is why we are detaining him.


text:
If you send a hundred talents of silver and two of his sons as hostages, to make sure that on his release he does not revolt against us, we shall release him.'


text:
Although Simon was aware that the message was a ruse, he sent for the money and the boys for fear of incurring great hostility from the people,


text:
who would have said that Jonathan had died because Simon would not send Trypho the money and the children.


text:
He therefore sent both the boys and the hundred talents, but Trypho broke his word and did not release Jonathan.


text:
Next, Trypho set about the invasion and devastation of the country; he made a detour along the Adora road, but Simon and his army confronted him wherever he attempted to go.


text:
The men in the Citadel kept sending messengers to Trypho, urging him to get through to them by way of the desert and send them supplies.


text:
Trypho organised his entire cavalry to go, but that night it snowed so heavily that he could not get through for the snow, so he left there and moved off into Gilead.


text:
Simon sent and recovered the bones of his brother Jonathan, and buried him in Modein, the town of his ancestors.


text:
Over the tomb of his father and brothers, Simon raised a monument high enough to catch the eye, using dressed stone back and front.


text:
surrounding them with a structure consisting of tall columns surmounted by trophies of arms to their everlasting memory and, beside the trophies of arms, ships sculpted on a scale to be seen by all who sail the sea.


text:
Simon built up the fortresses of Judaea, surrounding them with high towers, great walls and gates with bolts, and stocked these fortresses with food.


text:
He also sent a delegation to King Demetrius, to get him to grant the province a remission, since all Trypho did was to despoil.


text:
'King Demetrius to Simon, high priest and Friend of Kings, and to the elders and nation of the Jews, greetings.


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'It has pleased us to accept the golden crown and the palm you have sent us, and we are disposed to make a general peace with you, and to write to the officials to grant you remissions.


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Everything that we have decreed concerning you remains in force, and the fortresses you have built may remain in your hands.


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We pardon all offences, unwitting or intentional, hitherto committed, and remit the crown tax you now owe us; and whatever other taxes were levied in Jerusalem are no longer to be levied.


text:
If any of you are suitable for enrolment in our bodyguard, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us.'


text:
when our people began engrossing their documents and contracts: 'In the first year of Simon, eminent high priest, commander-in-chief and ethnarch of the Jews'.


text:
About that time Simon laid siege to Gezer, surrounding it with his troops. He constructed a mobile tower, brought it up to the city, opened a breach in one of the bastions and took it.


text:
The citizens, accompanied by their wives and children, mounted the ramparts with their garments torn and loudly implored Simon to make peace with them:


text:
Simon came to terms with them and stopped the fighting; but he expelled them from the city, purified the houses which contained idols, and then made his entry with songs of praise.


text:
He banished all impurity from it, settled in it people who observed the Law, and having fortified it, built a residence there for himself.


text:
The occupants of the Citadel in Jerusalem, prevented as they were from coming out and going into the countryside to buy and sell, were in desperate need of food, and numbers of them were being carried off by starvation.


text:
They begged Simon to make peace with them, and he granted this, though he expelled them and purified the Citadel from its pollutions.


text:
The Jews made their entry on the twenty-third day of the second month in the year 171, with acclamations and carrying palms, to the sound of lyres, cymbals and harps, chanting hymns and canticles, since a great enemy had been crushed and thrown out of Israel. Simon made it a day of annual rejoicing.


text:
Since his son John had come to manhood, Simon appointed him general-in-chief, with his residence in Gezer.


text:
In the year 172, King Demetrius assembled his forces and marched into Media to raise help for the fight against Trypho.


text:
When Arsaces king of Persia and Media heard that Demetrius had entered his territory, he sent one of his generals to capture him alive.


text:
The general defeated the army of Demetrius, seized him and brought him to Arsaces, who imprisoned him.


text:
The country was at peace throughout the days of Simon. He sought the good of his nation and they were well pleased with his authority, as with his magnificence, throughout his life.


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To crown his titles to glory, he took Joppa and made it a harbour, gaining access to the Mediterranean Isles.


text:
resettling a host of captives. He conquered Gezer, Beth-Zur and the Citadel, ridding them of every impurity, and no one could resist him.


text:
The people farmed their land in peace; the land gave its produce, the trees of the plain their fruit.


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The elders sat at ease in the squares, all their talk was of their prosperity; the young men wore splendid armour.


text:
He kept the towns supplied with provisions and furnished with fortifications, until his fame resounded to the ends of the earth.


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He encouraged the afflicted members of his people, suppressing every wicked man and renegade. He strove to observe the Law,


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When it became known in Rome and as far as Sparta that Jonathan was dead, people were deeply grieved.


text:
But as soon as they heard that his brother Simon had succeeded him as high priest and was master of the country and the cities in it,


text:
they wrote to him on bronze tablets to renew the treaty of friendship and alliance which they had made with his brothers, Judas and Jonathan,


text:
This is the copy of the letter sent by the Spartans: 'The rulers and the city of Sparta, to Simon the high priest and to the elders and priests and the rest of the people of the Jews, greetings.


text:
'The ambassadors whom you sent to our people have informed us of your glory and prosperity, and we are delighted with their visit.


text:
We have recorded their declarations in the minutes of our public assemblies, as follows, "Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, came to us to renew their friendship with us.


text:
And it was the people's pleasure to receive these personages with honour and to deposit a copy of their statements in the public archives, so that the people of Sparta might preserve a record of them. A copy was also made for Simon the high priest." '


text:
After this, Simon sent Numenius to Rome as the bearer of a large golden shield weighing a thousand mina, to confirm the alliance with them.


text:
When these events were reported to our people, they said, 'What mark of appreciation shall we give to Simon and his sons?


text:
He stood firm, he and his brothers and his father's house: he fought off the enemies of Israel and secured its freedom.' So they recorded an inscription on bronze tablets and set it up on pillars on Mount Zion.


text:
This is a copy of the text: 'The eighteenth of Elul, in the year 172, being the third year of Simon, eminent high priest:


text:
'In Asaramel, in the Grand Assembly of priests and people, of princes of the nation and of elders of the country: 'We are acquainted with the matters following:


text:
'When there was almost incessant fighting in the country Simon, son of Mattathias, a priest of the line of Joarib, and his brothers courted danger and withstood their nation's enemies to safeguard the integrity of their sanctuary and of the Law, and so brought their nation great glory;


text:
'For when, Jonathan having rallied his nation and become its high priest and having then been gathered to his ancestors,


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the enemy planned to invade the country, intending to devastate their territory and to lay hands on their sanctuary,


text:
Simon next came forward to fight for his nation: spending much of his personal wealth on arming his nation's fighting men and on providing their pay;


text:
fortifying the towns of Judaea, as well as Beth-Zur on the Judaean frontier where the enemy arsenal had formerly been, and stationing in it a garrison of Jewish soldiers;


text:
fortifying Joppa on the coast, and Gezer on the borders of Azotus, a place formerly inhabited by the enemy, founding a Jewish colony there, and providing the settlers with everything they needed to set them on their feet;


text:
'In consequence of which, the people, aware of Simon's loyalty and of the glory which he was determined to win for his nation, have made him their ethnarch and high priest, for all his services and for the integrity and loyalty which he has shown towards his nation, and for having by every means sought to enhance his people's power;


text:
'It has fallen to him in his time to expel the foreigners from his country, including those in the City of David in Jerusalem, who had converted it into a citadel for their own use, from which they would sally out to defile the surroundings of the sanctuary and to violate its sacred character;


text:
to station Jewish soldiers there instead for the security of the country and the city; and to heighten the walls of Jerusalem;


text:
'And since King Demetrius has heard that the Romans call the Jews their friends, allies and brothers,


text:
that the Jews and priests are happy that Simon should, pending the advent of a genuine prophet, be their ethnarch and high priest for life


text:
therefore he has confirmed him in the high-priestly office, has raised him to the rank of Friend and has showered great honours on him, also confirming him as their commander-in-chief,


text:
with the right to appoint officials to oversee the fabric of the sanctuary and to administer the country, munitions and fortresses;


text:
he is to have personal charge of the sanctuary, and to be obeyed by all; all official documents in the country must be drawn up in his name; and he may assume the purple and may wear golden ornaments;


text:
'Furthermore, it is against the law for any member of the public or of the priesthood to contravene any of these enactments or to contest his decisions, or to convene a meeting anywhere in the country without his permission, or to assume the purple or wear the golden brooch;


text:
and anyone acting contrary to, or rejecting any article of, these enactments is liable to punishment;


text:
since Simon, for his part, has given his assent, and has consented to assume the high-priestly office and to be commander-in-chief and ethnarch of the Jews and their priests, and to preside over all:


text:
'So, be it now enacted: that this record be inscribed on bronze tablets and be erected at some conspicuous place within the precincts of the Temple,


text:
Antiochus son of King Demetrius addressed a letter from the Mediterranean Isles to Simon, priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and to the whole nation;


text:
this was how it read: 'King Antiochus to Simon, high priest and ethnarch, and to the Jewish nation, greetings.


text:
'Whereas certain scoundrels have seized control of the kingdom of our fathers, and I propose to claim back the kingdom so that I may re-establish it as it was before, and whereas I have accordingly recruited very large forces and fitted out warships,


text:
intending to make a landing in the country and to hunt down the men who have ruined it and laid waste many towns in my kingdom;


text:
'I now, therefore, confirm in your favour all remissions of taxes granted to you by the kings my predecessors, as well as the waiving of whatever presents they may have conceded.


text:
I declare Jerusalem and the sanctuary to be free; all the arms you have manufactured and the fortresses you have built and now occupy may remain yours.


text:
Furthermore, when we have won back our kingdom, we shall bestow such great honour on yourself, your nation and the sanctuary as will make your glory known throughout the world.'


text:
Antiochus invaded the land of his ancestors in the year 174 and, since the troops all rallied to him, Trypho was left with few supporters.


text:
Antiochus pitched camp outside Dora with a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men and eight thousand cavalry.


text:
He laid siege to the city while the ships closed in from the sea, so that he had the city under attack from land and sea, and allowed no one to go in or come out.


text:
Numenius and his companions, meanwhile, arrived from Rome, bringing letters addressed to various kings and states, in the following terms:


text:
'The Jewish ambassadors have come to us as our friends and allies to renew our original friendship and alliance in the name of the high priest Simon and the Jewish people.


text:
Accordingly, we have seen fit to write to various kings and states, warning them neither to molest the Jewish people nor to attack either them or their towns or their country, nor to ally themselves with any such aggressors.


text:
If, therefore, any scoundrels have fled their country to take refuge with you, hand them over to Simon the high priest, to be punished by him according to their law.'


text:
and to all states, including Sampsames, the Spartans, Delos, Myndos, Sicyon, Caria, Samos, Pamphylia, Lycia, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, Phaselis, Cos, Side, Arados, Gortyn, Cyprus and Cyrene.


text:
Antiochus, meanwhile, from his positions on the outskirts of Dora, was continually throwing detachments against the town. He constructed siege-engines, and blockaded Trypho, preventing movement in or out.


text:
Simon sent him two thousand picked men to support him in the fight, with silver and gold and plenty of equipment.


text:
But Antiochus would not accept them; instead, he repudiated all his previous agreements with Simon and completely changed his attitude to him.


text:
He sent him Athenobius, one of his Friends, to confer with him and say, 'You are now occupying Joppa and Gezer and the Citadel in Jerusalem, which are towns in my kingdom.


text:
You have laid waste their territory and done immense harm to the country; and you have seized control of many places properly in my kingdom.


text:
Either now surrender the towns you have taken and the taxes from the places you have seized outside the frontiers of Judaea,


text:
or else pay me five hundred talents of silver in compensation for them and for the destruction you have done, and another five hundred talents for the taxes from the towns; otherwise we shall come and make war on you.'


text:
When the King's Friend, Athenobius, reached Jerusalem and saw Simon's magnificence, his cabinet of gold and silver plate and the state he kept, he was dumbfounded. He delivered the king's message,


text:
but Simon gave him this answer, 'We have not taken foreign territory or any alien property but have occupied our ancestral heritage, for some time unjustly wrested from us by our enemies;


text:
As regards Joppa and Gezer, which you claim, these were towns that did great harm to our people and laid waste our country; we are prepared to give a hundred talents for them.' Without so much as a word in answer,


text:
the envoy went back to the king in a rage and reported on Simon's answer and his magnificence, and on everything he had seen, at which the king fell into a fury.


text:
The king appointed Cendebaeus military governor of the coastal region and allotted him a force of infantry and cavalry.


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He ordered him to deploy his men facing Judaea, and instructed him to rebuild Kedron and fortify its gates, and to make war on our people, while the king himself went in pursuit of Trypho.


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Cendebaeus arrived at Jamnia and began to provoke our people forthwith, invading Judaea, taking prisoners, and massacring.


text:
Having rebuilt Kedron, he stationed cavalry and troops there to make sorties and patrol the roads of Judaea, as the king had ordered.


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At this, Simon summoned his two elder sons, Judas and John, and said to them, 'My brothers and I, and my father's House, have fought the enemies of Israel from our youth until today, and many a time we have been successful in rescuing Israel.


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But now I am an old man, while you, by the mercy of Heaven, are the right age; take the place of my brother and myself, go out and fight for our nation, and may Heaven's aid be with you.'


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He then selected twenty thousand of the country's fighting men and cavalry, and these marched against Cendebaeus, spending the night at Modein.


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Making an early start, they marched into the plain, to find a large army opposing them, both infantry and cavalry; there was, however, a stream-bed in between.


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John drew up facing them, he and his army and, seeing that the men were afraid to cross the stream-bed, crossed over first himself. When his men saw this, they too crossed after him.


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He divided his army into two, with the cavalry in the centre and the infantry on either flank, as the opposing cavalry was very numerous.


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The trumpets rang out; Cendebaeus and his army were put to flight, many of them falling mortally wounded and the rest of them fleeing to the fortress.


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Then it was that Judas, John's brother, was wounded, but John pursued them until Cendebaeus reached Kedron, which he had rebuilt.


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Their flight took them as far as the towers in the countryside of Azotus, and John burnt these down. The enemy losses amounted to ten thousand men; John returned safely to Judaea.


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Ptolemy son of Abubos had been appointed general in command of the Plain of Jericho; he owned a great deal of silver and gold,


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His ambition was fired; he hoped to make himself master of the whole country and therefore treacherously began to plot the destruction of Simon and his sons.


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Simon, who was inspecting the towns up and down the country and attending to their administration, had come down to Jericho with his sons Mattathias and Judas, in the year 172, in the eleventh month, the month of Shebat.


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The son of Abubos lured them into a small fortress called Dok, which he had built, where he offered them a great banquet, having previously hidden men in the place.


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When Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptolemy and his men reached for their weapons, rushed on Simon in the banqueting hall and killed him with his two sons and some of his servants.


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Ptolemy wrote a report of the affair and sent it to the king, in the expectation of being sent reinforcements and of having the cities and the province made over to him.


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He also sent people to Gezer to murder John, and sent written orders to the military commanders to come to him so that he could give them silver, gold and presents;


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But someone had been too quick for him and had already informed John in Gezer that his father and brothers had perished, adding, 'He is sending someone to kill you too!'


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Overcome as John was by the news, he arrested the men who had come to kill him and put them to death, being forewarned of their murderous design.


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The rest of John's acts, the battles he fought and the exploits he performed, the city walls he built, and all his other achievements,


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'To their brothers, the Jews living in Egypt, from their brothers, the Jews in Jerusalem and Judaea, greetings and untroubled peace.


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'May God prosper you, remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants.


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May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a generous mind and a willing spirit.


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'During the reign of Demetrius, in the year 169, we Jews wrote to you as follows, "In the extremity of trouble that befell us in the years after Jason and his associates had betrayed the Holy Land and the kingdom,


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burning down the Temple gateway and shedding innocent blood, we prayed to the Lord and were then heard. And we then offered a sacrifice, with wheat-flour, we lit the lamps and we set out the loaves."


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'And we now recommend you too to keep the feast of Shelters in the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and eighty-eight.'


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'The people of Jerusalem and of Judaea, the senate and Judas, to Aristobulus, tutor to King Ptolemy and one of the family of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt, greetings and good health.


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'Since we have been rescued by God from great danger, we give him great thanks for championing our cause against the king,


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For when their leader reached Persia with his seemingly irresistible army, he was cut to pieces in the temple of Nanaea, as the result of a ruse employed by the priests who served that goddess.


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On the pretext of marrying Nanaea, Antiochus came to the place with his friends, intending to take its many treasures as a dowry.


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The priests of Nanaea had put these on display, and he for his part had entered the temple precincts with only a small retinue. As soon as Antiochus had gone inside the temple, the priests shut him in,


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opened a trap-door hidden in the ceiling and struck the leader down by hurling stones like thunderbolts. They then cut him into pieces and threw his head to those who were waiting outside.


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'As we shall be celebrating the purification of the Temple on the twenty-fifth of Chislev, we consider it proper to notify you, so that you too may celebrate it, as you do the feast of Shelters and the fire that appeared when Nehemiah, the builder of the Temple and the altar, offered sacrifice.


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For when our ancestors were being deported to Persia, the devout priests of the time took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in a hole like a dry well, where they concealed it in such a way that the place was unknown to anyone.


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When some years had elapsed, in God's good time, Nehemiah, commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to look for it. When they reported that in fact they had found not fire but a thick liquid, Nehemiah ordered them to draw some out and bring it back.


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When they had done this, Nehemiah ordered the priests to pour this liquid over the sacrificial materials, that is, the wood and what lay on it.


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When this had been done, and when in due course the sun, which had previously been clouded over, shone out, a great fire flared up, to the astonishment of all.


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While the sacrifice was being burned, the priests offered prayer, Jonathan intoning with all the priests, and the rest responding with Nehemiah.


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The prayer took this form, "Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, awesome, strong, just, merciful, the only king and benefactor,


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the only provider, who alone are just, almighty and everlasting, the deliverer of Israel from every evil, who made our fathers your chosen ones and sanctified them,


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accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and protect your heritage and consecrate it.


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Bring together those of us who are dispersed, set free those in slavery among the heathen, look favourably on those held in contempt or abhorrence, and let the heathen know that you are our God.


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When the sacrifice had been burnt, Nehemiah ordered the remaining liquid to be poured over large stones,


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and when this was done a flame flared up, to be absorbed in a corresponding blaze of light from the altar.


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When the matter became known and the king of the Persians heard that, in the place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, a liquid had appeared, with which Nehemiah and his people had purified the sacrificial offerings,


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To the people on whom the king bestowed it, he granted a part of the considerable revenue he derived from it.


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Nehemiah and his people termed this stuff "nephtar", which means "purification", but it is commonly called "naphta".


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'It is on record that the prophet Jeremiah ordered the deportees to take the fire, as we have described,


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and how, having given them the Law, the prophet warned the deportees never to forget the Lord's precepts, nor to let their thoughts be tempted by the sight of gold and silver statues or the finery adorning them.


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'The same document also describes how the prophet, warned by an oracle, gave orders for the tent and the ark to go with him, when he set out for the mountain which Moses had climbed to survey God's heritage.


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On his arrival, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling, into which he put the tent, the ark and the altar of incense, afterwards blocking up the entrance.


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When Jeremiah learned this, he reproached them, "The place is to remain unknown", he said, "until God gathers his people together again and shows them his mercy.


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Then the Lord will bring these things once more to light, and the glory of the Lord will be seen, and so will the cloud, as it was revealed in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the holy place might be gloriously hallowed."


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'It was also recorded how Solomon in his wisdom offered the sacrifice of the dedication and completion of the sanctuary.


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As Moses had prayed to the Lord and fire had come down from heaven and burned up the sacrifice, so Solomon also prayed, and the fire from above consumed the burnt offerings.


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'In addition to the above, it was also recorded, both in these writings and in the Memoirs of Nehemiah, how Nehemiah founded a library and made a collection of the books dealing with the kings and the prophets, the writings of David and the letters of the kings on the subject of offerings.


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Similarly, Judas made a complete collection of the books dispersed in the late war, and these we still have.


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'Since we are about to celebrate the purification, we now write, requesting you to observe the same days.


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God, who has saved his whole people, conferring heritage, kingdom, priesthood and sanctification on all of us,


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as he has promised in the Law, will surely, as our hope is in him, be swift to show us mercy and gather us together from everywhere under heaven to the holy place, since he has rescued us from great evils and has purified it.'


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The story of Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, the purification of the great Temple, the dedication of the altar,


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and the celestial manifestations that came to hearten the brave champions of Judaism, so that, few though they were, they pillaged the whole country, routed the barbarian hordes,


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recovered the sanctuary renowned the whole world over, liberated the city and re-established the laws by then all but abolished, the Lord showing his favour by all his gracious help to them-


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all this, already related in five books by Jason of Cyrene, we shall attempt to condense into a single work.


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Considering the spate of figures and the difficulty encountered, because of the mass of material, by those who wish to immerse themselves in historical records,


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we have aimed at providing diversion for those who merely want something to read, a saving of labour for those who enjoy committing things to memory, and profit for each and all.


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For us who have undertaken the drudgery of this abridgement, it has been no easy task but a matter of sweat and midnight oil,


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comparable to the exacting task of someone organising a banquet, whose aim is to satisfy a variety of tastes. Nevertheless, for the sake of rendering a general service, we remain glad to endure this drudgery,


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leaving accuracy of detail to the historian, and concentrating our effort on tracing the outlines in this condensed version.


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Just as the architect of a new house is responsible for the construction as a whole, while the man undertaking the ceramic painting has to take into consideration only the decorative requirements, so, I think, it is with us.


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To make the subject his own, to explore its by-ways, to be meticulous about details, is the business of the original historian,


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but the person making the adaptation must be allowed to aim at conciseness of expression and to forgo any exhaustive treatment of his subject.


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So now let us begin our narrative, without adding any more to what has been said above; there would be no sense in expanding the preface to the history and curtailing the history itself.


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While the holy city was inhabited in all peace and the laws were observed as perfectly as possible, owing to the piety of Onias the high priest and his hatred of wickedness,


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it came about that the kings themselves honoured the holy place and enhanced the glory of the Temple with the most splendid offerings,


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even to the extent that Seleucus king of Asia defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses arising out of the sacrificial liturgy.


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But a certain Simon, of the tribe of Bilgah, on being appointed administrator of the Temple, came into conflict with the high priest over the regulation of the city markets.


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Unable to get the better of Onias, he went off to Apollonius, son of Thraseos, who was at that time commander-in-chief of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia,


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and made out to him that the Treasury in Jerusalem was groaning with untold wealth, that the amount contributed was incalculable and out of all proportion to expenditure on the sacrifice, but that it could all be brought under the control of the king.


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Apollonius met the king and told him about the wealth that had been disclosed to him; whereupon the king selected Heliodorus, his chancellor, and sent him with instructions to effect the removal of the reported wealth.


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Heliodorus lost no time in setting out, ostensibly to inspect the towns of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, but in fact to accomplish the king's purpose.


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On his arrival in Jerusalem, and after a hospitable reception from the high priest and the city, he announced what had been disclosed, thus revealing the reason for his presence, and asked if this was indeed the true situation.


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with some belonging to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a man occupying a very exalted position, and that the whole sum, in contrast to what the evil Simon had alleged, amounted to four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold.


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He also added that it was entirely out of the question that an injustice should be done to those who had put their trust in the sanctity of the place and in the inviolable majesty of a Temple venerated throughout the entire world.


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But Heliodorus, because of his instructions from the king, peremptorily insisted that the funds must be confiscated for the royal exchequer.


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Fixing a day for the purpose, he went in to draw up an inventory of the funds. There was no little consternation throughout the city;


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the priests in their sacred vestments prostrated themselves before the altar and prayed to Heaven, to the Author of the law governing deposits, to preserve these funds intact for the depositors.


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The appearance of the high priest was enough to pierce the heart of the beholder, his expression and his altered colour betraying the anguish of his soul;


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the man was so overwhelmed by fear and bodily trembling that those who saw him could not possibly mistake the distress he was suffering.


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People rushed headlong from the houses, intent on making public supplication because of the indignity threatening the holy place.


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Women thronged the streets swathed in sackcloth below their breasts; girls secluded indoors came running, some to the doorways, some to the city walls, while others leaned out of the windows,


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It was pitiful to see the people crowding together to prostrate themselves, and the foreboding of the high priest in his deep anguish.


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While they were calling on the all-powerful Lord to preserve the deposits intact for the depositors, in full security,


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He had already arrived with his bodyguard near the Treasury, when the Sovereign of spirits and of every power caused so great an apparition that all who had dared to accompany Heliodorus were dumbfounded at the power of God and reduced to abject terror.


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Before their eyes appeared a horse richly caparisoned and carrying a fearsome rider. Rearing violently, it struck at Heliodorus with its forefeet. The rider was seen to be accoutred entirely in gold.


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Two other young men of outstanding strength and radiant beauty, magnificently apparelled, appeared to him at the same time and, taking their stand on each side of him, flogged him unremittingly, inflicting stroke after stroke.


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Suddenly Heliodorus fell to the ground, enveloped in thick darkness. His men came to his rescue and placed him in a litter,


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this man who but a moment before had made his way into the Treasury, as we said above, with a great retinue and his whole bodyguard; and as they carried him away, powerless to help himself, they openly acknowledged the sovereign power of God.


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While Heliodorus lay prostrate under the divine visitation, speechless and bereft of all hope of deliverance,


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the Jews blessed the Lord who had miraculously glorified his own holy place. And the Temple, which a little while before had been filled with terror and commotion, now overflowed with joy and gladness at the manifestation of the almighty Lord.


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Some of Heliodorus' companions quickly begged Onias to entreat the Most High to grant the man his life, lying as he did at the very point of death.


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The high priest, afraid that the king might suspect the Jews of some foul play concerning Heliodorus, did indeed offer a sacrifice for the man's recovery.


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And while the high priest was performing the rite of expiation, the same young men again appeared to Heliodorus, wearing the same apparel and, standing beside him, said, 'Be very grateful to Onias the high priest, since it is for his sake that the Lord has granted you your life.


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As for you, who have been scourged by Heaven, you must proclaim to everyone the grandeur of God's power.' So saying, they vanished.


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Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made most solemn vows to the preserver of his life, and then took courteous leave of Onias and marched his forces back to the king.


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He openly testified to everyone about the works of the supreme God which he had seen with his own eyes.


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When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of man would be the right person to send to Jerusalem on a second occasion, he replied,


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'If you have some enemy or anyone disloyal to the state, send him there, and you will get him back well flogged, if he survives at all, since some peculiarly divine power attaches to the holy place.


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He who has his dwelling in heaven watches over the place and defends it, and he strikes down and destroys those who come to harm it.'


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The Simon mentioned above as the informer against the funds and against his country began slandering Onias, insinuating that the latter had been responsible for the assault on Heliodorus and himself had contrived this misfortune.


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Simon now had the effrontery to name this benefactor of the city, this protector of his compatriots, this zealot for the laws, as an enemy of the public good.


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This hostility reached such proportions that murders were actually committed by some of Simon's agents,


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and at this point Onias, recognising how mischievous this rivalry was, and aware that Apollonius son of Menestheus, the general commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, was encouraging Simon in his malice,


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went to see the king, not to play the accuser of his fellow-citizens, but having the public and private welfare of the entire people at heart.


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He saw that, without some intervention by the king, an orderly administration would no longer be possible, nor would Simon put a stop to his folly.


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When Seleucus had departed this life and Antiochus styled Epiphanes had succeeded to the kingdom, Jason, brother of Onias, usurped the high priesthood:


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he approached the king with a promise of three hundred and sixty talents of silver, with eighty talents to come from some other source of revenue.


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He further committed himself to paying another hundred and fifty, if the king would empower him to set up a gymnasium and youth centre, and to register the Antiochists of Jerusalem.


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When the king gave his assent, Jason, as soon as he had seized power, imposed the Greek way of life on his fellow-countrymen.


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He suppressed the liberties which the kings had graciously granted to the Jews at the instance of John, father of that Eupolemus who was later to be sent on an embassy to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Romans and, overthrowing the lawful institutions, introduced new usages contrary to the Law.


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He went so far as to found a gymnasium at the very foot of the Citadel, and to fit out the noblest of his young men in the petasos.


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Godless wretch that he was and no true high priest, Jason set no bounds to his impiety; indeed the hellenising process reached such a pitch


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that the priests ceased to show any interest in serving the altar; but, scorning the Temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they would hurry, on the stroke of the gong, to take part in the distribution, forbidden by the Law, of the oil on the exercise ground;


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But all this brought its own retribution; the very people whose way of life they envied, whom they sought to resemble in everything, proved to be their enemies and executioners.


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the vile Jason sent an embassy of Antiochists from Jerusalem, taking with them three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. But even those who brought the money did not think it would be right to spend it on the sacrifice and decided to reserve it for some other item of expenditure;


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and so what the sender had intended for the sacrifice to Hercules was in fact applied, at the suggestion of those who brought it, to the construction of triremes.


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Apollonius son of Menestheus had been sent to Egypt to attend the wedding of King Philometor. Antiochus, having learnt that the latter had become hostile to his affairs, began thinking about his own safety: that was why he had come to Joppa. He then moved to Jerusalem,


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where he was given a magnificent welcome by Jason and the city, and escorted in by torchlight with acclamation. After which, he marched his army into Phoenicia.


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When three years had passed, Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the Simon mentioned above, to convey the money to the king and to complete negotiations on various essential matters.


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But Menelaus, on being presented to the king, flattered him by his own appearance of authority, and so secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.


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He returned with the royal mandate, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood and supported only by the fury of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage beast.


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Thus Jason, who had supplanted his own brother, was in turn supplanted by a third, and obliged to take refuge in Ammanitis.


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although Sostratus, the commandant of the Citadel, whose business it was to collect the revenue, kept demanding payment. The pair of them in consequence were summoned before the king,


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Menelaus leaving his brother Lysimachus as deputy high priest, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cypriots, to act for him.


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While all this was going on, it happened that the people of Tarsus and Mallus revolted, because their towns had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king's concubine.


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The king therefore hurried off to settle the affair, leaving Andronicus, one of his dignitaries, to act as his deputy.


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Thinking he had found a favourable opportunity, Menelaus abstracted a number of golden vessels from the Temple and presented them to Andronicus, and managed to sell others to Tyre and the surrounding cities.


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On receiving clear evidence to this effect, Onias retired to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch and then taxed him with it.


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Menelaus then had a quiet word with Andronicus, urging him to get rid of Onias. Andronicus sought out Onias and, resorting to the trick of offering him his right hand on oath, succeeded in persuading him, despite the latter's lingering suspicions, to leave sanctuary; whereupon, in defiance of all justice, he immediately put him to death.


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The result was that not only Jews but many people of other nationalities were appalled and outraged by the unjust murder of this man.


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On the king's return from the region of Cilicia, the Jews of the capital, and those Greeks who shared their hatred of the crime, appealed to him about the unjustified murder of Onias.


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Antiochus was profoundly grieved and filled with pity, and he wept for the prudence and moderation of the dead man.


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Burning with indignation, he immediately stripped Andronicus of the purple, tore his garments off him and, parading him through the length of the city, rid the world of the assassin on the very spot where he had laid impious hands on Onias, the Lord dealing out to him the punishment he deserved.


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Now Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus had committed many sacrilegious thefts in the city, and when the facts became widely known, the populace rose against Lysimachus, who had already disposed of many pieces of gold plate.


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The infuriated mob was becoming menacing, and Lysimachus armed nearly three thousand men and took aggressive action; the troops were led by a certain Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less in folly.


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Recognising this act of aggression as the work of Lysimachus, some snatched up stones, others cudgels, while others scooped up handfuls of ashes lying at hand, and all hurled everything indiscriminately at Lysimachus' men,


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to such effect that they wounded many of them, even killing a few, and routed them all; the sacrilegious thief himself they killed near the Treasury.


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Menelaus, seeing the case had gone against him, promised a substantial sum to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes if he would influence the king in his favour.


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Ptolemy then took the king aside into a colonnade, as though for a breath of fresh air, and persuaded him to change his mind;


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the king then dismissed the charges against Menelaus, the cause of all this evil, while he condemned to death the other poor wretches who, had they pleaded even before Scythians, would have been let off scot-free.


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No time was lost in carrying out this unjust punishment on those who had championed the cause of the city, the townships and the sacred vessels.


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while, as a result of the greed of the powerful, Menelaus remained in power, growing more wicked than ever and establishing himself as the chief enemy of his fellow-citizens.


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It then happened that all over the city for nearly forty days there were apparitions of horsemen galloping through the air in cloth of gold, troops of lancers fully armed,


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squadrons of cavalry in order of battle, attacks and charges this way and that, a flourish of shields, a forest of pikes, a brandishing of swords, a hurling of missiles, a glittering of golden accoutrements and armour of all kinds.


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Then, on the strength of a false report that Antiochus was dead, Jason took at least a thousand men and launched an unexpected attack on the city. When the walls had been breached and the city was finally on the point of being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the Citadel.


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Jason, however, made a pitiless slaughter of his fellow-citizens, oblivious of the fact that success against his own countrymen was the greatest of disasters, but rather picturing himself as winning trophies from some enemy, and not from his fellow- countrymen.


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Even so, he did not manage to seize power; and, in the end, his machinations brought him nothing but shame, and he took refuge once more in Ammanitis.


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His career of wickedness was thus brought to a halt: imprisoned by Aretas, the Arab despot, escaping from his town, hunted by everyone, detested for having overthrown the laws, abhorred as the butcher of his country and his countrymen, he drifted to Egypt.


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He who had exiled so many from their fatherland, himself perished on foreign soil, having travelled to Sparta, hoping that, for kinship's sake, he might find harbour there.


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So many carcases he had thrust out to lie unburied; now he himself had none to mourn him, no funeral rites, no place in the tomb of his ancestors.


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When the king came to hear of what had happened, he concluded that Judaea was in revolt. He therefore marched from Egypt, raging like a wild beast, and began by storming the city.


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He then ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy everyone they encountered, and to butcher all who took refuge in their houses.


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It was a massacre of young and old, a slaughter of women and children, a butchery of young girls and infants.


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There were eighty thousand victims in the course of those three days, forty thousand dying by violence and as many again being sold into slavery.


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Not content with this, he had the audacity to enter the holiest Temple in the entire world, with Menelaus, that traitor to the laws and to his country, as his guide;


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with impure hands he seized the sacred vessels; with impious hands he seized the offerings presented by other kings for the aggrandisement, glory and dignity of the holy place.


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Holding so high an opinion of himself, Antiochus did not realise that the Lord was temporarily angry at the sins of the inhabitants of the city, hence his unconcern for the holy place.


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Had they not been entangled in many sins, Antiochus too, like Heliodorus when King Seleucus sent him to inspect the Treasury, would have been flogged the moment he arrived and checked in his presumption.


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The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the holy place, but the holy place for the sake of the people;


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and so the holy place itself, having shared the disasters that befell the people, in due course also shared their good fortune; having been abandoned by the Almighty in his anger, once the great Sovereign was placated it was reinstated in all its glory.


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Antiochus, having extracted eighteen hundred talents from the Temple, hurried back to Antioch; in his pride he would have undertaken to make the dry land navigable and the sea passable on foot, so high his arrogance soared.


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But he left officials behind to plague the nation: in Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by race, and by nature more barbarous than the man who appointed him;


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on Mount Gerizim, Andronicus; and, besides these, Menelaus, who lorded it over his countrymen worse than all the others. In his rooted hostility to the Jews,


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the king also sent the Mysarch Apollonius at the head of an army twenty-two thousand strong, with orders to put to death all men in their prime and to sell the women and children.


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Arriving in Jerusalem and posing as a man of peace, this man waited until the holy day of the Sabbath and then, taking advantage of the Jews as they rested from work, ordered his men to parade fully armed;


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all those who came out to watch he put to the sword; then, rushing into the city with his armed troops, he cut down an immense number of people.


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Judas, also known as Maccabaeus, however, with about nine others, withdrew into the desert. He lived like the wild animals in the hills with his companions, eating nothing but wild plants to avoid contracting defilement.


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Shortly afterwards, the king sent Gerontes the Athenian to force the Jews to violate their ancestral customs and live no longer by the laws of God;


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and to profane the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and the one on Mount Gerizim to Zeus, Patron of Strangers, as the inhabitants of the latter place had requested.


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The Temple was filled with revelling and debauchery by the gentiles, who took their pleasure with prostitutes and had intercourse with women in the sacred precincts, introducing other indecencies besides.


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No one might either keep the Sabbath or observe the traditional feasts, or so much as admit to being a Jew.


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People were driven by harsh compulsion to take part in the monthly ritual meal commemorating the king's birthday; and when a feast of Dionysus occurred, they were forced to wear ivy wreaths and walk in the Dionysiac procession.


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A decree was issued at the instance of the people of Ptolemais for the neighbouring Greek cities, enforcing the same conduct on the Jews there, obliging them to share in the sacrificial meals,


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and ordering the execution of those who would not voluntarily conform to Greek customs. So it became clear that disaster was imminent.


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For example, two women were charged with having circumcised their children. They were paraded publicly round the town, with their babies hung at their breasts, and then hurled over the city wall.


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Other people, who had assembled in some near-by caves to keep the seventh day without attracting attention, were denounced to Philip, and were then all burnt to death together, since their consciences would not allow them to defend themselves, out of respect for the holiness of the day.


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Now, I urge anyone who may read this book not to be dismayed at these calamities, but to reflect that such visitations are intended not to destroy our race but to discipline it.


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Indeed, when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution, it is a sign of great benevolence.


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In the case of other nations, the Master waits patiently for them to attain the full measure of their sins before he punishes them, but with us he has decided to deal differently,


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And so he never entirely withdraws his mercy from us; he may discipline us by some disaster, but he does not desert his own people.


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Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the Law, a man already advanced in years and of most noble appearance, had his mouth forced open, to make him eat a piece of pork.


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But he, resolving to die with honour rather than to live disgraced, walked of his own accord to the torture of the wheel,


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having spat the stuff out, as befits those with the courage to reject what is not lawful to taste, rather than live.


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The people supervising the ritual meal, forbidden by the Law, because of the length of time for which they had known him, took him aside and privately urged him to have meat brought of a kind he could properly use, prepared by himself, and only pretend to eat the portions of sacrificial meat as prescribed by the king;


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this action would enable him to escape death, by availing himself of an act of kindness prompted by their long friendship.


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But having taken a noble decision worthy of his years and the dignity of his great age and the well-earned distinction of his grey hairs, worthy too of his impeccable conduct from boyhood, and above all of the holy legislation established by God himself, he answered accordingly, telling them to send him at once to Hades.


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'Pretence', he said, 'does not befit our time of life; many young people would suppose that Eleazar at the age of ninety had conformed to the foreigners' way of life


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and, because I had played this part for the sake of a paltry brief spell of life, might themselves be led astray on my account; I should only bring defilement and disgrace on my old age.


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Even though for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never, living or dead, elude the grasp of the Almighty.


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Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age,


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and I shall have left the young a noble example of how to make a good death, eagerly and generously, for the venerable and holy laws.' So saying, he walked straight to the wheel,


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while those who were escorting him, recently so well disposed towards him, turned against him after this declaration, which they regarded as sheer madness.


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He for his part, just before he died under the blows, gave a sigh and said, 'The Lord whose knowledge is holy sees clearly that, though I might have escaped death, from awe of him I gladly endure these agonies of body under the lash, and that in my soul I am glad to suffer.'


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This was how he died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a record of virtue not only for the young but for the greater part of the nation.


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It also happened that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king tried to force them to taste some pork, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips and scourges.


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One of them, acting as spokesman for the others, said, 'What are you trying to find out from us? We are prepared to die rather than break the laws of our ancestors.'


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As soon as these were red-hot, he commanded that their spokesman should have his tongue cut out, his head scalped and his extremities cut off, while the other brothers and his mother looked on.


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When he had been rendered completely helpless, the king gave orders for him to be brought, still breathing, to the fire and fried alive in a pan. As the smoke from the pan drifted about, his mother and the rest encouraged one another to die nobly, with such words as these,


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'The Lord God is watching and certainly feels sorry for us, as Moses declared in his song, which clearly states that "he will take pity on his servants." '


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When the first had left the world in this way, they brought the second forward to be tortured. After stripping the skin from his head, hair and all, they asked him, 'Will you eat some pork, before your body is tortured limb by limb?'


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With his last breath he exclaimed, 'Cruel brute, you may discharge us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, since we die for his laws, to live again for ever.'


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After him, they tortured the third, who on being asked for his tongue promptly thrust it out and boldly held out his hands,


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courageously saying, 'Heaven gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I have no concern for them; from him I hope to receive them again.'


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The king and his attendants were astounded at the young man's courage and his utter indifference to suffering.


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When he neared his end he cried, 'Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men's hands, yet relying on God's promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no resurrection to new life.'


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But he looked at the king and said, 'You have power over human beings, mortal as you are, and can act as you please. But do not think that our race has been deserted by God.


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Only wait, and you will see in your turn how his mighty power will torment you and your descendants.'


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After him, they led out the sixth, and his dying words were these, 'Do not delude yourself: we are suffering like this through our own fault, having sinned against our own God; hence, appalling things have befallen us-


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But the mother was especially admirable and worthy of honourable remembrance, for she watched the death of seven sons in the course of a single day, and bravely endured it because of her hopes in the Lord.


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Indeed she encouraged each of them in their ancestral tongue; filled with noble conviction, she reinforced her womanly argument with manly courage, saying to them,


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'I do not know how you appeared in my womb; it was not I who endowed you with breath and life, I had not the shaping of your every part.


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And hence, the Creator of the world, who made everyone and ordained the origin of all things, will in his mercy give you back breath and life, since for the sake of his laws you have no concern for yourselves.'


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Antiochus thought he was being ridiculed, suspecting insult in the tone of her voice; and as the youngest was still alive he appealed to him not with mere words but with promises on oath to make him both rich and happy if he would abandon the traditions of his ancestors; he would make him his Friend and entrust him with public office.


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The young man took no notice at all, and so the king then appealed to the mother, urging her to advise the youth to save his life.


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Bending over him, she fooled the cruel tyrant with these words, uttered in their ancestral tongue, 'My son, have pity on me; I carried you nine months in my womb and suckled you three years, fed you and reared you to the age you are now, and provided for you.


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I implore you, my child, look at the earth and sky and everything in them, and consider how God made them out of what did not exist, and that human beings come into being in the same way.


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Do not fear this executioner, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that I may receive you back with them in the day of mercy.'


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She had hardly finished, when the young man said, 'What are you all waiting for? I will not comply with the king's ordinance; I obey the ordinance of the Law given to our ancestors through Moses.


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As for you, who have contrived every kind of evil against the Hebrews, you will certainly not escape the hands of God.


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and if, to punish and discipline us, our living Lord is briefly angry with us, he will be reconciled with us in due course.


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But you, unholy wretch and wickedest of villains, what cause have you for pride, nourishing vain hopes and raising your hand against his servants? -


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Our brothers, having endured brief pain, for the sake of ever-flowing life have died for the covenant of God, while you, by God's judgement, will have to pay the just penalty for your arrogance.


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I too, like my brothers, surrender my body and life for the laws of my ancestors, begging God quickly to take pity on our nation, and by trials and afflictions to bring you to confess that he alone is God,


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so that with my brothers and myself there may be an end to the wrath of the Almighty, rightly let loose on our whole nation.'


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The king fell into a rage and treated this one more cruelly than the others, for he was himself smarting from the young man's scorn.


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Judas, otherwise known as Maccabaeus, and his companions made their way secretly among the villages, rallying their fellow-countrymen; they recruited those who remained loyal to Judaism and assembled about six thousand.


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They called on the Lord to have regard for the people oppressed on all sides, to take pity on the Temple profaned by the godless,


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to have mercy on the city now being destroyed and levelled to the ground, to hear the blood of the victims that cried aloud to him,


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to remember too the criminal slaughter of innocent babies and to avenge the blasphemies perpetrated against his name.


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As soon as Maccabaeus had an organised force, he at once proved invincible to the foreigners, the Lord's anger having turned into compassion.


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Making surprise attacks on towns and villages, he fired them; he captured favourable positions and inflicted very heavy losses on the enemy,


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generally availing himself of the cover of night for such enterprises. The fame of his valour spread far and wide.


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When Philip saw Judas was making steady progress and winning more and more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the general officer commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, asking for reinforcements in the royal interest.


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Ptolemy chose Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king's First Friends, and sent him without delay at the head of an international force of at least twenty thousand men to exterminate the entire Jewish race. As his associate he appointed Gorgias, a professional general of wide military experience.


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Nicanor for his part proposed, by the sale of Jewish prisoners of war, to raise the two thousand talents of tribute money owed by the king to the Romans.


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He lost no time in sending the seaboard towns an invitation to come and buy Jewish manpower, promising delivery of ninety head for one talent; but he did not reckon on the judgement from the Almighty that was soon to overtake him.


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whereupon the cowardly ones and those who lacked confidence in the justice of God took to their heels and ran away.


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The rest sold all their remaining possessions, at the same time praying the Lord to deliver them from the godless Nicanor, who had sold them even in advance of any encounter-


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if not for their own sakes, then at least out of consideration for the covenants made with their ancestors, and because they themselves bore his sacred and majestic name.


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Maccabaeus marshalled his men, who numbered about six thousand, and exhorted them not to be dismayed at the enemy or discouraged at the vast horde of gentiles wickedly advancing against them, but to fight bravely,


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keeping before their eyes the outrage committed by them against the holy place and the infamous and scornful treatment inflicted on the city, not to mention the destruction of their traditional way of life.


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'They may put their trust in their weapons and their exploits,' he said, 'but our confidence is in almighty God, who is able with a single nod to overthrow both those marching on us and the whole world with them.'


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He reminded them of the occasions on which their ancestors had received help: that time when, under Sennacherib, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men had perished;


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that time in Babylonia when in the battle with the Galatians the Jewish combatants numbered only eight thousand, with four thousand Macedonians, yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand had destroyed a hundred and twenty thousand, thanks to the help they had received from Heaven, and had taken great booty as a result.


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Having so roused their courage by these words that they were ready to die for the laws and their country, he then divided his army into four,


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putting his brothers, Simon, Joseph and Jonathan in command of one division each, and assigning them fifteen hundred men apiece.


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Next, he ordered Esdrias to read the Holy Book aloud and gave them their watchword 'Help from God'. Then, putting himself at the head of the first division, he attacked Nicanor.


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With the Almighty for their ally they slaughtered over nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and crippled the greater part of Nicanor's army and put them all to flight.


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The money of their prospective purchasers fell into their hands. After pursuing them for a good while, they turned back, since time was pressing:


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They collected the enemy's weapons and stripped them of their spoils, and because of the Sabbath even more heartily blessed and praised the Lord, who had saved them and who had chosen that day for the first manifestation of his compassion.


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When the Sabbath was over, they distributed some of the booty among the victims of the persecution and the widows and orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children.


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They then joined in public supplication, imploring the merciful Lord to be fully reconciled with his servants.


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They also challenged the forces of Timotheus and Bacchides and destroyed over twenty thousand of them, gaining possession of several high fortresses. They divided their enormous booty into two equal shares, one for themselves, the other for the victims of the persecution and the orphans and widows, not forgetting the aged.


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They carefully collected the enemy's weapons and stored them in suitable places. The rest of the spoils they took to Jerusalem.


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They killed the tribal chieftain on Timotheus' staff, an extremely wicked man who had done great harm to the Jews.


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In the course of their victory celebrations in Jerusalem, they burned the men who had fired the Holy Gates; with Callisthenes they had taken refuge in one small house; so these received a fitting reward for their sacrilege.


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finding himself with the Lord's help humbled by men he had himself reckoned as of very little account, stripped off his robes of state, and made his way across country unaccompanied, like a runaway slave, reaching Antioch by a singular stroke of fortune, since his army had been destroyed.


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Thus the man who had promised the Romans to make good their tribute money by selling the prisoners from Jerusalem, bore witness that the Jews had a defender and that they were in consequence invulnerable, since they followed the laws which that defender had ordained.


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He had entered the city called Persepolis, planning to rob the temple and occupy the city; but the population at once sprang to arms to defend themselves, with the result that Antiochus was routed by the inhabitants and forced to beat a humiliating retreat.


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Flying into a passion, he resolved to make the Jews pay for the disgrace inflicted by those who had routed him, and with this in mind he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping and get the journey over. But the sentence of Heaven was already hanging over him. In his pride, he had said, 'When I reach Jerusalem, I shall turn it into a mass grave for the Jews.'


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But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and unseen complaint. The words were hardly out of his mouth when he was seized with an incurable pain in his bowels and with excruciating internal torture;


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Even so, he in no way diminished his arrogance; still bursting with pride, breathing fire in his wrath against the Jews, he was in the act of ordering an even keener pace when the chariot gave a sudden lurch and out he fell and, in this serious fall, was dragged along, every joint of his body wrenched out of place.


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He who only a little while before had thought in his superhuman boastfulness he could command the waves of the sea, he who had imagined he could weigh mountain peaks in a balance, found himself flat on the ground and then being carried in a litter, a visible demonstration to all of the power of God,


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in that the very eyes of this godless man teemed with worms and his flesh rotted away while he lingered on in agonising pain, and the stench of his decay sickened the whole army.


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A short while before, he had thought to grasp the stars of heaven; now no one could bring himself to act as his bearer, for the stench was intolerable.


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Then and there, as a consequence, in his shattered state, he began to shed his excessive pride and come to his senses under the divine lash, spasms of pain overtaking him.


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His stench being unbearable even to himself, he exclaimed, 'It is right to submit to God; no mortal should aspire to equality with the Godhead.'


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that the holy city, towards which he had been speeding to rase it to the ground and turn it into a mass grave, should be declared free;


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as for the Jews, whom he had considered as not even worth burying, so much carrion to be thrown out with their children for birds and beasts to prey on, he would give them all equal rights with the Athenians;


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the holy Temple which he had once plundered he would now adorn with the finest offerings; he would restore all the sacred vessels many times over; he would defray from his personal revenue the expenses incurred for the sacrifices;


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and, to crown all, he would himself turn Jew and visit every inhabited place, proclaiming the power of God.


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Finding no respite at all from his suffering, God's just sentence having overtaken him, he abandoned all hope for himself and wrote the Jews the letter transcribed below, which takes the form of an appeal in these terms:


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'To the excellent Jews, to the citizens, Antiochus, king and commander-in-chief, sends hearty greetings, wishing them all health and prosperity.


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For my part, I cherish affectionate memories of you. 'On my return from the country of Persia I fell seriously ill, and thought it necessary to make provision for the common security of all.


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but considering how my father, whenever he was making an expedition into the uplands, would designate his successor


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so that, in case of any unforeseen event or disquieting rumour, the people of the provinces might know to whom he had left the conduct of affairs, and thus remain undisturbed;


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furthermore, being well aware that the sovereigns on our frontiers and the neighbours of our realm are watching for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen, I have designated as king my son Antiochus, whom I have more than once entrusted and commended to most of you when I was setting out for the upland satrapies; a transcript of my letter to him is appended hereto.


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I therefore urge and require you, being mindful of the benefits both public and personal received from me, that you each persist in those sentiments of goodwill that you harbour towards me.


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I am confident that he will pursue my own policy with benevolence and humanity, and will prove accommodating to your interests.'


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And so this murderer and blasphemer, having endured sufferings as terrible as those which he had made others endure, met his pitiable fate, and ended his life in the mountains far from his home.


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His comrade Philip brought back his body, and then, fearing Antiochus' son, withdrew to Egypt, to the court of Ptolemy Philometor.


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They purified the sanctuary and built another altar; then, striking fire from flints and using this fire, they offered the first sacrifice for two years, burning incense, lighting the lamps and setting out the loaves.


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When they had done this, prostrating themselves on the ground, they implored the Lord never again to let them fall into such adversity, but if they should ever sin, to correct them with moderation and not to deliver them over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.


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This day of the purification of the Temple fell on the very day on which the Temple had been profaned by the foreigners, the twenty-fifth of the same month, Chislev.


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They kept eight festal days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of Shelters, remembering how, not long before at the time of the feast of Shelters, they had been living in the mountains and caverns like wild beasts.


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Then, carrying thyrsuses, leafy boughs and palms, they offered hymns to him who had brought the cleansing of his own holy place to a happy outcome.


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They also decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate those same days every year.


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Our task now is to unfold the history of Antiochus Eupator, son of that godless man, and briefly to relate the evil effects of the wars.


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On coming to the throne, this prince put at the head of affairs a certain Lysias, the general officer commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia,


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whereas Ptolemy, known as Macron, and the first person to govern the Jews justly, had done his best to govern them peacefully to make up for the wrongs inflicted on them in the past.


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Denounced, in consequence, to Eupator by the Friends of the King, he heard himself called traitor at every turn: for having abandoned Cyprus, which had been entrusted to him by Philometer, for having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes, and for having shed no lustre on his illustrious office: he committed suicide by poisoning himself.


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Gorgias now became general of the area; he maintained a force of mercenaries and a continual state of war with the Jews.


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At the same time, the Idumaeans, who controlled important fortresses, were harassing the Jews, welcoming outlaws from Jerusalem and endeavouring to maintain a state of war.


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Maccabaeus and his men, after making public supplication to God, entreating him to support them, began operations against the Idumaean fortresses.


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Vigorously pressing home their attack, they seized possession of these vantage points, beating off all who fought on the ramparts; they slaughtered all who fell into their hands, accounting for no fewer than twenty thousand.


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Nine thousand at least took refuge in two exceptionally strong towers with everything they needed to withstand a siege,


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whereupon, Maccabaeus left Simon and Joseph, with Zacchaeus and his forces, in sufficient numbers to besiege them, and himself went off to other places requiring his attention.


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But Simon's men were greedy for money and allowed themselves to be bribed by some of the men in the towers; accepting seventy thousand drachmas, they let a number of them escape.


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When Maccabaeus was told what had happened, he summoned the people's commanders and accused the offenders of having sold their brothers for money by releasing their enemies to fight them.


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Successful in all that he undertook by force of arms, in these two fortresses he slaughtered more than twenty thousand men.


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Timotheus, who had been beaten by the Jews once before, now assembled an enormous force of mercenaries, mustering cavalry from Asia in considerable numbers, and soon appeared in Judaea, expecting to conquer it by force of arms.


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At his approach, Maccabaeus and his men made their supplications to God, sprinkling earth on their heads and putting sackcloth round their waists.


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Prostrating themselves on the terrace before the altar, they begged him to support them and to show himself the enemy of their enemies, the adversary of their adversaries, as the Law clearly states.


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After these prayers, they armed themselves and advanced a fair distance from the city, halting when they were close to the enemy.


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As the first light of dawn began to spread, the two sides joined battle, the one having as their pledge of success and victory not only their own valour but their recourse to the Lord, the other making their own ardour their mainstay in the fight.


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When the battle was at its height, the enemy saw five magnificent men appear from heaven on horses with golden bridles and put themselves at the head of the Jews;


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surrounding Maccabaeus and screening him with their own armour, they kept him unscathed, while they rained arrows and thunderbolts on the enemy until, blinded and confused, they scattered in complete disorder.


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while the defenders, confident in the security of the place, hurled fearful blasphemies and godless insults at them.


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At daybreak on the fifth day, twenty young men of Maccabaeus' forces, fired with indignation at the blasphemies, manfully assaulted the wall, with wild courage cutting down everyone they encountered.


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Others, in a similar scaling operation, took the defenders in the rear, and set fire to the towers, lighting pyres on which they burned the blasphemers alive. The first, meanwhile, breaking open the gates, let the rest of the army in and, at their head, captured the town.


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Timotheus had hidden in a storage-well, but they killed him, with his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.


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When all this was over, with hymns and thanksgiving they blessed the Lord, who had shown such great kindness to Israel and given them the victory.


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Almost immediately afterwards, Lysias, the king's tutor and cousin, chief minister of the realm, much disturbed at the turn of events,


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mustered about eighty thousand foot soldiers and his entire cavalry and advanced against the Jews, intending to make the city a place for Greeks to live in,


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to levy a tax on the Temple as on other national shrines, and to put the office of high priest up for sale every year;


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he took no account at all of the power of God, being sublimely confident in his tens of thousands of infantrymen, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.


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Invading Judaea, he approached Beth-Zur, a fortified position about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and began to subject it to strong pressure.


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When Maccabaeus and his men learned that Lysias was besieging the fortresses, they and the populace with them begged the Lord with lamentation and tears to send a good angel to save Israel.


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Maccabaeus himself was the first to take up his weapons, and he urged the rest to risk their lives with him in support of their brothers; so they sallied out resolutely, as one man.


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They were still near Jerusalem when a rider attired in white appeared at their head, brandishing golden weapons.


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With one accord they all blessed the God of mercy, and found themselves filled with such courage that they were ready to lay low not men only but the fiercest beasts and walls of iron.


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They advanced in battle order with the aid of their celestial ally, the Lord having had mercy on them.


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Charging like lions on the enemy, they laid low eleven thousand of the infantry and sixteen hundred horsemen, and routed all the rest.


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Of those, the majority got away, wounded and weaponless. Lysias himself escaped only by ignominious flight.


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Now Lysias was not lacking in intelligence and, as he reflected on the reverse he had just suffered, he realised that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God fought for them. He therefore sent them a delegation


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to persuade them to accept reasonable terms all round, and promised to compel the king to become their friend.


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Maccabaeus, thinking only of the common good, agreed to all that Lysias proposed, and whatever Maccabaeus submitted to Lysias in writing concerning the Jews was granted by the king.


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'John and Absalom, your envoys, have delivered to me the communication transcribed below, requesting me to approve its provisions.


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Anything requiring the king's attention I have put before him; whatever was possible, I have granted.


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Provided you maintain your goodwill towards the interests of the State, I shall do my best in the future to promote your well-being.


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As regards the details, I have given orders for your envoys and my own officials to discuss these with you.


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'Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, our will is that the subjects of the realm be left undisturbed to attend to their own affairs.


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We understand that the Jews do not approve our father's policy, the adoption of Greek customs, but prefer their own way of life and ask to be allowed to observe their own laws.


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Accordingly, since we intend this people to be free from vexation like any other, our ruling is that the Temple be restored to them and that they conduct their affairs according to the customs of their ancestors.


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'It will therefore be your concern to send them a mission of friendship, so that on learning our policy they may have confidence and happily go about their business.'


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The king's letter to the Jewish nation was in these terms: 'King Antiochus to the Jewish Senate and the rest of the Jews, greetings.


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Accordingly, all those who return before the thirtieth day of Xanthicus may rest assured that they have nothing to fear.


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The Jews may make use of their own kind of food and their own laws as formerly, and none of them is to be molested in any way for any unwitting offences.


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The Romans also sent the Jews a letter, which read as follows: 'Quintus Memmius, Titus Manilius, Manius Sergius, legates of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings.


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As for the matters he decided to refer to the king, consider them carefully and send someone without delay, if we are to interpret them to your advantage, because we are leaving for Antioch.


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These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to their farming.


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Among the local generals, Timotheus and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus and Demophon, and Nicanor the Cypriarch as well, would not allow the Jews to live in peace and quiet.


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The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked crime: they invited the Jews living among them to go aboard some boats they had lying ready, taking their wives and children. There was no hint of any intention to harm them;


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there had been a public vote by the citizens, and the Jews accepted, as well they might, being peaceable people with no reason to suspect anything. But once out in the open sea they were all sent to the bottom, a company of at least two hundred.


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and after invoking God, the just judge, he attacked his brothers' murderers. Under cover of dark he set fire to the port, burned the boats and put to the sword everyone who had taken refuge there.


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As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the whole community of Joppa.


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he made a night attack on the Jamnites and fired the port with its fleet; the glow of the flames was seen as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.


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When they had left the town barely a mile behind them in their advance on Timotheus, Judas was attacked by an Arab force of at least five thousand foot soldiers, with five hundred cavalry.


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A fierce engagement followed, and with God's help Judas' men won the day; the defeated nomads begged Judas to offer them the right hand of friendship, and promised to surrender their herds and make themselves generally useful to him.


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Realising that they might indeed prove valuable in many ways, Judas consented to make peace with them and after an exchange of pledges the Arabs withdrew to their tents.


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Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races; its name was Caspin.


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Confident in the strength of their walls and their stock of provisions, the besieged adopted an insolent attitude to Judas and his men, reinforcing their insults with blasphemies and profanity.


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But Judas and his men invoked the great Sovereign of the world who without battering-ram or siege-engine had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua; they then made a fierce assault on the wall.


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By God's will, having captured the town, they made such indescribable slaughter that the nearby lake, a quarter of a mile across, seemed filled to overflowing with blood.


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Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known as Tubians.


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They did not find Timotheus himself in that neighbourhood; he had already left the district, having achieved nothing apart from leaving a very strong garrison at one point.


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Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the Maccabaean generals, marched out and destroyed the force Timotheus had left behind in the fortress, amounting to more than ten thousand men.


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Maccabaeus himself divided his army into cohorts to which he assigned commanders, and then hurried in pursuit of Timotheus, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry.


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Timotheus' first move on learning of Judas' advance was to send away the women and children and the rest of the baggage train to the place called the Carnaim, since it was an impregnable position, difficult of access owing to the narrowness of all the approaches.


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Judas' cohort came into sight first. The enemy, seized with fright and panic-stricken by the manifestation of the All-seeing, began to flee, one running this way, one running that, often wounding one another in consequence and running on the points of one another's swords.


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Judas pursued them with a will, cutting the sinners to pieces and killing something like thirty thousand men.


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Timotheus himself, having fallen into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, very craftily pleaded with them to let him go with his life, on the grounds that he had the relatives and even the brothers of many of them in his power, and that these could otherwise expect short shrift.


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When at long last he convinced them that he would honour his promise and return these people safe and sound, they let him go for the sake of saving their brothers.


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Having defeated and destroyed them, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town, where Lysanias was living. Stalwart young men drawn up outside the walls offered vigorous resistance, while inside there were quantities of war-engines and missiles in reserve.


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But the Jews, having invoked the Sovereign who by his power shatters enemies' defences, gained control of the town and cut down nearly twenty-five thousand of the people inside.


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seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But as the Jews who had settled there assured Judas that the people of Scythopolis had always treated them well and had been particularly kind to them when times were at their worst,


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he and his men thanked them and urged them to extend the same friendship to his race in the future. They reached Jerusalem shortly before the feast of Weeks.


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A man called Dositheus, a horseman of the Tubian contingent, a valiant man, overpowered Gorgias and, gripping him by the cloak, was forcibly dragging him along, intending to take the accursed man alive, but one of the Thracian cavalry, hurling himself on Dositheus, slashed his shoulder, and Gorgias escaped to Marisa.


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Meanwhile, since Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted, Judas called on the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle.


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Then, chanting the battle cry and hymns at the top of his voice in his ancestral tongue, by a surprise attack he routed Gorgias' troops.


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Judas then rallied his army and moved on to the town of Adullam where, as it was the seventh day of the week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath.


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Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of the fallen taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs.


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But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols of Jamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost their lives.


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and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen;


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after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection.


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For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead,


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whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin.


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In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas and his men discovered that Antiochus Eupator was advancing in force against Judaea,


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and with him Lysias his tutor and chief minister; he had moreover a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots fitted with scythes.


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Menelaus, too, joined them and very craftily kept urging Antiochus on, not for the welfare of his own country but in the hope of being restored to office.


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But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against the guilty wretch, and when Lysias made it clear to the king that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, Antiochus gave orders for him to be taken to Beroea and there put to death by the local method of execution.


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In that place there is a tower fifty cubits high, full of ash, with an internal lip all round overhanging the ashes.


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If anyone is convicted of sacrilegious theft or of some other heinous crime, he is taken up to the top and pushed over to perish.


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Deserved justice, this; since he had committed many sins against the altar, the fire and ashes of which were holy, it was in ashes that he met his death.


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The king, then, was advancing, his mind filled with barbarous designs, to give the Jews a demonstration of far worse things than anything that had happened under his father.


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When Judas heard of this, he ordered the people day and night to call on the Lord as never before, to come to the help of those who were in peril of being deprived of the Law, their fatherland and the holy Temple,


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and not to allow the people, just when they were beginning to breathe again, to fall into the power of ill-famed foreigners.


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When they had all, with one voice, obeyed his instructions and had made their petitions to the merciful Lord, weeping, fasting and prostrating themselves for three days continuously, Judas spoke words of encouragement and told them to keep close to him.


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After separate consultation with the elders, he resolved not to wait for the king's army to invade Judaea and take possession of the city, but to march out and settle the whole matter with the Lord's help.


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Having thus committed the outcome to the Creator of the world, and having exhorted his soldiers to fight bravely to the death for the laws, the Temple, the city, their country and their way of life, he encamped his army near Modein.


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Giving his men the password 'Victory from God', he made a night attack on the king's pavilion with a picked band of the bravest young men. Inside the camp he destroyed about two thousand, and his men cut down the largest of the elephants with its mahout;


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just as dawn was breaking. This was achieved, thanks to the protection which the Lord granted Judas.


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but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, supplied the enemy with secret information; the man was identified, arrested, and dealt with.


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A second time, the king parleyed with the garrison of Beth-Zur; he offered and accepted pledges of friendship, retired, then attacked Judas and his men, but lost the battle.


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He was then told that Philip, left in charge of affairs, had rebelled in Antioch. He was stunned by this, opened negotiations with the Jews, came to an agreement, and swore to abide by all reasonable conditions. Agreement reached, he offered a sacrifice, honoured the Temple, and made generous gifts to the holy place.


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He received Maccabaeus kindly and, leaving Hegemonides to exercise command from Ptolemais to the territory of the Gerrenians,


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went to Ptolemais. The inhabitants of the place disapproved of the treaty; they complained furiously and wanted to annul its provisions.


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Lysias mounted the rostrum and made a convincing defence of the provisions which convinced and calmed them and won their goodwill. He then withdrew to Antioch. So much for the episode of the king's offensive and retreat.


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Three years after this, Judas and his men learned that Demetrius son of Seleucus had landed at the port of Tripolis with a strong army and a fleet,


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A certain Alcimus, a former high priest, had wilfully incurred defilement at the time of the insurrection; realising that whichever way he turned there was no security for him, nor any further access to the holy altar,


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he went to King Demetrius in about the year one hundred and fifty-one and presented him with a golden crown and a palm, together with the traditional olive branches from the Temple; there, for that day, he let the matter rest.


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Presently he found an opportunity to further his mad plan. When Demetrius called him into his council and questioned him about the dispositions and intentions of the Jews, he replied,


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'Those Jews called Hasidaeans, who are led by Judas Maccabaeus, are war-mongers and rebels who are preventing the kingdom from finding stability.


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That is why, after being deprived of my hereditary dignity -- I mean the high priesthood -- I have come here now,


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first out of genuine concern for the king's interests, and secondly, out of a regard for our own fellow-citizens, because the irresponsible behaviour of those I have mentioned has brought no slight misery on our entire race.


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When your majesty has taken note of all these points, may it please you to make provision for the welfare of our country and our oppressed nation, as befits the gracious benevolence you extend to all;


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No sooner had he spoken thus than the rest of the King's Friends, who were hostile to Judas' activities, stoked Demetrius' anger.


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The latter at once selected Nicanor, then commander of the elephants, promoted him to the command of Judaea and despatched him


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with instructions to dispose of Judas, disperse his followers and instal Alcimus as high priest of the greatest of temples.


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The foreigners in Judaea, who had fled before Judas, flocked to join Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and troubles of the Jews would be to their own advantage.


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When the Jews heard that Nicanor was coming and that the foreigners were about to attack, they sprinkled dust over themselves and made supplication to him who had established his people for ever and who never failed to support his own heritage by direct manifestations.


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On their leader's orders, they at once left the place where they were and confronted the enemy at the village of Dessau.


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Simon, brother of Judas, engaged Nicanor but, owing to the sudden arrival of the enemy, suffered a slight reverse.


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Nicanor, however, had heard how brave Judas and his men were and how resolutely they always fought for their country, and he did not dare allow bloodshed to decide the issue.


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And so he sent Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias to offer the Jews pledges of friendship and to accept theirs.


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After careful consideration of his terms, the leader communicated them to his troops, and since they were all clearly of one mind they agreed to the treaty.


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A day was fixed on which the respective leaders were to meet as individuals. A litter came out from either side and seats were set up.


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Judas had posted armed men in strategic positions, in case of a sudden treacherous move by the enemy. The leaders held their conference and reached agreement.


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Nicanor took up residence in Jerusalem and did nothing out of place there; indeed, he sent away the crowds that had flocked to join him.


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When Alcimus saw how friendly the two men had become, he went to Demetrius with a copy of the treaty they had signed and told him that Nicanor was harbouring thoughts against the interests of the State, and was planning that Judas, an enemy of the realm, should fill the next vacancy among the Friends of the King.


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The king flew into a rage; roused by the slanders of this villain, he wrote to Nicanor, telling him of his strong displeasure at these agreements and ordering him immediately to send Maccabaeus to Antioch in chains.


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When the letter reached Nicanor, he was very much upset, for he disliked the prospect of breaking an agreement with a man who had done nothing wrong.


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Since, however, there was no way of opposing the king, he waited for an opportunity to carry out the order by a stratagem.


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Maccabaeus began to notice that Nicanor was treating him more sharply and that his manner of speaking to him was more abrupt than it had been, and he concluded that such sharpness could have no very good motive. He therefore collected a considerable number of his followers and got away from Nicanor.


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The latter, realising that the man had well and truly outmanoeuvred him, went to the greatest and holiest of Temples when the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to surrender Judas.


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he stretched out his right hand towards the Temple and swore this oath, 'If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I shall rase this dwelling of God to the ground, I shall demolish the altar, and on this very spot I shall erect a splendid temple to Dionysus.'


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With these words he left them. The priests stretched out their hands to heaven, calling on him who has at all times done battle for our nation; this was their prayer:


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'O Lord in need of nothing, it has pleased you that the Temple where you dwell should be here with us.


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Now, therefore, holy Lord of all holiness, preserve for ever from all profanation this House, so newly purified.'


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Now, a man called Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor. He was a man who loved his countrymen and stood high in their esteem, and he was known as the father of the Jews because of his kindness.


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In the earlier days of the insurrection he had been convicted of Judaism, and he had risked both life and limb for Judaism with the utmost zeal.


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Nicanor, by way of demonstrating the enmity he had for the Jews, sent over five hundred soldiers to arrest him,


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When the troops were on the point of capturing the tower and were forcing the outer door and calling for fire to set the doors alight, Razis, finding himself completely surrounded, fell on his own sword,


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nobly resolving to die rather than fall into the clutches of these villains and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth.


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But in the heat of conflict he missed his thrust, and while the troops swarmed in through the doorways, he ran nimbly upstairs to the parapet and manfully threw himself down among the troops.


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Still breathing, and blazing with anger, he struggled to his feet, blood spurting in all directions, and despite his terrible wounds ran right through the crowd; then, taking his stand on a steep rock,


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although he had now lost every drop of blood, he tore out his entrails and taking them in both hands flung them down on the crowd, calling on the Master of his life and spirit to give them back to him one day. Thus he died.


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Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the neighbourhood of Samaria, so he decided to attack them, at no risk to himself, on the day of rest.


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Those Jews who had been compelled to follow him, said, 'Do not massacre them in such a savage, barbarous way. Respect the day on which the All-seeing has conferred a special holiness.'


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At this the triple-dyed scoundrel asked if there were in heaven a sovereign who had ordered the keeping of the Sabbath day.


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When they answered, 'The living Lord himself, the Heavenly Sovereign, has ordered the observance of the seventh day,'


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he retorted, 'And I, as sovereign on earth, order you to take up arms and do the king's business.' For all that, he did not manage to carry out his wicked plan.


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While Nicanor, in his unlimited boastfulness and pride, was planning to erect a general trophy with the spoils taken from Judas and his men,


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He urged his men not to be dismayed by the foreigners' attacks but, keeping in mind the help that had come to them from Heaven in the past, to be confident that this time too victory would be theirs with the help of the Almighty.


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He put fresh heart into them by citing the Law and the Prophets and, by stirring up memories of the battles they had already won, he filled them with new enthusiasm.


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Having thus aroused their courage, he ended his exhortation by demonstrating the treachery of the foreigners and how they had violated their oaths.


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Having armed each one of them not so much with the safety given by shield and lance as with that confidence which springs from noble language, he encouraged them all by describing to them a convincing dream -- a vision, as it were.


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What he had seen was this: Onias, the former high priest, that paragon of men, modest of bearing and gentle of manners, suitably eloquent and trained from boyhood in the practice of every virtue -- Onias was stretching out his hands and praying for the whole Jewish community.


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Next, there appeared a man equally remarkable for his great age and dignity and invested with a marvellous and impressive air of majesty.


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Onias began to speak: 'This is a man', he said, 'who loves his brothers and prays much for the people and the holy city-Jeremiah, the prophet of God.'


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Jeremiah then stretched out his right hand and presented Judas with a golden sword, saying as he gave it,


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Encouraged by the noble words of Judas, which had the power to inspire valour and give the young the spirit of mature men, they decided not to entrench themselves in a camp, but bravely to take the offensive and, in hand-to-hand fighting, to commit the result to the fortune of war, since the city, their holy religion and the Temple were in danger.


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Their concern for their wives and children, their brothers and relatives, had shrunk to minute importance; their chief and greatest fear was for the consecrated Temple.


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Those left behind in the city felt a similar anxiety, alarmed as they were about the forthcoming encounter in the open country.


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Everyone now awaited the coming issue. The enemy had already concentrated their forces and stood formed up in order of battle, with the elephants drawn up in a strategic position and the cavalry disposed on the wings.


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Maccabaeus took note of these masses confronting him, the glittering array of armour and the fierce aspect of the elephants; then, raising his hands to heaven, he called on the Lord who works miracles, in the knowledge that it is not by force of arms but as he sees fit to decide, that victory is granted by him to such as deserve it.


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His prayer was worded thus: 'You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judaea, and he destroyed no less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army;


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May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they have come with blasphemy on their lips to attack your holy people.' And on these words he finished.


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Fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they cut down at least thirty-five thousand men and were greatly cheered by this manifestation of God.


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When the engagement was over and they were withdrawing in triumph, they recognised Nicanor, lying dead in full armour.


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With shouting and confusion all around, they blessed the sovereign Master in their ancestral tongue.


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He who, as protagonist, had devoted himself, body and soul, to his fellow-citizens, and had preserved the love he felt even in youth for those of his own race, gave orders for Nicanor's head to be cut off, with his arm up to the shoulder, and taken to Jerusalem.


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When he arrived there himself, he called his countrymen together, stationed the priests in front of the altar and then sent for the people from the Citadel.


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He showed them the head of the abominable Nicanor, and the hand which this infamous man had stretched out so insolently against the holy House of the Almighty.


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Then, cutting out godless Nicanor's tongue, he gave orders for it to be fed piecemeal to the birds, and for the salary of his folly to be hung up in front of the Temple.


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At this, everyone sent blessings heavenwards to the glorious Lord, saying, 'Blessed be he who has preserved his holy place from pollution!'


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They all decreed by public vote never to let that day go by unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, called Adar in Aramaic, the eve of what is called the Day of Mordecai.


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So ends the episode of Nicanor, and as, since then, the city has remained in the possession of the Hebrews, I shall bring my own work to an end here too.


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If it is well composed and to the point, that is just what I wanted. If it is worthless and mediocre, that is all I could manage.


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Just as it is injurious to drink wine by itself, or again water alone, whereas wine mixed with water is pleasant and produces a delightful sense of well-being, so skill in presenting the incidents is what delights the understanding of those who read the book. And here I close.


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There was once a man in the land of Uz called Job: a sound and honest man who feared God and shunned evil.


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And he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-donkeys, and many servants besides. This man was the most prosperous of all the Sons of the East.


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It was the custom of his sons to hold banquets in one another's houses in turn, and to invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.


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Once each series of banquets was over, Job would send for them to come and be purified, and at dawn on the following day he would make a burnt offering for each of them. 'Perhaps', Job would say, 'my sons have sinned and in their heart blasphemed.' So that was what Job used to do each time.


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So Yahweh said to Satan, 'Where have you been?' 'Prowling about on earth,' he answered, 'roaming around there.'


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So Yahweh asked him, 'Did you pay any attention to my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest man who fears God and shuns evil.'


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Have you not put a wall round him and his house and all his domain? You have blessed all he undertakes, and his flocks throng the countryside.


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But stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his possessions: then, I warrant you, he will curse you to your face.'


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'Very well,' Yahweh said to Satan, 'all he has is in your power. But keep your hands off his person.' So Satan left the presence of Yahweh.


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a messenger came to Job. 'Your oxen', he said, 'were at the plough, with the donkeys grazing at their side,


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when the Sabaeans swept down on them and carried them off, and put the servants to the sword: I alone have escaped to tell you.'


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He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'The fire of God', he said, 'has fallen from heaven and burnt the sheep and shepherds to ashes: I alone have escaped to tell you.'


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He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'The Chaldaeans,' he said, 'three bands of them, have raided the camels and made off with them, and put the servants to the sword: I alone have escaped to tell you.'


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He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'Your sons and daughters', he said, 'were eating and drinking at their eldest brother's house,


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when suddenly from the desert a gale sprang up, and it battered all four corners of the house which fell in on the young people. They are dead: I alone have escaped to tell you.'


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Then Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head. Then, falling to the ground, he prostrated himself


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and said: Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return again. Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken back. Blessed be the name of Yahweh!


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So Yahweh asked him, 'Did you pay any attention to my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest man who fears God and shuns evil. He persists in his integrity still; you achieved nothing by provoking me to ruin him.'


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But stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his bone and flesh; I warrant you, he will curse you to your face.'


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So Satan left the presence of Yahweh. He struck Job down with malignant ulcers from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.


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'That is how a fool of a woman talks,' Job replied. 'If we take happiness from God's hand, must we not take sorrow too?' And in all this misfortune Job uttered no sinful word.


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The news of all the disasters that had fallen on Job came to the ears of three of his friends. Each of them set out from home -- Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah and Zophar of Naamath -- and by common consent they decided to go and offer him sympathy and consolation.


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Looking at him from a distance, they could not recognise him; they wept aloud and tore their robes and threw dust over their heads.


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They sat there on the ground beside him for seven days and seven nights. To Job they spoke never a word, for they saw how much he was suffering.


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May murk and shadow dark as death claim it for their own, clouds hang over it, eclipse swoop down on it.


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See! Let obscurity seize on it, from the days of the year let it be excluded, into the reckoning of the months not find its way.


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Dark be the stars of its morning, let it wait in vain for light and never see the opening eyes of dawn.


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or, put away like an abortive child, I should not have existed, like little ones that never see the light.


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And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed!


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Someone stood there -- I did not know his face, but the form stayed there before my eyes. Silence -- then I heard a voice,


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They are crushed as easily as a moth, between morning and evening they are ground to powder. They vanish for ever, with no one to bring them back.


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their harvest goes to feed the hungry, God snatches it from their mouths, and covetous people thirst for their possessions.


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He traps the crafty in the snare of their own trickery, throws the plans of the cunning into disarray.


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The arrows of Shaddai stick fast in me, my spirit absorbs their poison, God's terrors stand paraded against me.


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This thought, at least, would give me comfort (a thrill of joy in unrelenting pain), that I never rebelled against the Holy One's decrees.


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Lying in bed I wonder, 'When will it be day?' No sooner up than, 'When will evening come?' And crazy thoughts obsess me till twilight falls.


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The eye that once saw me will look on me no more, your eyes will turn my way, and I shall not be there.


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That is why I cannot keep quiet: in my anguish of spirit I shall speak, in my bitterness of soul I shall complain.


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Suppose I have sinned, what have I done to you, you tireless watcher of humanity? Why do you choose me as your target? Why should I be a burden to you?


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Can you not tolerate my sin, not overlook my fault? For soon I shall be lying in the dust, you will look for me and I shall be no more.


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Even if I am upright, what point is there in answering him? I can only plead for mercy with my judge!


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If I prove myself upright, his mouth may condemn me, even if I am innocent, he may pronounce me perverse.


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When a country falls into the power of the wicked, he veils the faces of its judges. Or if not he, who else?


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Since I have lost all taste for life, I shall give free rein to my complaining; I shall let my embittered soul speak out.


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Is it right for you to attack me, in contempt for what you yourself have made, thus abetting the schemes of the wicked?


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Woe to me, if I am guilty; even if I am upright, I dare not lift my head, so overwhelmed with shame and drunk with pain am I!


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attacking me again and again, your fury against me ever increasing, your troops assailing me, wave after wave.


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show you the secrets of wisdom which put all cleverness to shame? Then you would realise that God is calling you to account for your sin.


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Hence empty-headed people would do well to study sense and people who behave like wild donkeys to let themselves be tamed.


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If you repudiate the sin which you have doubtless committed and do not allow wickedness to live on in your tents,


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But as for the wicked, their eyes are weary, there is no refuge for them; their only hope is to breathe their last.


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But I have a brain, as well as you, I am in no way inferior to you, and who, in any case, does not know all that?


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Anyone becomes a laughing-stock to his friends if he cries to God and expects an answer. People laugh at anyone who has integrity and is upright.


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And yet the tents of brigands are left in peace: those who provoke God dwell secure and so does anyone who makes a god of his fist!


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You have only to ask the cattle, for them to instruct you, and the birds of the sky, for them to inform you.


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The creeping things of earth will give you lessons, and the fish of the sea provide you an explanation:


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Can the ear not distinguish the value of what is said, just as the palate can tell one food from another?


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Since his days are measured out, since his tale of months depends on you, since you assign him bounds he cannot pass,


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There is always hope for a tree: when felled, it can start its life again; its shoots continue to sprout.


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a human being, once laid to rest, will never rise again, the heavens will wear out before he wakes up, or before he is roused from his sleep.


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Will no one hide me in Sheol, and shelter me there till your anger is past, fixing a certain day for calling me to mind-


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can the dead come back to life? - day after day of my service, I should be waiting for my relief to come.


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water wears away the stones, the cloudburst erodes the soil; so you destroy whatever hope a person has.


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His children may rise to honours -- he does not know it; they may come down in the world -- he does not care.


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The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for the assault.


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but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he will cast his shadow over the country no longer,


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(he will not escape the dark). A flame will scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.


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Oh yes! I too could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could overwhelm you with speeches, shaking my head over you,


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now it rounds on me, my slanderer has now turned witness, he appears against me, accusing me face to face;


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I was living at peace, until he made me totter, taking me by the neck to shatter me. He has set me up as his target:


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he shoots his arrows at me from all sides, pitilessly pierces my loins, and pours my gall out on the ground.


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Just so is a man who invites his friends to share his property while the eyes of his own children languish.


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Tear yourself to pieces if you will, but the world, for all your rage, will not turn to desert, the rocks will not shift from their places.


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You can live in the tent, since it is no longer his, and brimstone will be scattered on his sheepfold.


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Such indeed is the fate of the places where wickedness dwells -- the home of everyone who knows not God.


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If I protest against such violence, I am not heard, if I appeal against it, judgement is never given.


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His troops have come in force, directing their line of advance towards me, they are now encamped round my tent.


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He whom I shall see will take my part: my eyes will be gazing on no stranger. My heart sinks within me.


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You yourselves had best beware the sword, since the wrath bursts into flame at wicked deeds and then you will learn that there is indeed a judgement!


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When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness will fade, and the satisfied air he had when business was thriving.


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When he has everything he needs, want will seize him, and misery will light on him with all its force.


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all the hidden darknesses are waiting to carry him off. A fire unlit by human hand devours him, and consumes what is left in his tent.


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Do we often see the light of the wicked put out, or disaster overtake him, or the retribution of God destroy his possessions,


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So God is storing up punishment for his children? But the wicked himself should be punished, and should know it!


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Once he is gone, what joy can he gain from his family, once the number of his months has been cut off?


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'What has become of the great lord's house,' you say, 'where is the tent where the wicked used to live?'


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Can a human being contribute anything to God, when even someone intelligent can benefit only himself?


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And because he is up there, you have said, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud?


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Yet he himself had filled their houses with good things, although excluded from the plans of the wicked!


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Would he put all his strength into this debate with me? No, he would only have to give his attention to me,


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I have not neglected the commandment of his lips, in my heart I have cherished the words of his mouth.


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Like wild desert donkeys, they go out to work, searching from dawn for food, and at evening for something on which to feed their children.


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They go harvesting in the field of some scoundrel, they go pilfering in the vineyards of the wicked.


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Two little walls, their shelter at high noon; parched with thirst, they have to tread the winepress.


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From the towns come the groans of the dying and the gasp of the wounded crying for help. Yet God remains deaf to prayer!


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In contrast, there are those who reject the light: who know nothing of its ways and who do not frequent its paths.


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When all is dark the murderer leaves his bed to kill the poor and needy. During the night the thief goes on the prowl,


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The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, 'No one will see me,' he mutters as he masks his face. In the daytime they keep out of sight, these people who do not want to know the light.


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For all of them, morning is a time of shadow dark as death, since that is when they know what fear is.


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Why, the very moon lacks lustre, the very stars seem impure to him! The Shadows tremble underneath the earth, the waters and their denizens are afraid.


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How much less a human, this maggot, the child of man, this worm! Before his eyes, Sheol is bare, Perdition itself is uncovered.


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This is only a fraction of what he has done and all we catch of it is the feeblest echo. But who can conceive the thunder of his power?


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And if you had all understood them for yourselves, you would not have wasted your breath in empty words.


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This is the fate that God assigns to the wicked, the inheritance that the violent receive from Shaddai.


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Though he have many children, it is but for the sword; his descendants will never have enough to eat.


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He goes to bed rich, but never again: he wakes to find it has all gone. As drought and heat make snow disappear, so does Sheol anyone who has sinned.


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Terror assails him in broad daylight, and at night a whirlwind sweeps him off. The womb that shaped him forgets him and his name is recalled no longer. Thus wickedness is blasted as a tree is struck.


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An east wind picks him up and drags him away, snatching him up from his homestead. He used to ill-treat the childless woman and show no kindness to the widow.


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Pitilessly he is turned into a target, and forced to flee from the hands that menace him. But he who lays mighty hold on tyrants rises up to take away a life that seemed secure.


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His downfall is greeted with applause, he is hissed wherever he goes. He is no more than a straw floating on the water, his estate is accursed throughout the land, nobody goes near his vineyard. He let him build his hopes on false security, but kept his eyes on every step he took.


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He had his time of glory, now he vanishes, wilting like the saltwort once it is picked, and withering like an ear of corn.


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Then he said to human beings, 'Wisdom? - that is fear of the Lord; Intelligence? - avoidance of evil.'


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As their chief, I told them which course to take, like a king living among his troops, and I led them wherever I chose.


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And now I am the laughing-stock of people who are younger than I am and whose parents I would have disdained to put with the dogs guarding my flock.


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worn out by want and hunger, for they used to gnaw the roots of the thirsty ground -- that place of gloom, ruin and desolation-


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And since God has loosened my bow-string and afflicted me, they too throw off the bridle in my presence.


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Their brats surge forward on my right, to see when I am having a little peace, and advance on me with threatening strides.


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Terror rounds on me, my confidence is dispersed as though by the wind, my hope of safety vanishes like a cloud.


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If my feet have wandered from the rightful path, or if my eyes have led my heart astray, or if my hands are smirched with any stain,


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without his having cause to bless me from his heart, as he felt the warmth of the fleece from my lambs?


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The people of my tent, did they not say, 'Will anyone name a person whom he has not filled with meat?'


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Have I ever stood in fear of common gossip, or dreaded any family's contempt, and so kept quiet, not venturing out of doors?


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Will no one give me a hearing? I have said my last word; now let Shaddai reply! When my adversary has drafted his writ against me


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I shall give him an account of my every step and go as boldly as a prince to meet him. End of the words of Job.


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But Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became very angry. He fumed with rage against Job for thinking that he was right and God was wrong;


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and he was equally angry with the three friends for giving up the argument and thus putting God in the wrong.


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And Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite began to speak. He said: I am still young, and you are old, so I was shy and hesitant to tell you what I know.


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Up to now, I was hanging on your words, I paid attention to your arguments as each of you chose his words.


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I paid very close attention; and I see that none of you has confounded Job, not one of you has refuted what he says.


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I am not going to follow the same line of argument; my reply to Job will be couched in different terms.


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Then, if there is an Angel near him, a Mediator, one in a thousand, to remind him where his duty lies,


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to take pity on him and to say, 'Spare him from going down to the abyss: I have found the ransom for his life,'


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He will pray to God who has restored him to favour, and will come into his presence with joy. He will tell others how he has received saving justice


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and sing this hymn before his companions, 'I sinned and left the path of right, but God has not punished me as my sin deserved.


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who is unimpressed by princes and makes no distinction between rich and poor, since all alike have been made by him?


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They die suddenly, at dead of night, they perish -- these great ones -- and disappear: it costs him no effort to remove a tyrant.


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But if he is still silent and no one can move him, if he veils his face, so that no one can see him, he is taking pity on nations and individuals,


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in your opinion, should he punish such a one -- you who have rejected his decisions? This is for you to decide -- not for me!- so kindly enlighten us!


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Ordinary sensible people, however, will say to me, and so will any sage who has been listening to me,


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by daring to say to him, 'What does it matter to you, or how does it benefit me, whether I have sinned or not?'


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he does uphold what the upright deserve. When he raises kings to thrones, if they grow proud of their unending rule,


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If they take notice and obey him, the rest of their days are prosperous and the years pass pleasantly.


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You, too, he would like to snatch from torment. While you were enjoying boundless abundance, with rich food piled high on your table,


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After it comes a roaring sound, God thunders with majestic voice. He does not check his thunderbolts until his voice resounds no more.


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He himself guides their wheeling motion presiding over their seasonal changes. They carry out his orders to the letter all over this earthly world.


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There are times when the light vanishes, behind darkening clouds; then comes the wind, sweeping them away.


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he, Shaddai, is far beyond our reach. Supreme in power, in equity, excelling in saving justice, yet no oppressor-


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From which direction does the lightning fork, where in the world does the east wind blow itself out?


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Who makes provision for the raven when his little ones cry out to God craning their necks in search of food?


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At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly. He scents the battle from afar, the thundering of the commanders and the war cry.


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If the river overflows, he does not worry: Jordan might come up to his mouth, but he would not care.


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I was the man who misrepresented your intentions with my ignorant words. You have told me about great works that I cannot understand, about marvels which are beyond me, of which I know nothing.


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When Yahweh had finished saying this to Job, he said to Eliphaz of Teman, 'I burn with anger against you and your two friends, for not having spoken correctly about me as my servant Job has done.


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So now find seven bullocks and seven rams, and take them back with you to my servant Job and make a burnt offering for yourselves, while Job, my servant, offers prayers for you. I shall show him favour and shall not inflict my displeasure on you for not having spoken about me correctly, as my servant Job has done.'


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Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah and Zophar of Naamath went away to do as Yahweh had ordered, and Yahweh listened to Job with favour.


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And Yahweh restored Job's condition, while Job was interceding for his friends. More than that, Yahweh gave him double what he had before.


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And all his brothers and all his sisters and all his friends of former times came to see him. Over dinner in his house, they showed their sympathy and comforted him for all the evils Yahweh had inflicted on him. Each of them gave him a silver coin, and each a gold ring.


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Yahweh blessed Job's latter condition even more than his former one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys.


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Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers.


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After this, Job lived for another one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and his children's children to the fourth generation.


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How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked and does not take a stand in the path that sinners tread, nor a seat in company with cynics,


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Such a one is like a tree planted near streams; it bears fruit in season and its leaves never wither, and every project succeeds.


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Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your birthright, the whole wide world as your possession.


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with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry and your way come to nothing, for his fury flares up in a moment. How blessed are all who take refuge in him!


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[Psalm Of David When he was fleeing from his son Absalom] Yahweh, how countless are my enemies, how countless those who rise up against me,


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I have no fear of people in their thousands upon thousands, who range themselves against me wherever I turn.


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Arise, Yahweh, rescue me, my God! You strike all my foes across the face, you break the teeth of the wicked.


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[For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of David] When I call, answer me, God, upholder of my right. In my distress you have set me at large; take pity on me and hear my prayer!


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Children of men, how long will you be heavy of heart, why love what is vain and chase after illusions?Pause


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Many keep saying, 'Who will put happiness before our eyes?' Let the light of your face shine on us. Yahweh,


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In peace I lie down and at once fall asleep, for it is you and none other, Yahweh, who make me rest secure.


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[For the choirmaster For flutes Psalm Of David] Give ear to my words, Yahweh, spare a thought for my sighing.


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But, so great is your faithful love, I may come into your house, and before your holy temple bow down in reverence of you.


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In your saving justice, Yahweh, lead me, because of those who lie in wait for me; make your way plain before me.


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Not a word from their lips can be trusted, through and through they are destruction, their throats are wide -- open graves, their tongues seductive.


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Lay the guilt on them, God, make their intrigues their own downfall; for their countless offences, thrust them from you, since they have rebelled against you.


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But joy for all who take refuge in you, endless songs of gladness! You shelter them, they rejoice in you, those who love your name.


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[For the choirmaster For strings For the octachord Psalm Of David] Yahweh, let your rebuke to me not be in anger, your punishment not in the heat of wrath.


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Let all my enemies be put to confusion, shaken to their depths, let them retreat in sudden confusion.


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[Lament Of David Which he sang to Yahweh about Cush the Benjaminite] Yahweh my God, I take refuge in you, save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,


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may an enemy hunt me down and catch me, may he trample my life into the ground and crush my vital parts into the dust. Pause


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Arise, Yahweh, in your anger, rise up against the arrogance of my foes. Awake, my God, you demand judgement.


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Put an end to the malice of the wicked, make the upright stand firm, you who discern hearts and minds, God the upright.


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[For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Psalm Of David] Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world! Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,


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even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms, you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.


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what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him?


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[For the choirmaster On oboe and harp Psalm Of David] I thank you, Yahweh, with my whole heart, I recount all your wonders,


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the enemy is wiped out -- mere ruins for ever -- you have annihilated their cities, their memory has perished. See,


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that I may recount all your praises at the gates of the daughter of Zion and rejoice in your salvation.


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Yahweh has made himself known, given judgement, he has ensnared the wicked in the work of their own hands. Muted music Pause


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In all circumstances his step is assured; your judgements are above his head. His rivals? He scoffs at them all.


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he wishes it on others. His speech is full of lies and browbeating, under his tongue lurk spite and wickedness.


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In the undergrowth he lies in ambush, in his hiding-place he murders the innocent. He watches intently for the downtrodden,


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lurking unseen like a lion in his lair, lurking to pounce on the poor; he pounces on him and drags him off in his net.


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You have seen for yourself the trouble and vexation, you watch so as to take it in hand. The oppressed relies on you; you are the only recourse of the orphan.


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to give judgement for the orphaned and exploited, so that earthborn humans may strike terror no more.


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[For the choirmaster Of David] In Yahweh I have found refuge. How can you say to me, 'Bird, flee to your mountain?


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'For look, the wicked are drawing their bows, fitting their arrows to the string to shoot honest men from the shadows.


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Yahweh in his holy temple! Yahweh, his throne is in heaven; his eyes watch over the world, his gaze scrutinises the children of Adam.


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He will rain down red-hot coals, fire and sulphur on the wicked, a scorching wind will be their lot.


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[For the choirmaster On the octachord Psalm Of David] Help, Yahweh! No one loyal is left, the faithful have vanished from among the children of Adam.


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'For the poor who are plundered, the needy who groan, now will I act,' says Yahweh, 'I will grant salvation to those who sigh for it.'


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Yahweh's promises are promises unalloyed, natural silver which comes from the earth seven times refined.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] How long, Yahweh, will you forget me? For ever? How long will you turn away your face from me?


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How long must I nurse rebellion in my soul, sorrow in my heart day and night? How long is the enemy to domineer over me?


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As for me, I trust in your faithful love, Yahweh. Let my heart delight in your saving help, let me sing to Yahweh for his generosity to me, let me sing to the name of Yahweh the Most High!


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[For the choirmaster Of David] The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' Their deeds are corrupt and vile, not one of them does right.


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Yahweh looks down from heaven at the children of Adam. To see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.


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Are they not aware, all these evil-doers? They are devouring my people, this is the bread they eat, and they never call to Yahweh.


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They will be gripped with fear, where there is no need for fear, for God takes the side of the upright;


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Who will bring from Zion salvation for Israel? When Yahweh brings his people home, what joy for Jacob, what happiness for Israel!


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who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbour,


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who looks with scorn on the vile, but honours those who fear Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost,


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who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken.


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People flock to their teeming idols. Never shall I pour libations to them! Never take their names on my lips.


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You will teach me the path of life, unbounded joy in your presence, at your right hand delight for ever.


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[Prayer Of David] Listen, Yahweh, to an upright cause, pay attention to my cry, lend an ear to my prayer, my lips free from deceit.


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You probe my heart, examine me at night, you test me by fire and find no evil. I have not sinned with my mouth


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They are advancing against me, now they are closing in, watching for the chance to hurl me to the ground,


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Yahweh, from mortals, by your hand, from mortals whose part in life is in this world. You fill their bellies from your store, their children will have all they desire, and leave their surplus to their children.


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But I in my uprightness will see your face, and when I awake I shall be filled with the vision of you.


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[For the choirmaster Of David, the servant of Yahweh, who addressed the words of this song to Yahweh when Yahweh had delivered him from all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul. He said:] I love you, Yahweh, my strength (my Saviour, you have saved me from violence).


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Yahweh is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.


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I called to Yahweh in my anguish, I cried for help to my God; from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears.


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Then the earth quaked and rocked, the mountains' foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.


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The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world's foundations were laid bare, at your roaring, Yahweh, at the blast of breath from your nostrils!


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You free me from the quarrels of my people, you place me at the head of the nations, a people I did not know are now my servants;


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who rescues me from my raging enemies. You lift me high above those who attack me, you deliver me from the man of violence.


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He saves his king time after time, displays his faithful love for his anointed, for David and his heirs for ever.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] The heavens declare the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork,


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but from the entire earth the design stands out, this message reaches the whole world. High above, he pitched a tent for the sun,


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who comes forth from his pavilion like a bridegroom, delights like a champion in the course to be run.


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The Law of Yahweh is perfect, refreshment to the soul; the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy, wisdom for the simple.


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The precepts of Yahweh are honest, joy for the heart; the commandment of Yahweh is pure, light for the eyes.


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The fear of Yahweh is pure, lasting for ever; the judgements of Yahweh are true, upright, every one,


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more desirable than gold, even than the finest gold; his words are sweeter than honey, that drips from the comb.


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And from pride preserve your servant, never let it be my master. So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin.


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May the words of my mouth always find favour, and the whispering of my heart, in your presence, Yahweh, my rock, my redeemer.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] May Yahweh answer you in time of trouble, may the name of the God of Jacob protect you!


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So that with joy we can hail your victory and draw up our ranks in the name of our God. May Yahweh grant all your petitions.


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Now I know that Yahweh gives victory to his anointed. He will respond from his holy heavens with great deeds of victory from his right hand.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Yahweh, the king rejoices in your power; How your saving help fills him with joy!


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For the king puts his trust in Yahweh; the faithful love of the Most High will keep him from falling.


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You will hurl them into a blazing furnace on the day when you appear; Yahweh will engulf them in his anger, and fire will devour them.


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[For the choirmaster To 'the Doe of the Dawn' Psalm Of David] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me.


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'He trusted himself to Yahweh, let Yahweh set him free! Let him deliver him, as he took such delight in him.'


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My strength is trickling away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart has turned to wax, melting inside me.


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A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing in on me as if to hack off my hands and my feet.


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'You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All the race of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all the race of Israel!'


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For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the poor, has not turned away his face, but has listened to the cry for help.


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The poor will eat and be filled, those who seek Yahweh will praise him, 'May your heart live for ever.'


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The whole wide world will remember and return to Yahweh, all the families of nations bow down before him.


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All who prosper on earth will bow before him, all who go down to the dust will do reverence before him. And those who are dead,


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still to come; and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn: he has fulfilled it.


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Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side. Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me.


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You prepare a table for me under the eyes of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup brims over.


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Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life. I make my home in the house of Yahweh for all time to come.


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The clean of hands and pure of heart, whose heart is not set on vanities, who does not swear an oath in order to deceive.


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ENCOURAGE me to walk in your truth and teach me since you are the God who saves me. FOR my hope is in you all day long -- such is your generosity, Yahweh.


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KINDNESS unfailing and constancy mark all Yahweh's paths, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.


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[Of David] Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? Yahweh is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread?


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When the wicked advance against me to eat me up, they, my opponents, my enemies, are the ones who stumble and fall.


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Though an army pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear, though war break out against me, my trust will never be shaken.


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One thing I ask of Yahweh, one thing I seek: to dwell in Yahweh's house all the days of my life, to enjoy the sweetness of Yahweh, to seek out his temple.


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For he hides me away under his roof on the day of evil, he folds me in the recesses of his tent, sets me high on a rock.


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Now my head is held high above the enemies who surround me; in his tent I will offer sacrifices of acclaim. I will sing, I will make music for Yahweh.


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do not turn away from me. Do not thrust aside your servant in anger, without you I am helpless. Never leave me, never forsake me, God, my Saviour.


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do not abandon me to the will of my foes -- false witnesses have risen against me, and are breathing out violence.


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[Of David] To you, Yahweh, I cry, my rock, do not be deaf to me! If you stay silent I shall be like those who sink into oblivion.


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Hear the sound of my prayer when I call upon you, when I raise my hands, Yahweh, towards your Holy of Holies.


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Do not drag me away with the wicked, with evil-doers, who talk to their partners of peace with treachery in their hearts.


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Repay them as their deeds deserve, as befits their treacherous actions; as befits their handiwork repay them, let their deserts fall back on themselves.


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They do not comprehend the deeds of Yahweh, the work of his hands. May he pull them down and not rebuild them!


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Yahweh is my strength and my shield, in him my heart trusts. I have been helped; my body has recovered its vigour, with all my heart I thank him.


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[Psalm Canticle for the Dedication of the House Of David] I praise you to the heights, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, you have not let my foes make merry over me.


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Yahweh, you have lifted me out of Sheol, from among those who sink into oblivion you have given me life.


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His anger lasts but a moment, his favour through life; In the evening come tears, but with dawn cries of joy.


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Your favour, Yahweh, set me on impregnable heights, but you turned away your face and I was terrified.


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What point is there in my death, my going down to the abyss? Can the dust praise you or proclaim your faithfulness?


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You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have stripped off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] In you, Yahweh, I have taken refuge, let me never be put to shame, in your saving justice deliver me, rescue me,


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I will delight and rejoice in your faithful love! You, who have seen my misery, and witnessed the miseries of my soul,


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Take pity on me, Yahweh, for I am in trouble. Vexation is gnawing away my eyes, my soul deep within me.


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For my life is worn out with sorrow, and my years with sighs. My strength gives way under my misery, and my bones are all wasted away.


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The sheer number of my enemies makes me contemptible, loathsome to my neighbours, and my friends shrink from me in horror. When people see me in the street they take to their heels.


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All I hear is slander -- terror wherever I turn -- as they plot together against me, scheming to take my life.


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I call on you, Yahweh, so let disgrace fall not on me, but on the wicked. Let them go down to Sheol in silence,


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Yahweh, what quantities of good things you have in store for those who fear you, and bestow on those who make you their refuge, for all humanity to see.


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Safe in your presence you hide them, far from human plotting, shielding them in your tent, far from contentious tongues.


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In a state of terror I cried, 'I have been cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my plea for help when I cried out to you.


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Love Yahweh, all his faithful: Yahweh protects his loyal servants, but he repays the arrogant with interest.


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day and night your hand lay heavy upon me; my heart grew parched as stubble in summer drought. Pause


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I made my sin known to you, did not conceal my guilt. I said, 'I shall confess my offence to Yahweh.' And you, for your part, took away my guilt, forgave my sin. Pause


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That is why each of your faithful ones prays to you in time of distress. Even if great floods overflow, they will never reach your faithful.


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Be not like a horse or a mule; that does not understand bridle or bit; if you advance to master them, there is no means of bringing them near.


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Countless troubles are in store for the wicked, but one who trusts in Yahweh is enfolded in his faithful love.


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[Of David, when he had feigned insanity before Abimelech, and Abimelech sent him away] I will bless Yahweh at all times, his praise continually on my lips.


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Yahweh ransoms the lives of those who serve him, and there will be no penalty for those who take refuge in him.


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Shame and humiliation on those who are out to kill me! Defeat and repulse in dismay on those who plot my downfall.


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Ruin comes upon them unawares; the snare they have laid will catch them, and into their own trap they will fall.


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My very bones will all exclaim, Yahweh, who can compare with you in rescuing the poor from the oppressor; the needy from the exploiter?


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But I, when they were ill, had worn sackcloth, and mortified myself with fasting, praying ever anew in my heart,


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as if for a friend or brother; I had wandered restless, as if mourning a mother, so bowed had I been in sorrow.


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When I stumble they gather in glee, gather around me; strangers I never even knew tear me apart incessantly.


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How much longer, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their onslaughts, from young lions rescue the one life that I have.


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They have no greeting of peace to the peace-loving people of the land; they think up deceptive speeches.


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Shame and dismay on them all who gloat over my misfortunes. Let all who profit at my expense be covered with shame and disgrace.


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But let all who delight in my uprightness shout for joy and gladness; let them constantly say, 'Great is Yahweh, who delights to see his servant in peace.'


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[For the choirmaster Of the servant of Yahweh Of David] Sin is the oracle of the wicked in the depths of his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.


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he hatches malicious plots even in his bed; once set on his evil course no wickedness is too much for him.


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your saving justice is like towering mountains, your judgements like the mighty deep. Yahweh, you support both man and beast;


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how precious, God, is your faithful love. So the children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings.


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Maintain your faithful love to those who acknowledge you, and your saving justice to the honest of heart.


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Stay quiet before Yahweh, wait longingly for him, do not get heated over someone who is making a fortune, succeeding by devious means.


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for evil-doers will be annihilated, while those who hope in Yahweh shall have the land for their own.


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A little while and the wicked will be no more, however well you search for the place, the wicked will not be there;


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Though the wicked draw his sword and bend his bow to slaughter the honest and bring down the poor and the needy,


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The wicked, enemies of Yahweh, will be destroyed, they will vanish like the green of the pasture, they will vanish in smoke.


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Now I am old, but ever since my youth I never saw an upright person abandoned, or the descendants of the upright forced to beg their bread.


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for Yahweh loves justice and will not forsake his faithful. Evil-doers will perish eternally, the descendants of the wicked be annihilated,


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Yahweh will never abandon him to the clutches of the wicked, nor let him be condemned if he is tried.


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Put your hope in Yahweh, keep to his path, he will raise you up to make the land your own; you will look on while the wicked are annihilated.


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Yahweh helps them and rescues them, he will rescue them from the wicked, and save them because they take refuge in him.


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[Psalm Of David In commemoration] Yahweh, do not correct me in anger, do not discipline me in wrath.


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Those with designs on my life lay snares, those who wish me ill speak of violence and hatch treachery all day long.


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[For the choirmaster For Jeduthun Psalm Of David] I said, 'I will watch how I behave so that I do not sin by my tongue. I will keep a muzzle on my mouth as long as any sinner is near.'


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My heart had been smouldering within me, but at the thought of this it flared up and the words came bursting out,


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'Look, you have given me but a hand's breadth or two of life, the length of my life is as nothing to you. Every human being that stands on earth is a mere puff of wind,


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every human being that walks only a shadow; a mere puff of wind is the wealth stored away -- no knowing who will profit from it.'


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You correct human beings by punishing sin, like a moth you eat away all their desires -- a human being is a mere puff of wind.


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Yahweh, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for help, do not remain deaf to my weeping. For I am a stranger in your house, a nomad like all my ancestors.


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[For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] I waited, I waited for Yahweh, then he stooped to me and heard my cry for help.


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He pulled me up from the seething chasm, from the mud of the mire. He set my feet on rock, and made my footsteps firm.


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He put a fresh song in my mouth, praise of our God. Many will be awestruck at the sight, and will put their trust in Yahweh.


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How blessed are those who put their trust in Yahweh, who have not sided with rebels and those who have gone astray in falsehood.


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How much you have done, Yahweh, my God -- your wonders, your plans for us -- you have no equal. I will proclaim and speak of them; they are beyond number.


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You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me an open ear, you did not ask for burnt offering or sacrifice for sin;


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I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know.


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I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly.


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You, Yahweh, have not withheld your tenderness from me; your faithful and steadfast love will always guard me.


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For troubles surround me, until they are beyond number; my sins have overtaken me; I cannot see my way. They outnumber the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.


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Shame and dismay to all who seek to take my life. Back with them, let them be humiliated who delight in my misfortunes.


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But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you! Let them ceaselessly cry, 'Great is Yahweh' who love your saving power.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Blessed is anyone who cares for the poor and the weak; in time of trouble Yahweh rescues him.


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Yahweh protects him, gives him life and happiness on earth. Do not abandon him to his enemies' pleasure!


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When people come to see me their talk is hollow, when they get out they spread the news with spite in their hearts.


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[For the choirmaster Poem Of the sons of Korah] As a deer yearns for running streams, so I yearn for you, my God.


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This I remember as I pour out my heart, how I used to pass under the roof of the Most High used to go to the house of God, among cries of joy and praise, the sound of the feast.


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my God. When I am downcast I think of you: from the land of Jordan and Hermon, I think of you, humble mountain.


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Deep is calling to deep by the roar of your cataracts, all your waves and breakers have rolled over me.


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In the daytime God sends his faithful love, and even at night; the song it inspires in me is a prayer to my living God.


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I shall say to God, my rock, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go around in mourning, harrassed by the enemy?'


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Judge me, God, defend my cause against a people who have no faithful love; from those who are treacherous and unjust, rescue me.


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For you are the God of my strength; why abandon me? Why must I go around in mourning, harrassed by the enemy?


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Send out your light and your truth; they shall be my guide, to lead me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell.


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Then I shall go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy. I will rejoice and praise you on the harp, O God, my God.


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[For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Poem] God, we have heard for ourselves, our ancestors have told us, of the deeds you did in their days, in days of old,


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by your hand. To establish them in the land you drove out nations, to make room for them you harried peoples.


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It was not their own sword that won the land, nor their own arms which made them victorious, but your hand it was and your arm, and the light of your presence, for you loved them.


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of the sons of Korah Poem Love song] My heart is stirred by a noble theme, I address my poem to the king, my tongue the pen of an expert scribe.


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Of all men you are the most handsome, gracefulness is a dew upon your lips, for God has blessed you for ever.


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ride on in the cause of truth, gentleness and uprightness. Stretch the bowstring tight, lending terror to your right hand.


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you love uprightness and detest evil. This is why God, your God, has anointed you with oil of gladness, as none of your rivals,


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in brocade, the king's daughter is led within to the king with the maidens of her retinue; her companions are brought to her,


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I will make your name endure from generation to generation, so nations will sing your praise for ever and ever.


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[For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah For oboe Song] God is both refuge and strength for us, a help always ready in trouble;


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so we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil, though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,


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and its waters roar and seethe, and the mountains totter as it heaves. (Yahweh Sabaoth is with us, our citadel, the God of Jacob.)Pause


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There is a river whose streams bring joy to God's city, it sanctifies the dwelling of the Most High.


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he puts an end to wars over the whole wide world, he breaks the bow, he snaps the spear, shields he burns in the fire.


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[For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Clap your hands, all peoples, acclaim God with shouts of joy.


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The leaders of the nations rally to the people of the God of Abraham. The shields of the earth belong to God, who is exalted on high.


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[Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah] Great is Yahweh and most worthy of praise in the city of our God, the holy mountain,


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towering in beauty, the joy of the whole world: Mount Zion in the heart of the north, the settlement of the great king;


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What we had heard we saw for ourselves in the city of our God, in the city of Yahweh Sabaoth, which God has established for ever. Pause


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Both your name and your praise, God, are over the whole wide world. Your right hand is full of saving justice,


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[For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Hear this, all nations, listen, all who dwell on earth,


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For he will see the wise also die no less than the fool and the brute, and leave their wealth behind for others.


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For ever no home but their tombs, their dwelling-place age after age, though they gave their name to whole territories.


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They are penned in Sheol like sheep, Death will lead them to pasture, and those who are honest will rule over them. In the morning all trace of them will be gone, Sheol will be their home.


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he is coming, our God, and will not be silent. Devouring fire ahead of him, raging tempest around him,


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But to the wicked, God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes, to take my covenant on your lips,


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You do this, and am I to say nothing? Do you think that I am really like you? I charge you, indict you to your face.


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[For the choirmaster Of David When the prophet Nathan had come to him because he had gone to Bathsheba] Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offences;


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Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement,


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Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice.


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Then you will delight in upright sacrifices,-burnt offerings and whole oblations -- and young bulls will be offered on your altar.


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[For the choirmaster Poem Of David When Doeg the Edomite went and warned Saul, 'David has gone to Abimelech's house'] Why take pride in being wicked, you champion in villainy, all day long


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That is why God will crush you, destroy you once and for all, snatch you from your tent, uproot you from the land of the living. Pause


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'So much for someone who would not place his reliance in God, but relied on his own great wealth, and made himself strong by crime.'


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But I, like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God, put my trust in God's faithful love, for ever and ever.


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I shall praise you for ever for what you have done, and shall trust in your name, so full of goodness, in the presence of your faithful.


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[For the choirmaster In sickness Poem Of David] The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God!' They are corrupt, vile and unjust, not one of them does right.


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God looks down from heaven at the children of Adam, to see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.


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Are they not aware, these evil-doers? They are devouring my people; this is the bread they eat, and they never call upon God.


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They will be gripped with fear, just where there is no need for fear, for God scatters the bones of him who besieges you; they are mocked because God rejects them.


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Who will bring from Zion salvation for Israel? When God brings his people home, what joy for Jacob, what happiness for Israel!


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[For the choirmaster On stringed instruments Poem Of David When the Ziphites went to Saul and said,'Is not David hiding with us?'] God, save me by your name, in your power vindicate me.


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Arrogant men are attacking me, bullies hounding me to death, no room in their thoughts for God. Pause


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May their wickedness recoil on those who lie in wait for me. Yahweh, in your constancy destroy them.


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at the enemy's shouts, at the outcry of the wicked; they heap up charges against me, in their anger bring hostile accusations against me.


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destructive tempest, Lord, from the flood of their tongues. For I see violence and strife in the city,


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Were it an enemy who insulted me, that I could bear; if an opponent pitted himself against me, I could turn away from him.


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But God will listen and will humble them, he who has been enthroned from the beginning; no change of heart for them, for they do not fear God.


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though their mouth is smoother than butter, enmity is in their hearts; their words more soothing than oil, yet sharpened like swords.


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You, God, will thrust them down to the abyss of destruction, men bloodthirsty and deceptive, before half their days are spent. For my part, I put my trust in you.


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'The oppression of distant princes' Of David In a quiet voice When the Philistines seized him in Gath] Take pity on me, God, as they harry me, pressing their attacks home all day.


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in God, whose word I praise, in God I put my trust and have no fear, what power has human strength over me?


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice When he escaped from Saul in the cave] Take pity on me, God, take pity on me, for in you I take refuge, in the shadow of your wings I take refuge, until the destruction is past.


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may he send from heaven and save me, and check those who harry me;Pause may God send his faithful love and his constancy.


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I lie surrounded by lions, greedy for human prey, their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword.


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They laid a snare in my path -- I was bowed with care -- they dug a pit ahead of me, but fell in it themselves. Pause


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice] Divine as you are, do you truly give upright verdicts? do you judge fairly the children of Adam?


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Since the womb they have gone astray, the wicked, on the wrong path since their birth, with their unjust verdicts.


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'So', people will say, 'the upright does have a reward; there is a God to dispense justice on earth.'


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice When Saul sent men to watch David's house in order to have him killed] Rescue me from my enemies, my God, be my stronghold from my assailants,


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Look at them, lurking to ambush me, violent men are attacking me, for no fault, no sin of mine, Yahweh,


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Yahweh, God of Sabaoth, God of Israel, rise up, to punish all the nations, show no mercy to all these malicious traitors. Pause


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the God who loves me faithfully is coming to meet me, God will let me feast my eyes on those who lie in wait for me.


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Do not annihilate them, or my people may forget; shake them in your power, bring them low, Lord, our shield.


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Sin is in their mouths, sin on their lips, so let them be trapped in their pride for the curses and lies that they utter.


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Destroy them in your anger, destroy them till they are no more, and let it be known that God is Master in Jacob and the whole wide world. Pause


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And so I will sing of your strength, in the morning acclaim your faithful love; you have been a stronghold for me, a refuge when I was in trouble.


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[For the choirmaster To the tune 'The decree is a lily' In a quiet voice Of David To be learnt When he was at war with Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah, and Joab marched back to destroy twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt] God, you have rejected us, broken us, you were angry, come back to us!


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God has spoken from his sanctuary, 'In triumph I will divide up Shechem, and share out the Valley of Succoth.


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'Moab a bowl for me to wash in, on Edom I plant my sandal. Now try shouting "Victory!" over me, Philistia!'


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From the end of the earth I call to you with fainting heart. Lead me to the high rock that stands far out of my reach.


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[For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Psalm Of David] In God alone there is rest for my soul, from him comes my safety;


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How much longer will you set on a victim, all together, intent on murder, like a rampart already leaning over, a wall already damaged?


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Trickery is their only plan, deception their only pleasure, with lies on their lips they pronounce a blessing, with a curse in their hearts. Pause


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Ordinary people are a mere puff of wind, important people a delusion; set both on the scales together, and they are lighter than a puff of wind.


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Put no trust in extortion, no empty hopes in robbery; however much wealth may multiply, do not set your heart on it.


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[Psalm Of David When he was in the desert of Judah] God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless.


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All my longings fulfilled as with fat and rich foods, a song of joy on my lips and praise in my mouth.


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Then the king shall rejoice in God, all who swear by him shall gain recognition, for the mouths of liars shall be silenced.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Listen, God, to my voice as I plead, protect my life from fear of the enemy;


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They support each other in their evil designs, they discuss how to lay their snares. 'Who will see us?' they say,


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'or will penetrate our secrets?' He will do that, he who penetrates human nature to its depths, the depths of the heart.


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[For the choirmaster Psalm Of David Song] Praise is rightfully yours, God, in Zion. Vows to you shall be fulfilled,


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How blessed those whom you choose and invite to dwell in your courts. We shall be filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.


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You respond to us with the marvels of your saving justice, God our Saviour, hope of the whole wide world, even the distant islands.


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you calm the turmoil of the seas, the turmoil of their waves. The nations are in uproar, in panic those who live at the ends of the earth;


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You visit the earth and make it fruitful, you fill it with riches; the river of God brims over with water, you provide the grain. To that end


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say to God, 'How awesome you are! 'Your achievements are the measure of your power, your enemies woo your favour,


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who rules for ever by his power; his eyes keep watch on the nations to forestall rebellion against him. Pause


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let men ride over our heads; but now the ordeal by fire and water is over, you have led us out to breathe again.


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I will offer you rich burnt offerings, with the smoke of burning rams. I will sacrifice to you bullocks and goats. Pause


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[For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Song] May God show kindness and bless us, and make his face shine on us. Pause


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Let the nations rejoice and sing for joy, for you judge the world with justice, you judge the peoples with fairness, you guide the nations on earth. Pause


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[For the choirmaster Of David Psalm Song] Let God arise, let his enemies scatter, let his opponents flee before him.


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You disperse them like smoke; as wax melts in the presence of a fire, so the wicked melt at the presence of God.


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Sing to God, play music to his name, build a road for the Rider of the Clouds, rejoice in Yahweh, dance before him.


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God gives the lonely a home to live in, leads prisoners out into prosperity, but rebels must live in the bare wastelands.


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the earth rocked, Pause the heavens pelted down rain at the presence of God, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.


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The chieftains of the army are in flight, in flight, and the fair one at home is sharing out the spoils.


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While you are at ease in the sheepfolds, the wings of the Dove are being covered with silver, and her feathers with a sheen of green gold;


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Why be envious, haughty mountains, of the mountain God has chosen for his dwelling? There God will dwell for ever.


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You have climbed the heights, taken captives, you have taken men as tribute, even rebels that Yahweh God might have a dwelling-place.


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The Lord has said, 'I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,


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Benjamin was there, the youngest in front, the princes of Judah in bright-coloured robes, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.


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Rebuke the Beast of the Reeds, that herd of bulls, that people of calves, who bow down with ingots of silver. Scatter the people who delight in war.


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Awesome is God in his sanctuary. He, the God of Israel, gives strength and power to his people. Blessed be God.


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of David] Save me, God, for the waters have closed in on my very being.


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I am sinking in the deepest swamp and there is no firm ground. I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.


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I am exhausted with calling out, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are worn out with searching for my God.


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More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without reason. Those who seek to get rid of me are powerful, my treacherous enemies. (Must I give back what I have never stolen?)


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Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me!


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And so, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time of your favour; in your faithful love answer me, in the constancy of your saving power.


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Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.


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You know well the insults, the shame and disgrace I endure. Every one of my oppressors is known to you.


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Insult has broken my heart past cure. I hoped for sympathy, but in vain, for consolers -- not one to be found.


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For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah, and people will live there on their own land;


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[For the choirmaster Of David In commemoration] Be pleased, God, to rescue me, Yahweh, come quickly and help me!


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Shame and dismay to those who seek my life! Back with them! Let them be humiliated who delight in my misfortunes.


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But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you. Let them ceaselessly cry, 'God is great', who love your saving power.


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Be a sheltering rock for me, always accessible; you have determined to save me, for you are my rock, my fortress.


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On you I have relied since my birth, since my mother's womb you have been my portion, the constant theme of my praise.


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Shame and ruin on those who slander me, may those intent on harming me be covered with insult and infamy.


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Now that I am old and grey-haired, God, do not desert me, till I have proclaimed your strength to generations still to come, your power


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You have shown me much misery and hardship, but you will give me life again, You will raise me up again from the depths of the earth,


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For my part, I will thank you on the lyre for your constancy, my God. I will play the harp in your honour, Holy One of Israel.


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and all day long my tongue muses on your saving justice. Shame and disgrace on those intent to harm me!


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[Of Solomon] God, endow the king with your own fair judgement, the son of the king with your own saving justice,


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he will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and crush their oppressors.


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the kings of Tarshish and the islands will pay him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer gifts;


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(Long may he live; may the gold of Sheba be given him!) Prayer will be offered for him constantly, and blessings invoked on him all day.


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May wheat abound in the land, waving on the heights of the hills, like Lebanon with its fruits and flowers at their best, like the grasses of the earth.


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May his name be blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of the sun. In him shall be blessed every race in the world, and all nations call him blessed.


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whereas my happiness is to be near God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, to tell of all your works.


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[Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?


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Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.


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your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems


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They said to themselves, 'Let us crush them at one stroke!' They burned down every sacred shrine in the land.


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Do not surrender your turtledove to the beast; do not forget for ever the life of your oppressed people.


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Psalm Of Asaph Song] We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks to you, as we call upon your name, as we recount your wonders.


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Yahweh is holding a cup filled with a heady blend of wine; he will pour it, they will drink it to the dregs, all the wicked on earth will drink it.


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[For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of Asaph Song] God is acknowledged in Judah, his name is great in Israel,


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Make and fulfil your vows to Yahweh your God, let those who surround him make offerings to the Awesome One.


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[For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Of Asaph Psalm] I cry to God in distress, I cry to God and he hears me.


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In the day of my distress I sought the Lord; all night I tirelessly stretched out my hands, my heart refused to be consoled.


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When the waters saw you, God, when the waters saw you they writhed in anguish, the very depths shook with fear.


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The rolling of your thunder was heard, your lightning-flashes lit up the world, the earth shuddered and shook.


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Your way led over the sea, your path over the countless waters, and none could trace your footsteps.


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we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.


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He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,


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that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,


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and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.


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True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?'


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When he heard them Yahweh vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,


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when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.


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But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,


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He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;


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he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.


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he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.


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[Psalm Of Asaph] God, the pagans have invaded your heritage, they have defiled your holy temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins,


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they have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the air, the bodies of your faithful for the wild beasts.


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Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;


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Do not count against us the guilt of former generations, in your tenderness come quickly to meet us, for we are utterly weakened;


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help us, God our Saviour, for the glory of your name; Yahweh, wipe away our sins, rescue us for the sake of your name.


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Why should the nations ask, 'Where is their God?' Let us see the nations suffer vengeance for shedding your servants' blood.


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May the groans of the captive reach you, by your great strength save those who are condemned to death!


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And we, your people, the flock that you pasture, will thank you for ever, will recite your praises from age to age.


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[For the choirmaster Tune: 'The decrees are lilies' Of Asaph Psalm] Shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock, enthroned on the winged creatures, shine forth


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[For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of Asaph] Sing for joy to God our strength, shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.


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You cried out in your distress, so I rescued you. 'Hidden in the storm, I answered you, I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Pause


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I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you here from Egypt, you have only to open your mouth for me to fill it.


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[Psalm Of Asaph] God takes his stand in the divine assembly, surrounded by the gods he gives judgement.


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'Ignorant and uncomprehending, they wander in darkness, while the foundations of the world are tottering.


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they say, 'Come, let us annihilate them as a nation, the name of Israel shall be remembered no more!'


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[For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of the sons of Korah Psalm] How lovely are your dwelling-places, Yahweh Sabaoth.


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My whole being yearns and pines for Yahweh's courts, My heart and my body cry out for joy to the living God.


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Even the sparrow has found a home, the swallow a nest to place its young: your altars, Yahweh Sabaoth, my King and my God.


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As they pass through the Valley of the Balsam, they make there a water-hole, and -- a further blessing -- early rain fills it.


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Better one day in your courts than a thousand at my own devices, to stand on the threshold of God's house than to live in the tents of the wicked.


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For Yahweh God is a rampart and shield, he gives grace and glory; Yahweh refuses nothing good to those whose life is blameless.


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[For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Yahweh, you are gracious to your land, you bring back the captives of Jacob,


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I am listening. What is God's message? Yahweh's message is peace for his people, for his faithful, if only they renounce their folly.


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Teach me, Yahweh, your ways, that I may not stray from your loyalty; let my heart's one aim be to fear your name.


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Arrogant men, God, are rising up against me, a brutal gang is after my life, in their scheme of things you have no place.


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turn to me and pity me. Give to your servant your strength, to the child of your servant your saving help,


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'I number Rahab and Babylon among those that acknowledge me; look at Tyre, Philistia, Ethiopia, so and so was born there.'


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[Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah In sickness In suffering Poem For Heman the native-born] Yahweh, God of my salvation, when I cry out to you in the night,


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left alone among the dead, like the slaughtered lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, cut off as they are from your protection.


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[Poem For Ethan the native-born] I shall sing the faithful love of Yahweh for ever, from age to age my lips shall declare your constancy,


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for you have said: love is built to last for ever, you have fixed your constancy firm in the heavens.


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Saving Justice and Fair Judgement the foundations of your throne, Faithful Love and Constancy march before you.


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How blessed the nation that learns to acclaim you! They will live, Yahweh, in the light of your presence.


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Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful you said: 'I have given strength to a warrior, I have raised up a man chosen from my people.


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Before the mountains were born, before the earth and the world came to birth, from eternity to eternity you are God.


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The span of our life is seventy years -- eighty for those who are strong -- but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone.


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he covers you with his pinions, you find shelter under his wings. His constancy is shield and protection.


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Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, you yourself will remain unscathed.


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[Psalm Song For the Sabbath] It is good to give thanks to Yahweh, to make music for your name, Most High,


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The world is indeed set firm, it can never be shaken; your throne is set firm from of old, from all eternity you exist.


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Greater than the voice of many waters, more majestic than the breakers of the sea, Yahweh is majestic in the heights.


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Your decrees stand firm, unshakeable, holiness is the beauty of your house, Yahweh, for all time to come.


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He turns back their guilt on themselves, annihilates them for their wickedness, he annihilates them, Yahweh our God.


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For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today!


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For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, 'Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.'


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Say among the nations, 'Yahweh is king.' The world is set firm, it cannot be moved. He will judge the nations with justice.


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at Yahweh's approach, for he is coming, coming to judge the earth; he will judge the world with saving justice, and the nations with constancy.


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Yahweh loves those who hate evil, he keeps safe his faithful, rescues them from the clutches of the wicked.


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[Psalm] Sing a new song to Yahweh, for he has performed wonders, his saving power is in his right hand and his holy arm.


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mindful of his faithful love and his constancy to the House of Israel. The whole wide world has seen the saving power of our God.


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at Yahweh's approach, for he is coming to judge the earth; he will judge the world with saving justice and the nations with fairness.


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and mighty! You are a king who loves justice, you established honesty, justice and uprightness; in Jacob it is you who are active.


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Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and Samuel, calling on his name; they called on Yahweh and he answered them.


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Yahweh our God, you answered them, you were a God of forgiveness to them, but punished them for their sins.


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Come within his gates giving thanks, to his courts singing praise, give thanks to him and bless his name!


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I will go forward in the path of the blameless; when will you come to me? I will live in purity of heart, in my house,


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I will not set before my eyes anything sordid. I hate those who act crookedly; this has no attraction for me.


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One who secretly slanders a comrade, I reduce to silence; haughty looks, proud heart, these I cannot abide.


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I look to the faithful of the land to be my companions, only he who walks in the path of the blameless shall be my servant.


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There is no room in my house for anyone who practises deceit; no liar will stand his ground where I can see him.


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Morning after morning I reduce to silence all the wicked in the land, banishing from the city of Yahweh all evil-doers.


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[Prayer of someone afflicted, who in misfortune pours out sorrows before Yahweh] Yahweh, hear my prayer, let my cry for help reach you.


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Do not turn away your face from me when I am in trouble; bend down and listen to me, when I call, be quick to answer me!


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let me know the short time I have left. Do not take me away before half my days are done, for your years run on from age to age.


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They pass away but you remain; they all wear out like a garment, like outworn clothes you change them;


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The children of those who serve you will dwell secure, and their descendants live on in your presence.


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But Yahweh's faithful love for those who fear him is from eternity and for ever; and his saving justice to their children's children;


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Bless Yahweh, all his angels, mighty warriors who fulfil his commands, attentive to the sound of his words.


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build your palace on the waters above, making the clouds your chariot, gliding on the wings of the wind,


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for cattle you make the grass grow, and for people the plants they need, to bring forth food from the earth,


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How countless are your works, Yahweh, all of them made so wisely! The earth is full of your creatures.


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Then there is the sea, with its vast expanses teeming with countless creatures, creatures both great and small;


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let me share the happiness of your chosen ones, let me share the joy of your people, the pride of your heritage.


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our ancestors in Egypt never grasped the meaning of your wonders. They did not bear in mind your countless acts of love, at the Sea of Reeds they defied the Most High;


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At his rebuke the Sea of Reeds dried up, he let them pass through the deep as though it were desert,


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He thought of putting an end to them, had not Moses, his chosen one, taken a stand in the breach and confronted him, to turn his anger away from destroying them.


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Innocent blood they shed, the blood of their sons and daughters; offering them to the idols of Canaan, they polluted the country with blood.


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Time and again he rescued them, but they still defied him deliberately, and sank ever deeper in their guilt;


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Save us, Yahweh our God, gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and may glory in praising you.


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Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from all eternity and for ever! Let all the people say, 'Amen'.


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He had no thought of being loyal, but hounded the poor and the needy and the broken-hearted to their death.


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Cursing has been the uniform he wore; let it soak into him like water, like oil right into his bones.


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Let them curse, provided that you bless; let their attacks bring shame to them and joy to your servant!


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[Of David Psalm] Yahweh declared to my Lord, 'Take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool.'


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Yahweh will stretch out the sceptre of your power; from Zion you will rule your foes all around you.


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Royal dignity has been yours from the day of your birth, sacred honour from the womb, from the dawn of your youth.


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Yahweh has sworn an oath he will never retract, you are a priest for ever of the order of Melchizedek.


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Alleluia! I give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart, in the meeting-place of honest people, in the assembly.


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The root of wisdom is fear of Yahweh; those who attain it are wise. His praise will continue for ever.


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To the needy he gives without stint, his uprightness stands firm for ever; his reputation is founded on strength.


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The wicked are vexed at the sight, they grind their teeth and waste away. The desires of the wicked will be frustrated.


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Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give the glory, for your faithful love and your constancy!


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Yahweh will keep us in mind, he will bless, he will bless the House of Israel, he will bless the House of Aaron,


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The bonds of death were all round me, the snares of Sheol held me fast; distress and anguish held me in their grip,


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I beg you, Yahweh! I am your servant, I am your servant and my mother was your servant; you have undone my fetters.


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They swarmed around me like bees, they flared up like a brushwood fire, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down.


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Yahweh is God, he gives us light. Link your processions, branches in hand, up to the horns of the altar.


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You are my God, I thank you, all praise to you, my God. I thank you for hearing me, and making yourself my Saviour.


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Your hands have made me and held me firm, give me understanding and I shall learn your commandments.


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I am wandering like a lost sheep, come and look for your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments.


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[Song of Ascents *{* The Songs of Ascents (Pss 120-134) were sung by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem.} ] To Yahweh when I am in trouble I call and he answers me.


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there the tribes go up, the tribes of Yahweh, a sign for Israel to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.


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Just as the eyes of slaves are on their masters' hand, or the eyes of a slave-girl on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on Yahweh our God, for him to take pity on us.


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The sceptre of the wicked will not come to rest over the heritage of the upright; or the upright might set their own hands to evil.


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then our mouths filled with laughter, and our lips with song. Then the nations kept saying, 'What great deeds Yahweh has done for them!'


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He went off, went off weeping, carrying the seed. He comes back, comes back singing, bringing in his sheaves.


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[Song of Ascents Of Solomon] If Yahweh does not build a house in vain do its builders toil. If Yahweh does not guard a city in vain does its guard keep watch.


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In vain you get up earlier, and put off going to bed, sweating to make a living, since it is he who provides for his beloved as they sleep.


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How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; in dispute with his enemies at the city gate he will not be worsted.


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Your wife a fruitful vine in the inner places of your house. Your children round your table like shoots of an olive tree.


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[Song of Ascents] Yahweh, my heart is not haughty, I do not set my sights too high. I have taken no part in great affairs, in wonders beyond my scope.


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No, I hold myself in quiet and silence, like a little child in its mother's arms, like a little child, so I keep myself.


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Yahweh has sworn to David, and will always remain true to his word, 'I promise that I will set a son of yours upon your throne.


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If your sons observe my covenant and the instructions I have taught them, their sons too for evermore will occupy your throne.'


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It is like a fine oil on the head, running down the beard, running down Aaron's beard, onto the collar of his robes.


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It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the heights of Zion; for there Yahweh bestows his blessing, everlasting life.


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[Song of Ascents] Come, bless Yahweh, all you who serve Yahweh, serving in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God. Through the night watches


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He summons up clouds from the borders of earth, sends rain with lightning-flashes, and brings the wind out of his storehouse.


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For there our gaolers had asked us to sing them a song, our captors to make merry, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'


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May my tongue remain stuck to my palate if I do not keep you in mind, if I do not count Jerusalem the greatest of my joys.


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Remember, Yahweh, to the Edomites' cost, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Down with it! Rase it to the ground!'


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[Of David] I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,


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I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame.


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Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life -- to my enemies' fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me,


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Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.


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For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders. You knew me through and through,


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my being held no secrets from you, when I was being formed in secret, textured in the depths of the earth.


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Your eyes could see my embryo. In your book all my days were inscribed, every one that was fixed is there.


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Keep me, Yahweh, from the clutches of the wicked, protect me from violent men, who are bent on making me stumble, laying out snares where I walk,


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Yahweh, do not grant the wicked their wishes, do not let their plots succeed. Pause Do not let my attackers


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Check any impulse to speak evil, to share the foul deeds of evil-doers. I shall not sample their delights!


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May the upright correct me with a friend's rebuke; but the wicked shall never anoint my head with oil, for that would make me party to their crimes.


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They are delivered into the power of the rock, their judge, those who took pleasure in hearing me say,


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[Psalm Of David When he was in the cave Prayer] To Yahweh I cry out with my plea. To Yahweh I cry out with entreaty.


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However faint my spirit; you are watching over my path. On the road I have to travel they have hidden a trap for me.


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Look on my right and see -- there is no one who recognises me. All refuge is denied me, no one cares whether I live or die.


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Listen to my calling, for I am miserably weak. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.


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Lead me out of prison that I may praise your name. The upright gather round me because of your generosity to me.


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[Psalm Of David] Yahweh, hear my prayer, listen to my pleading; in your constancy answer me, in your saving justice;


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An enemy is in deadly pursuit, crushing me into the ground, forcing me to live in darkness, like those long dead.


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Answer me quickly, Yahweh, my spirit is worn out; do not turn away your face from me, or I shall be like those who sink into oblivion.


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Let dawn bring news of your faithful love, for I place my trust in you; show me the road I must travel for you to relieve my heart.


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In your faithful love annihilate my enemies, destroy all those who oppress me, for I am your servant.


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my faithful love, my bastion, my citadel, my Saviour; I shelter behind him, my shield, he makes the peoples submit to me.


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Stretch down your hand from above, save me, rescue me from deep waters, from the clutches of foreigners,


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save me, rescue me from the clutches of foreigners whose every word is worthless, whose right hand testifies to falsehood.


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May our sons be like plants growing tall from their earliest days, our daughters like pillars carved fit for a palace,


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our barns filled to overflowing with every kind of crop, the sheep in our pastures be numbered in thousands and tens of thousands,


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[Hymn of Praise Of David] I shall praise you to the heights, God my King, I shall bless your name for ever and ever.


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Your kingship is a kingship for ever, your reign lasts from age to age. Yahweh is trustworthy in all his words, and upright in all his deeds.


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Yahweh protects the stranger, he sustains the orphan and the widow. Yahweh loves the upright, but he frustrates the wicked.


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He veils the sky with clouds, and provides the earth with rain, makes grass grow on the hills and plants for people to use,


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Let them praise the name of Yahweh, for his name alone is sublime, his splendour transcends earth and heaven.


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For he heightens the strength of his people, to the praise of all his faithful, the children of Israel, the people close to him.


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Let the wise listen and learn yet more, and a person of discernment will acquire the art of guidance.


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for perceiving the meaning of proverbs and obscure sayings, the sayings of the sages and their riddles.


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If they say, 'Come with us: let us lie in ambush to shed blood; if we plan an ambush for the innocent without provocation,


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Such are the paths of all who seek dishonest gain: which robs of their lives all who take it for their own.


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'You simple people, how much longer will you cling to your simple ways? How much longer will mockers revel in their mocking and fools go on hating knowledge?


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when terror befalls you, like a storm, when your distress arrives, like a whirlwind, when ordeal and anguish bear down on you.


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so they will have to eat the fruits of their own ways of life, and choke themselves with their own scheming.


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To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedling words;


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Let faithful love and constancy never leave you: tie them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.


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Do not say to your neighbour, 'Go away! Come another time! I will give it you tomorrow,' if you can do it now.


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This was what he used to teach me, 'Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live;


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The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding!


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For they cannot sleep unless they have first done wrong, they miss their sleep if they have not made someone stumble;


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so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,


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fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.


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Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another?


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My child, if you have gone surety for your neighbour, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,


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do this, my child, to extricate yourself -- since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbour: go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbour,


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While you are active, they will guide you, when you fall asleep, they will watch over you, when you wake up, they will converse with you.


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preserving you from the woman of bad character, from the wheedling talk of a woman who belongs to another.


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Just so, the man who makes love to his neighbour's wife: no one who touches her will get off unpunished.


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to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.


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Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,


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until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.


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(Fear of Yahweh means hatred of evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.


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The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.


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when he assigned the sea its boundaries -- and the waters will not encroach on the shore -- when he traced the foundations of the earth,


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The first principle of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh, What God's holy ones know -- this is understanding.


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But the fool does not know that this is where the Shades are and that her guests are already in the vales of Sheol.


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Reaping at harvest-time is the mark of the prudent, sleeping at harvest-time is the sign of the worthless.


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The mouth of the upright is a life-giving fountain, but the mouth of the godless is a cover for violence.


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Through his mouth the godless is the ruin of his neighbour, but by knowledge the upright are safeguarded.


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One scatters money around, yet only adds to his wealth, another is excessively mean, but only grows the poorer.


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The people's curse is on those who hoard the wheat, their blessing on the head of those who sell it.


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Whoever works his land shall have bread and to spare, but no one who chases fantasies has any sense.


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The good bequeaths a heritage to children's children, the wealth of the sinner is stored away for the upright.


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With people of discretion, wisdom keeps a watch over their conduct, but the folly of fools leads them astray.


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In the house of the upright there is no lack of treasure, the earnings of the wicked are fraught with anxiety.


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The conduct of the wicked is abhorrent to Yahweh, but he loves the person whose goal is uprightness.


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Let Yahweh be pleased with someone's way of life and he makes that person's very enemies into friends.


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A shrewd servant comes off better than an unworthy child, he will share the inheritance with the brothers.


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The wicked person thinks of nothing but rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent to such a one.


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Whoever can control the tongue knows what knowledge is, someone of understanding keeps a cool temper.


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If the fool holds his tongue, he may pass for wise; if he seals his lips, he may pass for intelligent.


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It is not good to show partiality for the wicked and so to deprive the upright when giving judgement.


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The mouth of the fool works its owner's ruin, the lips of a fool are a snare for their owner's life.


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The human heart is haughty until destruction comes, before there can be glory there must be humility.


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From the fruit of the mouth is a stomach filled, it is the yield of the lips that gives contentment.


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The poor man's brothers hate him, every one; his friends -- how much the more do these desert him! He goes in search of words, but there are none to be had.


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A foolish child is a disaster for the father, the bickerings of a wife are like an ever-dripping gutter.


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Strike a cynic, and simpletons will be more wary; reprove the intelligent and he will understand your meaning.


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The resources of the human heart are like deep waters: an understanding person has only to draw on them.


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One weight here, another there; here one measure, there another: both alike are abhorrent to Yahweh.


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Take the man's clothes! He has gone surety for a stranger. Take a pledge from him to the profit of persons unknown!


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To make a fortune with the help of a lying tongue: such is the idle fantasy of those who look for death.


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When a cynic is punished, simpletons grow wiser, but someone of understanding acquires knowledge by instruction.


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to make you know the certainty of true sayings, so that you can return with sound answers to those who sent you?


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Do not make friends with one who gives way to anger, make no one quick-tempered a companion of yours,


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You see someone alert at his business? His aim will be to serve kings; not for him the service of the obscure.


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Fix your gaze on it, and it is there no longer, for it is able to sprout wings like an eagle that flies off to the sky.


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For what he is really thinking about is himself: 'Eat and drink,' he tells you, but his heart is not with you.


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For whom is pity, for whom contempt, for whom is strife, for whom complaint, for whom blows struck at random, for whom the clouded eye?


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Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!


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'Struck me, have they? But I'm not hurt. Beaten me? I don't feel anything. When shall I wake up? . . I'll ask for more of it!'


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If you say, 'But look, we did not know,' will the Weigher of the heart pay no attention? Will not the Guardian of your soul be aware and repay you as your deeds deserve?


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and so, for sure, will wisdom be to your soul: find it and you will have a future and your hope will not be cut short.


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For though the upright falls seven times, he gets up again; the wicked are the ones who stumble in adversity.


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for suddenly disaster will loom for them, and who knows what ruin will seize them and their friends?


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Plan what you want on the open ground, make your preparation in the field; then go and build your house.


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Do not say, 'I will treat my neighbour as my neighbour treated me; I will repay everyone what each has earned.'


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What your eyes have witnessed do not produce too quickly at the trial, for what are you to do at the end should your neighbour confute you?


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The coolness of snow in harvest time, such is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him: he revives the soul of his master.


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Do not set foot too often in your neighbour's house, for fear the neighbour tire of you and come to hate you.


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as well take off your coat in bitter weather. You are pouring vinegar on a wound when you sing songs to a sorrowing heart.


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As the sparrow escapes, and the swallow flies away, so the undeserved curse will never hit its mark.


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Do not give up your friend or your father's friend; when trouble comes, do not go off to your brother's house, better a near neighbour than a distant brother.


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Learn to be wise, my child, and gladden my heart, that I may have an answer for anyone who insults me.


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Take the man's clothes! He has gone surety for a stranger. Take a pledge from him, for persons unknown.


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A country in revolt throws up many leaders: with one person wise and experienced, you have stability.


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Those who forsake the law sing the praises of the wicked, those who observe the law are angered by them.


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An intelligent child is one who keeps the Law; an associate of profligates brings shame on his father.


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Whoever increases wealth by usury and interest amasses it for someone else who will bestow it on the poor.


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Whoever seduces the honest to evil ways will fall into his own pit. The blameless are the heirs to happiness.


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When the upright triumph, there is great exultation: when the wicked are in the ascendant, people take cover.


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Whoever lives an honest life will be safe, whoever wavers between two ways falls down in one of them.


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A trustworthy person will be overwhelmed with blessings, but no one who tries to get rich quickly will go unpunished.


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No one who gives to the poor will ever go short, but whoever closes his eyes will have curses in plenty.


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When the wicked are in the ascendant, people take cover, but when they perish, the upright multiply.


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When the upright are on the increase, the people rejoice; when the wicked are in power, the people groan.


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The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh, of Massa. Prophecy of this man for Ithiel, for Ithiel and for Ucal.


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Who has mounted to the heavens, then come down again? Who has gathered the wind in the clasp of his hand? Who has wrapped the waters in his cloak? Who has set all the ends of the earth firm? What is his name? What is his child's name? Do you know?


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keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of food,


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for fear that, surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, 'Yahweh-who is Yahweh?' or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.


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a breed with swords for teeth, with knives for jaws, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from the land.


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The leech has two daughters: 'Give! Give!' There are three insatiable things, four, indeed, that never say, 'Enough!'


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Sheol, the barren womb, earth which can never have its fill of water, fire which never says, 'Enough!'


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The eye which looks jeeringly on a father, and scorns the obedience due to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, and eaten by the vultures.


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the way of an eagle through the skies, the way of a snake over the rock, the way of a ship in mid-ocean, the way of a man with a girl.


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This is how an adulteress behaves: she eats, then wipes her mouth and says, 'I have done nothing wrong!'


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If you have been foolish enough to fly into a passion and now have second thoughts, lay your hand on your lips.


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For by churning the milk you produce butter, by wringing the nose you produce blood, and by whipping up anger you produce strife.


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for fear that in liquor they forget what they have decreed and pervert the course of justice against all the poor.


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She gets up while it is still dark giving her household their food, giving orders to her serving girls.


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She sets her mind on a field, then she buys it; with what her hands have earned she plants a vineyard.


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Give her a share in what her hands have worked for, and let her works tell her praises at the city gates.


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Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind.


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Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go.


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All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing.


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What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun!


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No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come -- they will not be remembered by their successors.


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Wisely I have applied myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under heaven. What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy!


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I have seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it all is, mere chasing after the wind!


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I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I myself have mastered every kind of wisdom and science.


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I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science, stupidity and folly, and I now realise that all this too is chasing after the wind.


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I thought to myself, 'Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer.' And this was futile too.


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I decided to hand my body over to drinking wine, my mind still guiding me in wisdom; I resolved to embrace folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun.


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I bought slaves, male and female, had home-born slaves as well; herds and flocks I had too, more than anyone in Jerusalem before me.


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I amassed silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every human luxury, chest upon chest of it.


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I denied my eyes nothing that they desired, refused my heart no pleasure, for I found all my hard work a pleasure, such was the return for all my efforts.


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I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort I had put into its achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind! There is nothing to be gained under the sun.


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My reflections then turned to wisdom, stupidity and folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king do? What has been done already.


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More is to be gained from wisdom than from folly, just as one gains more from light than from darkness; this, of course, I see:


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The wise have their eyes open, the fool walks in the dark. No doubt! But I know, too, that one fate awaits them both.


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'Since the fool's fate', I thought to myself, 'will be my fate too, what is the point of my having been wise?' I realised that this too is futile.


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For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool, and in the days to come both will be forgotten; the wise, no less than the fool, must die.


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Life I have come to hate, for what is done under the sun disgusts me, since all is futility and chasing after the wind.


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who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That is futile too.


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For here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;


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since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.


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There is no happiness except in eating and drinking, and in enjoying one's achievements; and I see that this too comes from God's hand;


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Wisdom, knowledge and joy, God gives to those who please him, but on the sinner he lays the task of gathering and storing up for someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.


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A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.


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A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.


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All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.


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I know that whatever God does will be for ever. To this there is nothing to add, from this there is nothing to subtract, and the way God acts inspires dread.


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Again I observe under the sun: crime is where justice should be, the criminal is where the upright should be.


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And I think to myself: the upright and the criminal will both be judged by God, since there is a time for every thing and every action here.


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I think to myself: where human beings are concerned, this is so that God can test them and show them that they are animals.


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For the fate of human and the fate of animal is the same: as the one dies, so the other dies; both have the selfsame breath. Human is in no way better off than animal -- since all is futile.


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I see there is no contentment for a human being except happiness in achievement; such is the lot of a human beings. No one can tell us what will happen after we are gone.


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Then again, I contemplate all the oppression that is committed under the sun. Take for instance the tears of the oppressed. No one to comfort them! The power their oppressors wield. No one to comfort them!


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So, rather than the living who still have lives to live, I congratulate the dead who have already met death;


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happier than both of these are those who are yet unborn and have not seen the evil things that are done under the sun.


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I see that all effort and all achievement spring from mutual jealousy. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.


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a person is quite alone -- no child, no brother; and yet there is no end to his efforts, his eyes can never have their fill of riches. For whom, then, do I work so hard and grudge myself pleasure? This too is futile, a sorry business.


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If one should fall, the other helps him up; but what of the person with no one to help him up when he falls?


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Where one alone would be overcome, two will put up resistance; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.


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He takes his place at the head of innumerable subjects; but his successors will not think the more kindly of him for that. This too is futile and chasing after the wind.


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Watch your step when you go to the House of God: drawing near to listen is better than the offering of a sacrifice by fools, though they do not know that they are doing wrong.


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Be in no hurry to speak; do not hastily declare yourself before God; for God is in heaven, you on earth. Be sparing, then, of speech:


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If you make a vow to God, discharge it without delay, for God has no love for fools. Discharge your vow.


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Do not allow your mouth to make a sinner of you, and do not say to the messenger that it was a mistake. Why give God occasion to be angry with you and ruin all the work that you have done?


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If in a province you see the poor oppressed, fair judgement and justice violated, do not be surprised, for over every official there watches a higher official, and over these, higher officials still.


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No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile.


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The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep at all.


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Something grossly unjust I observe under the sun: riches stored and turning to loss for their owner.


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An unlucky venture, and those riches are lost; a son is born to him, and he has nothing to leave him.


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Naked from his mother's womb he came; as naked as he came will he depart; not one of his achievements can he take with him.


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And something else grossly unjust: that as he came, so must he go; what profit can he show after toiling to earn the wind,


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So my conclusion is this: true happiness lies in eating and drinking and enjoying whatever has been achieved under the sun, throughout the life given by God: for this is the lot of humanity.


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And whenever God gives someone riches and property, with the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in work, this is a gift from God.


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For such a person will hardly notice the passing of time, so long as God keeps his heart occupied with joy.


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suppose someone has received from God riches, property, honours -- nothing at all left to wish for; but God does not give the chance to enjoy them, and some stranger enjoys them. This is futile, and grievous suffering too.


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Or take someone who has had a hundred children and lived for many years, and, having reached old age, has never enjoyed the good things of life and has not even got a tomb; it seems to me, a still-born child is happier.


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It has never so much as seen or known the sun; all the same, it will rest more easily than that person,


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who would never have known the good things of life, even by living a thousand years twice over. Do we not all go to the same place in the end?


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What advantage has the wise over the fool? And what of the pauper who knows how to behave in society?


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Better the object seen than the sting of desire: for the latter too is futile and chasing after the wind.


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What has been is already defined -- we know what people are: They cannot bring to justice one who is stronger than themselves.


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And who knows what is best for someone during life, during the days of futile life which are spent like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?


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Better go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for to this end everyone comes, let the living take this to heart.


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For like the crackling of thorns under the cauldron is the laughter of fools: and that too is futile.


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For as money protects, so does wisdom, and the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom bestows life on those who possess her.


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When things are going well, enjoy yourself, and when they are going badly, consider this: God has designed the one no less than the other so that we should take nothing for granted.


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In my futile life, I have seen everything: the upright person perishing in uprightness and the wicked person surviving in wickedness.


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Thanks to wisdom, I have found all this to be true; I resolved to be wise, but this was beyond my reach!


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But I have reached the point where, having learnt, explored and investigated wisdom and reflection, I recognise evil as being a form of madness, and folly as something stupid.


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And I find woman more bitter than Death, she is a snare, her heart is a net, and her arms are chains. The man who is pleasing to God eludes her, but the sinner is captured by her.


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This is what I think, says Qoheleth, having examined one thing after another to draw some conclusion,


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which I am still looking for, although unsuccessfully: one man in a thousand, I may find, but a woman better than other women-never.


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This alone is my conclusion: God has created man straightforward, and human artifices are human inventions.


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Who compares with the sage? Who else knows how to explain things? Wisdom lights up the face, enlivening a grim expression.


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be in no hurry to depart from it; do not be obstinate in a bad cause, since the king will do as he likes in any case.


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One who obeys the command will come to no harm; the heart of the sage knows the right moment and verdict,


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No one can control the wind and stop it from blowing, no one can control the day of death. From war there is no escape, no more can wickedness save the person who commits it.


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I have seen all this to be so, having carefully studied everything taking place under the sun, while one person tyrannises over another to the former's detriment.


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And again, I have observed the wicked carried to their graves, and people leaving the holy place and, once out in the city, forgetting how the wicked used to behave; how futile this is too!


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Because the sentence on the evil-doer is not carried out on the instant, people's hearts are full of desire to do wrong.


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The sinner who does wrong a hundred times lives on. But this too I know, that there is good in store for people who fear God, because they fear him,


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but there is no good in store for the wicked because he does not fear God, and so, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days.


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Another futile thing that happens on earth: upright people being treated as though they were wicked and wicked people being treated as though they were upright. To me this is one more example of futility.


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And therefore I praise joy, since human happiness lies only in eating and drinking and in taking pleasure; this comes from what someone achieves during the days of life that God gives under the sun.


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Having applied myself to acquiring wisdom and to observing the activity taking place in the world -- for day and night our eyes enjoy no rest-


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I have scrutinised God's whole creation: you cannot get to the bottom of everything taking place under the sun; you may wear yourself out in the search, but you will never find it. Not even a sage can get to the bottom of it, even if he says that he has done so.


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Yes, I have applied myself to all this and experienced all this to be so: that is to say, that the upright and the wise, with their activities, are in the hands of God. We do not understand either love or hate, where we are concerned, both of them are


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futile. And for all of us is reserved a common fate, for the upright and for the wicked, for the good and for the bad; whether we are ritually pure or not, whether we offer sacrifice or not: it is the same for the good and for the sinner, for someone who takes a vow, as for someone who fears to do so.


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This is another evil among those occurring under the sun: that there should be the same fate for everyone. The human heart, however, is full of wickedness; folly lurks in our hearts throughout our lives, until we end among the dead.


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But there is hope for someone still linked to the rest of the living: better be a live dog than a dead lion.


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The living are at least aware that they are going to die, but the dead know nothing whatever. No more wages for them, since their memory is forgotten.


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Their love, their hate, their jealousy, have perished long since, and they will never have any further part in what goes on under the sun.


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So, eat your bread in joy, drink your wine with a glad heart, since God has already approved your actions.


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Spend your life with the woman you love, all the days of futile life God gives you under the sun, throughout your futile days, since this is your lot in life and in the effort you expend under the sun.


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Whatever work you find to do, do it with all your might, for there is neither achievement, nor planning, nor science, nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going.


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Another thing I have observed under the sun: that the race is not won by the speediest, nor the battle by the champions; it is not the wise who get food, nor the intelligent wealth, nor the learned favour: chance and mischance befall them all.


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We do not know when our time will come: like fish caught in the treacherous net, like birds caught in the snare, just so are we all trapped by misfortune when it suddenly overtakes us.


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There was once a small town, with only a few inhabitants; a mighty king made war on it, laying siege to it and building great siege-works round it.


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But there was in that town a poverty-stricken sage who by his wisdom saved the town. No one remembered this poor man afterwards.


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So I say: Wisdom is more effective than brute force, but the wisdom of a poor man is not valued: no one listens to what he has to say.


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The calm words of the wise make themselves heard above the shouts of someone commanding an army of fools.


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If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post; composure mitigates grave offences.


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If, for want of sharpening, the blade is blunt, you have to work twice as hard; but it is the outcome that makes wisdom rewarding.


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A fool talks a great deal, but none of us in fact can tell the future; what will happen after us, who can tell?


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Happy the land whose king is nobly born, where princes eat at a respectable hour to keep themselves strong and not merely to revel!


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Do not abuse the king, even in thought, do not abuse a rich man, even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air might carry the news, a winged messenger might repeat what you have said.


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When clouds are full of rain, they will shed it on the earth. If a tree falls, whether south or north, where it falls, there it will lie.


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You do not understand how the wind blows, or how the embryo grows in a woman's womb: no more can you understand the work of God, the Creator of all.


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In the morning, sow your seed, until evening, do not cease from labour, for of any two things you do not know which will succeed, or which of the two is the better.


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However many years you live, enjoy them all, but remember, the days of darkness will be many: futility awaits you at the end.


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Young man, enjoy yourself while you are young, make the most of the days of your youth, follow the prompting and desire of heart and eye, but remember, God will call you to account for everything.


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Rid your heart of indignation, keep your body clear of suffering, though youth and the age of black hair are both futile.


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Remember your Creator while you are still young, before the bad days come, before the years come which, you will say, give you no pleasure;


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before the sun and the light grow dim and the moon and stars, before the clouds return after the rain;


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the time when your watchmen become shaky, when strong men are bent double, when the women, one by one, quit grinding, and, as they look out of the window, find their sight growing dim.


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When the street-door is kept shut, when the sound of grinding fades away, when the first cry of a bird wakes you up, when all the singing has stopped;


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when going uphill is an ordeal and you are frightened at every step you take- yet the almond tree is in flower and the grasshopper is weighed down and the caper-bush loses its tang; while you are on the way to your everlasting home and the mourners are assembling in the street;


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before the silver thread snaps, or the golden bowl is cracked, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the pulley broken at the well-head:


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Besides being a sage, Qoheleth taught the people what he himself knew, having weighed, studied and emended many proverbs.


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The sayings of a sage are like goads, like pegs positioned by shepherds: the same shepherd finds a use for both.


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Furthermore, my child, you must realise that writing books involves endless hard work, and that much study wearies the body.


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delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.


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Draw me in your footsteps, let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms; you will be our joy and our gladness. We shall praise your love more than wine; how right it is to love you.


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BELOVED: I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salmah.


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Take no notice of my dark colouring, it is the sun that has burnt me. My mother's sons turned their anger on me, they made me look after the vineyards. My own vineyard I had not looked after!


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Tell me then, sweetheart, where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That I may no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.


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CHORUS: If you do not know this, O loveliest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and take your kids to graze close by the shepherds' tents.


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-As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my love among young men. In his delightful shade I sit, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.


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-I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by all gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.


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My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.


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'Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.


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The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.


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'My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.'


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Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards, for our vineyards are in fruit.


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Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, return! Be, my love, like a gazelle, like a young stag, on the mountains of Bether.


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So I shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!


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I came upon the watchmen -- those who go on their rounds in the city: 'Have you seen my sweetheart?'


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Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room where she conceived me!


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LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.


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POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?


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all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.


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He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.


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Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart's joy.


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LOVER: How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead.


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Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.


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Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.


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Your neck is the Tower of David built on layers, hung round with a thousand bucklers, and each the shield of a hero.


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Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, I shall go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.


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Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, from the crests of Senir and Hermon, the haunt of lions, the mountains of leopards.


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You ravish my heart, my sister, my promised bride, you ravish my heart with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace.


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What spells lie in your love, my sister, my promised bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all spices!


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Your lips, my promised bride, distil wild honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.


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nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the incense-bearing trees; myrrh and aloes, with the subtlest odours.


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BELOVED: Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into his garden, let him taste its most exquisite fruits.


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LOVER: I come into my garden, my sister, my promised bride, I pick my myrrh and balsam, I eat my honey and my honeycomb, I drink my wine and my milk. POET: Eat, friends, and drink, drink deep, my dearest friends.


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BELOVED: I sleep, but my heart is awake. I hear my love knocking. 'Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the drops of night.'


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-'I have taken off my tunic, am I to put it on again? I have washed my feet, am I to dirty them again?'


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Then I got up to open to my love, myrrh ran off my hands, pure myrrh off my fingers, on to the handle of the bolt.


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I opened to my love, but he had turned and gone. My soul failed at his flight, I sought but could not find him, I called, but he did not answer.


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The watchmen met me, those who go on their rounds in the city. They beat me, they wounded me, they took my cloak away from me: those guardians of the ramparts!


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I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my love, what are you to tell him? -That I am sick with love!


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CHORUS: What makes your lover better than other lovers, O loveliest of women? What makes your lover better than other lovers, to put us under such an oath?


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His eyes are like doves beside the water-courses, bathing themselves in milk, perching on a fountain-rim.


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His hands are golden, rounded, set with jewels of Tarshish. His belly a block of ivory covered with sapphires.


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His legs are alabaster columns set in sockets of pure gold. His appearance is that of Lebanon, unrivalled as the cedars.


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His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.


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CHORUS: Where did your lover go, O loveliest of women? Which way did your lover turn so that we can help you seek him?


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BELOVED: My love went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock on the grass and gather lilies.


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Turn your eyes away from me, they take me by assault! Your hair is like a flock of goats surging down the slopes of Gilead.


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Your teeth are like a flock of ewes as they come up from being washed. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.


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My dove is my only one, perfect and mine. She is the darling of her mother, the favourite of the one who bore her. Girls have seen her and proclaimed her blessed, queens and concubines have sung her praises,


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'Who is this arising like the dawn, fair as the moon, resplendent as the sun, formidable as an army?'


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I went down to the nut orchard to see the fresh shoots in the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranate trees in flower.


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CHORUS: Come back, come back, girl from Shulam, come back, come back, where we can look at you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam, dancing between two lines of dancers?


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LOVER: How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O prince's daughter! The curve of your thighs is like the curve of a necklace, work of a master hand.


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Your navel is a bowl well rounded with no lack of wine, your belly a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies.


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Your neck is an ivory tower. Your eyes, the pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose, the Tower of Lebanon, sentinel facing Damascus.


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Your head is held high like Carmel, and its hair is as dark as purple; a king is held captive in your tresses.


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I have decided, 'I shall climb the palm tree, I shall seize its clusters of dates!' May your breasts be clusters of grapes, your breath sweet-scented as apples,


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and your palate like sweet wine. BELOVED: Flowing down the throat of my love, as it runs on the lips of those who sleep.


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and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards. We will see if the vines are budding, if their blossoms are opening, if the pomegranate trees are in flower. Then I shall give you the gift of my love.


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The mandrakes yield their fragrance, the most exquisite fruits are at our doors; the new as well as the old, I have stored them for you, my love.


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Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother's breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I could kiss you without people thinking ill of me.


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I should lead you, I should take you into my mother's house, and you would teach me! I should give you spiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.


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LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before she pleases!


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Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, where your mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.


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BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself.


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Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love, contempt is all that he would gain.


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Our sister is little: her breasts are not yet formed. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?


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If she is a rampart, on the crest we shall build a battlement of silver; if she is a door, we shall board her up with planks of cedar.


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Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon. He entrusted it to overseers, and each one was to pay him the value of its produce, a thousand shekels of silver.


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But I tend my own vineyard myself. You, Solomon, may have your thousand shekels, and those who oversee its produce their two hundred.


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Love uprightness you who are rulers on earth, be properly disposed towards the Lord and seek him in simplicity of heart;


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for he will be found by those who do not put him to the test, revealing himself to those who do not mistrust him.


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Perverse thoughts, however, separate people from God, and power, when put to the test, confounds the stupid.


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for the holy spirit of instruction flees deceitfulness, recoils from unintelligent thoughts, is thwarted by the onset of vice.


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Wisdom is a spirit friendly to humanity, though she will not let a blasphemer's words go unpunished; since God observes the very soul and accurately surveys the heart, listening to every word.


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For the spirit of the Lord fills the world, and that which holds everything together knows every word said.


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For the schemes of the godless will be examined, and a report of his words will reach the Lord to convict him of his crimes.


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So beware of uttering frivolous complaints, restrain your tongue from finding fault; even what is said in secret has repercussions, and a lying mouth deals death to the soul.


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Do not court death by the errors of your ways, nor invite destruction through the work of your hands.


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To exist -- for this he created all things; the creatures of the world have health in them, in them is no fatal poison, and Hades has no power over the world:


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But the godless call for Death with deed and word, counting him friend, they wear themselves out for him; with him they make a pact, worthy as they are to belong to him.


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And this is the false argument they use, 'Our life is short and dreary, there is no remedy when our end comes, no one is known to have come back from Hades.


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We came into being by chance and afterwards shall be as though we had never been. The breath in our nostrils is a puff of smoke, reason a spark from the beating of our hearts;


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In time, our name will be forgotten, nobody will remember what we have done; our life will pass away like wisps of cloud, dissolving like the mist that the sun's rays drive away and that its heat dispels.


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For our days are the passing of a shadow, our end is without return, the seal is affixed and nobody comes back.


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'Come then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth:


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no meadow excluded from our orgy; let us leave the signs of our revelry everywhere, since this is our portion, this our lot!


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'As for the upright man who is poor, let us oppress him; let us not spare the widow, nor respect old age, white-haired with many years.


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Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.


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In his opinion we are counterfeit; he avoids our ways as he would filth; he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.


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For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.


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Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his patience to the test.


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They do not know the hidden things of God, they do not hope for the reward of holiness, they do not believe in a reward for blameless souls.


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Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost.


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slight was their correction, great will their blessings be. God was putting them to the test and has proved them worthy to be with him;


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Those who trust in him will understand the truth, those who are faithful will live with him in love; for grace and mercy await his holy ones, and he intervenes on behalf of his chosen.


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But the godless will be duly punished for their reasoning, for having neglected the upright and deserted the Lord.


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Yes, wretched are they who scorn wisdom and discipline: their hope is void, their toil unavailing, their achievements unprofitable;


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Blessed the sterile woman if she be blameless, and has not known an unlawful bed, for she will have fruit at the visitation of souls.


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Blessed, too, the eunuch whose hand commits no crime, and who harbours no resentment against the Lord: a special favour will be granted to him for his loyalty, a most desirable portion in the temple of the Lord.


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But the children of adulterers will not reach maturity, the offspring of an unlawful bed will disappear.


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Better to have no children yet to have virtue, since immortality perpetuates its memory; for God and human beings both recognise it.


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Present, we imitate it, absent, we long for it; crowned, it holds triumph through eternity, having striven for untainted prizes and emerged the victor.


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But the offspring of the godless come to nothing, however prolific, sprung from a bastard stock, they will never strike deep roots, never put down firm foundations.


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They may branch out for a time, but, on unsteady foundations, they will be rocked by the wind and uprooted by the force of the storm;


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their branches, yet unformed, will be snapped off, their fruit be useless, too unripe to eat, fit for nothing.


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Having won God's favour, he has been loved and, as he was living among sinners, has been taken away.


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He has been carried off so that evil may not warp his understanding or deceitfulness seduce his soul;


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for the fascination of evil throws good things into the shade, and the whirlwind of desire corrupts a simple heart.


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his soul being pleasing to the Lord, he has hurried away from the wickedness around him. Yet people look on, uncomprehending; and it does not enter their heads


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The upright who dies condemns the godless who survive, and youth quickly perfected condemns the lengthy old age of the wicked.


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These people see the end of the wise without understanding what the Lord has in store or why he has taken such a one to safety;


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Soon they will be corpses without honour, objects of horror among the dead for ever. For he will shatter them and fling them headlong and dumbfounded. He will shake them from their foundations; they will be utterly laid waste, a prey to grief, and their memory will perish.


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When the count of their sins has been drawn up, in terror they will come, and their crimes, confronting them, will accuse them.


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Then the upright will stand up boldly to face those who had oppressed him and had thought so little of his sufferings.


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And, seeing him, they will be seized with terrible fear, amazed that he should have been so unexpectedly saved.


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'This is the one whom we used to mock, making him the butt of our insults, fools that we were! His life we regarded as madness, his ending as without honour.


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How has he come to be counted as one of the children of God and to have his lot among the holy ones?


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Clearly we have strayed from the way of truth; the light of justice has not shone for us, the sun has not risen for us.


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We have left no path of lawlessness or ruin unexplored, we have crossed deserts where there was no track, but the way of the Lord is one we have never known.


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Like a ship that cuts through heaving waves -- leaving no trace to show where it has passed, no wake from its keel in the waves.


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Or like a bird flying through the air -- leaving no proof of its passing; it whips the light air with the stroke of its pinions, tears it apart in its whirring rush, drives its way onward with sweeping wing, and afterwards no sign is seen of its passage.


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Or like an arrow shot at a mark, the pierced air closing so quickly on itself, there is no knowing which way the arrow has passed.


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So with us: scarcely born, we disappear; of virtue not a trace have we to show, we have spent ourselves in our own wickedness!'


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For the hope of the godless is like chaff carried on the wind, like fine spray driven by the storm; it disperses like smoke before the wind, goes away like the memory of a one-day guest.


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But the upright live for ever, their recompense is with the Lord, and the Most High takes care of them.


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So they will receive the glorious crown and the diadem of beauty from the Lord's hand; for he will shelter them with his right hand and with his arm he will shield them.


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of his pitiless wrath he will forge a sword, and the universe will march with him to fight the reckless.


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Bolts truly aimed, the shafts of lightning will leap, and from the clouds, as from a full-drawn bow, fly to their mark;


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and the catapult will hurl hailstones charged with fury. The waters of the sea will rage against them, the rivers engulf them without pity,


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a mighty gale will rise against them and winnow them like a hurricane. Thus wickedness will lay the whole earth waste and evil-doing bring down the thrones of the mighty.


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For sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the Most High, who will himself probe your acts and scrutinise your intentions.


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If therefore, as servants of his kingdom, you have not ruled justly nor observed the law, nor followed the will of God,


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For the Lord of all does not cower before anyone, he does not stand in awe of greatness, since he himself has made small and great and provides for all alike;


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for those who in holiness observe holy things will be adjudged holy, and, accepting instruction from them, will find their defence in them.


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Wisdom is brilliant, she never fades. By those who love her, she is readily seen, by those who seek her, she is readily found.


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Meditating on her is understanding in its perfect form, and anyone keeping awake for her will soon be free from care.


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For she herself searches everywhere for those who are worthy of her, benevolently appearing to them on their ways, anticipating their every thought.


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If then thrones and sceptres delight you, monarchs of the nations, honour Wisdom, so that you may reign for ever.


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What Wisdom is and how she was born, I shall now explain; I shall hide no mysteries from you, but shall follow her steps from the outset of her origin, setting out what we know of her in full light, without departing from the truth.


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In the greatest number of the wise lies the world's salvation, in a sagacious king the stability of a people.


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I too am mortal like everyone else, a descendant of the first man formed from the earth. I was modelled in flesh inside a mother's womb,


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where, for ten months, in blood I acquired substance -- the result of virile seed and pleasure, sleep's companion.


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I too, when I was born, drew in the common air, I fell on the same ground that bears us all, and crying was the first sound I made, like everyone else.


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I reckoned no precious stone to be her equal, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her, silver ranks as mud.


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I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.


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All these delighted me, since Wisdom brings them, though I did not then realise that she was their mother.


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For she is to human beings an inexhaustible treasure, and those who acquire this win God's friendship, commended to him by the gifts of instruction.


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May God grant me to speak as he would wish and conceive thoughts worthy of the gifts I have received, since he is both guide to Wisdom and director of sages;


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for we are in his hand, yes, ourselves and our sayings, and all intellectual and all practical knowledge.


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He it was who gave me sure knowledge of what exists, to understand the structure of the world and the action of the elements,


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the beginning, end and middle of the times, the alternation of the solstices and the succession of the seasons,


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the natures of animals and the instincts of wild beasts, the powers of spirits and human mental processes, the varieties of plants and the medical properties of roots.


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And now I understand everything, hidden or visible, for Wisdom, the designer of all things, has instructed me.


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For within her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, shrewd,


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irresistible, beneficent, friendly to human beings, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-surveying, penetrating all intelligent, pure and most subtle spirits.


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For Wisdom is quicker to move than any motion; she is so pure, she pervades and permeates all things.


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She is a breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; so nothing impure can find its way into her.


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For she is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God's active power, and image of his goodness.


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Although she is alone, she can do everything; herself unchanging, she renews the world, and, generation after generation, passing into holy souls, she makes them into God's friends and prophets;


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She is indeed more splendid than the sun, she outshines all the constellations; compared with light, she takes first place,


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Strongly she reaches from one end of the world to the other and she governs the whole world for its good.


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Wisdom I loved and searched for from my youth; I resolved to have her as my bride, I fell in love with her beauty.


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If in this life wealth is a desirable possession, what is more wealthy than Wisdom whose work is everywhere?


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Or if it be uprightness you love, why, virtues are the fruit of her labours, since it is she who teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude; nothing in life is more useful for human beings.


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Or if you are eager for wide experience, she knows the past, she forecasts the future; she knows how to turn maxims, and solve riddles; she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders, and of the unfolding of the ages and the times.


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I therefore determined to take her to share my life, knowing that she would be my counsellor in prosperity and comfort me in cares and sorrow.


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They will wait on my silences, and pay attention when I speak; if I speak at some length, they will lay their hand on their lips.


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at the sound of my name fearsome despots will be afraid; I shall show myself kind to the people and valiant in battle.


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'When I go home I shall take my ease with her, for nothing is bitter in her company, when life is shared with her there is no pain, nothing but pleasure and joy.'


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Having meditated on all this, and having come to the conclusion that immortality resides in kinship with Wisdom,


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noble contentment in her friendship, inexhaustible riches in her activities, understanding in cultivating her society, and renown in conversing with her, I went all ways, seeking how to get her.


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but, realising that I could never possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me, -a sign of intelligence in itself, to know in whose gift she lay -- I prayed to the Lord and entreated him, and with all my heart I said:


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to govern the world in holiness and saving justice and in honesty of soul to dispense fair judgement,


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For I am your servant, son of your serving maid, a feeble man, with little time to live, with small understanding of justice and the laws.


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Indeed, were anyone perfect among the sons of men, if he lacked the Wisdom that comes from you, he would still count for nothing.


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You have bidden me build a temple on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you have pitched your tent, a copy of the holy Tent which you prepared at the beginning.


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With you is Wisdom, she who knows your works, she who was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what agrees with your commandments.


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Despatch her from the holy heavens, send her forth from your throne of glory to help me and to toil with me and teach me what is pleasing to you;


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since she knows and understands everything she will guide me prudently in my actions and will protect me with her glory.


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Then all I do will be acceptable, I shall govern your people justly and be worthy of my father's throne.


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'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can comprehend the will of the Lord?


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for a perishable body presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with its many cares.


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It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?


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And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above?


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Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened and people have been taught what pleases you, and have been saved, by Wisdom.'


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It was Wisdom who protected the first man to be fashioned, the father of the world, who had been created all alone, she it was who rescued him from his fall


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When because of him the earth was drowned, it was Wisdom again who saved it, piloting the upright man on valueless timber.


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Again, when, concurring in wickedness, the nations had been thrown into confusion, she singled out the upright man, preserved him blameless before God and fortified him against pity for his child.


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She it was who, while the godless perished, saved the upright man as he fled from the fire raining down on the Five Cities,


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in witness against whose evil ways a desolate land still smokes, where plants bear fruit that never ripens and where, monument to an unbelieving soul, there stands a pillar of salt.


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For, by ignoring the path of Wisdom, not only did they suffer the loss of not knowing the good, but they left the world a memorial to their folly, so that their offences could not pass unnoticed.


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The upright man, fleeing from the anger of his brother, was led by her along straight paths. She showed him the kingdom of God and taught him the knowledge of holy things. She brought him success in his labours and gave him full return for all his efforts;


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She preserved him from his enemies and saved him from the traps they set for him. In an arduous struggle she awarded him the prize, to teach him that piety is stronger than all.


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she accompanied him down into the pit, nor did she abandon him in his chains until she had brought him the sceptre of a kingdom and authority over his despotic masters, thus exposing as liars those who had traduced him, and giving him honour everlasting.


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To the holy people she gave the wages of their labours; she guided them by a marvellous road, herself their shelter by day -- and their starlight through the night.


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So the upright despoiled the godless; Lord, they extolled your holy name, and with one accord praised your protecting hand;


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On you they called when they were thirsty, and from the rocky cliff water was given them, from hard stone a remedy for their thirst.


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Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,


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to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against all hope, water in abundance,


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once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing their enemies.


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From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realised how an angry sentence was tormenting the godless;


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for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitiless king condemns,


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when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, they realised it was the Lord,


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while for the man whom long before they had exposed and later mockingly rebuffed, they felt only admiration when all was done, having suffered a thirst so different from that of the upright.


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For their foolish and wicked notions which led them astray into worshipping mindless reptiles and contemptible beetles, you sent a horde of mindless animals to punish them


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And indeed your all-powerful hand which created the world from formless matter, did not lack means to unleash a horde of bears or savage lions on them


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or unknown beasts, newly created, full of rage, breathing out fire, or puffing out stinking smoke, or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes,


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beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifying appearance.


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However, without these, one breath could have blown them over, pursued by Justice, whirled away by the breath of your power. You, however, ordered all things by measure, number and weight.


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The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground.


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Yet you are merciful to all, because you are almighty, you overlook people's sins, so that they can repent.


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Yes, you love everything that exists, and nothing that you have made disgusts you, since, if you had hated something, you would not have made it.


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And how could a thing subsist, had you not willed it? Or how be preserved, if not called forth by you?


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And thus, gradually, you correct those who offend; you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.


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Those ruthless murderers of children, those eaters of entrails at feasts of human flesh and of blood, those initiates of secret brotherhoods,


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Even so, since these were human, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of your army, to exterminate them little by little.


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Not that you were unable to hand the godless over to the upright in pitched battle or destroy them at once by savage beasts or one harsh word;


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but, by carrying out your sentences gradually, you gave them a chance to repent, although you knew that they were inherently evil, innately wicked,


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and fixed in their cast of mind; for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Nor was it from awe of anyone that you let their sins go unpunished.


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For who is there to ask, 'What have you done?' Or who is there to disagree with your sentence? Who to arraign you for destroying nations which you have created? Who to confront you by championing the wicked?


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For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that your sentences have been just.


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For, being upright yourself, you rule the universe uprightly, and hold it as incompatible with your power to condemn anyone who has not deserved to be punished.


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For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.


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You show your strength when people will not believe in your absolute power, and you confound any insolence in those who do know it.


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But you, controlling your strength, are mild in judgement, and govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there.


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By acting thus, you have taught your people that the upright must be kindly to his fellows, and you have given your children the good hope that after sins you will grant repentance.


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For, if with such care and indulgence you have punished your children's enemies, though doomed to death, and have given them time and place to be rid of their wickedness,


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with what exact attention have you not judged your children, to whose ancestors, by oaths and covenants, you made such generous promises?


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Thus, you instruct us, when you punish our enemies in moderation, that we should reflect on your kindness when we judge, and, when we are judged, we should look for mercy.


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And this is why people leading foolish and wicked lives were tortured by you with their own abominations;


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for they had strayed too far on the paths of error by taking the vilest and most despicable of animals for gods, being deluded like silly little children.


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Those, however, who would not take warning from a mocking reproof were soon to endure a sentence worthy of God.


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The creatures that made them suffer and against which they protested, those very creatures that they had taken for gods and by which they were punished they saw in their true light; and he whom hitherto they had refused to know, they realised was true God. And this is why the final condemnation fell on them.


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Yes, naturally stupid are all who are unaware of God, and who, from good things seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have not recognised the Artificer.


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Fire, however, or wind, or the swift air, the sphere of the stars, impetuous water, heaven's lamps, are what they have held to be the gods who govern the world.


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If, charmed by their beauty, they have taken these for gods, let them know how much the Master of these excels them, since he was the very source of beauty that created them.


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And if they have been impressed by their power and energy, let them deduce from these how much mightier is he that has formed them,


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since through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.


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Small blame, however, attaches to them, for perhaps they go astray only in their search for God and their eagerness to find him;


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familiar with his works, they investigate them and fall victim to appearances, seeing so much beauty.


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if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master?


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But wretched are they, with their hopes set on dead things, who have given the title of gods to human artefacts, gold or silver, skilfully worked, figures of animals, or useless stone, carved by some hand long ago.


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Take a woodcutter. He fells a suitable tree, neatly strips off the bark all over and then with admirable skill works the wood into an object useful in daily life.


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There is still a good-for-nothing bit left over, a gnarled and knotted billet: he takes it and whittles it with the concentration of his leisure hours, he shapes it with the skill of experience, he gives it a human shape


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or perhaps he makes it into some vile animal, smears it with ochre, paints its surface red, coats over all its blemishes.


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Thus he makes sure that it will not fall down -- being well aware that it cannot help itself, since it is only an image, and needs to be helped.


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And yet, if he wishes to pray for his goods, for his marriage, for his children, he does not blush to harangue this lifeless thing -- for health, he invokes what is weak,


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for life, he pleads with what is dead, for help, he goes begging to total inexperience, for a journey, what cannot even use its feet,


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for profit, an undertaking, and success in pursuing his craft, he asks skill from something whose hands have no skill whatever.


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Or someone else, taking ship to cross the wild waves, loudly invokes a piece of wood frailer than the vessel that bears him.


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Agreed, the ship is the product of a craving for gain, its building embodies the wisdom of the shipwright;


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but your providence, Father, is what steers it, you having opened a pathway even through the sea, and a safe way over the waves,


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showing that you can save, whatever happens, so that, even without experience, someone may put to sea.


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It is not your will that the works of your Wisdom should be sterile, so people entrust their lives to the smallest piece of wood, cross the waves on a raft, yet are kept safe and sound.


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Why, in the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and, steered by your hand, preserved the seed of a new generation for the ages to come.


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but accursed the man-made idol, yes, it and its maker, he for having made it, and it because, though perishable, it has been called god.


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Hence even the idols of the nations will have a visitation since, in God's creation, they have become an abomination, a scandal for human souls, a snare for the feet of the foolish.


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A father afflicted by untimely mourning has an image made of his child so soon carried off, and now pays divine honours to what yesterday was only a corpse, handing on mysteries and ceremonies to his people;


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Rulers were the ones who ordered that statues should be worshipped: people who could not honour them in person, because they lived too far away, would have a portrait made of their distant countenance, to have an image that they could see of the king whom they honoured; meaning, by such zeal, to flatter the absent as if he were present.


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Even people who did not know him were stimulated into spreading his cult by the artist's enthusiasm;


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for the latter, doubtless wishing to please his ruler, exerted all his skill to surpass the reality,


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and the crowd, attracted by the beauty of the work, mistook for a god someone whom recently they had honoured as a man.


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And this became a snare for life: that people, whether enslaved by misfortune or by tyranny, should have conferred the ineffable Name on sticks and stones.


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It is not enough, however, for them to have such misconceptions about God; for, living in the fierce warfare of ignorance, they call these terrible evils peace.


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With their child-murdering rites, their occult mysteries, or their frenzied orgies with outlandish customs,


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they no longer retain any purity in their lives or their marriages, one treacherously murdering another or wronging him by adultery.


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disturbance of decent people, forgetfulness of favours, pollution of souls, sins against nature, disorder in marriage, adultery and debauchery.


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For these people either carry their merrymaking to the point of frenzy, or they prophesy what is not true, or they live wicked lives, or they perjure themselves without hesitation;


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But they will be justly punished for this double crime: for degrading the concept of God by adhering to idols; and for wickedly perjuring themselves in contempt for what is holy.


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For it is not the power of the things by which they swear but the punishment reserved for sinners that always follows the offences of wicked people.


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Even if we sin, we are yours, since we acknowledge your power, but we will not sin, knowing we count as yours.


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We have not been duped by inventions of misapplied human skill, or by the sterile work of painters, by figures daubed with assorted colours,


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Lovers of evil and worthy of such hopes are those who make them, those who want them and those who worship them.


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Take a potter, now, laboriously working the soft earth, shaping each object for us to use. Out of the self-same clay, he models vessels intended for a noble use and those for a contrary purpose, all alike: but which of these two uses each will have is for the potter himself to decide.


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Then -- ill -- spent effort!-from the same clay he models a futile god, although so recently made out of earth himself and shortly to return to what he was taken from, when asked to give back the soul that has been lent to him.


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Even so, he does not worry about having to die or about the shortness of his life, but strives to outdo the goldsmiths and silversmiths, imitates the bronzeworkers, and prides himself on modelling counterfeits.


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For he has misconceived the One who has modelled him, who breathed an active soul into him and inspired a living spirit.


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What is more, he looks on this life of ours as a kind of game, and our time here like a fair, full of bargains. 'However foul the means,' he says, 'a man must make a living.'


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He, more than any other, knows he is sinning, he who from one earthy stuff makes both brittle pots and idols.


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But most foolish, more pitiable even than the soul of a little child, are the enemies who once played the tyrant with your people,


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and have taken all the idols of the heathen for gods; these can use neither their eyes for seeing nor their nostrils for breathing the air nor their ears for hearing nor the fingers on their hands for handling nor their feet for walking.


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They have been made, you see, by a human being, modelled by a being whose own breath is borrowed. No man can model a god to resemble himself;


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subject to death, his impious hands can produce only something dead. He himself is worthier than the things he worships; he will at least have lived, but never they.


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And they worship even the most loathsome of animals, worse than the rest in their degree of stupidity,


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without a trace of beauty -- if that is what is attractive in animals- and excluded from God's praises and blessing.


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In contrast to this punishment, you did your people a kindness and, to satisfy their sharp appetite, provided quails -- a luscious rarity -- for them to eat.


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Thus the Egyptians, at the repulsive sight of the creatures sent against them, were to find that, though they longed for food, they had lost their natural appetite; whereas your own people, after a short privation, were to have a rare relish for their portion.


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Inevitable that relentless want should seize on the former oppressors; enough for your people to be shown how their enemies were being tortured.


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Even when the fearful rage of wild animals overtook them and they were perishing from the bites of writhing snakes, your retribution did not continue to the end.


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Affliction struck them briefly, by way of warning, and they had a saving token to remind them of the commandment of your Law,


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for them, the bites of locusts and flies proved fatal and no remedy could be found to save their lives, since they deserved to be punished by such creatures.


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But your children, not even the fangs of poisonous snakes could bring them down; for your mercy came to their help and cured them.


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One sting -- how quickly healed!-to remind them of your pronouncements rather than that, by sinking into deep forgetfulness, they should be cut off from your kindness.


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A human being out of malice may put to death, but cannot bring the departed spirit back or free the soul that Hades has once received.


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The godless who refused to acknowledge you were scourged by the strength of your arm, pursued by no ordinary rains, hail and unrelenting downpours, and consumed by fire.


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Even more wonderful, in the water -- which quenches all -- the fire raged fiercer than ever; for the elements fight for the upright.


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At one moment, the fire would die down, to avoid consuming the animals sent against the godless and to make clear to them by that sight, that the sentence of God was pursuing them;


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at another, in the very heart of the water, it would burn more fiercely than fire to ruin the produce of a wicked land.


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How differently with your people! You gave them the food of angels, from heaven untiringly providing them bread already prepared, containing every delight, to satisfy every taste.


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And the substance you gave showed your sweetness towards your children, for, conforming to the taste of whoever ate it, it transformed itself into what each eater wished.


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Snow and ice endured the fire, without melting; this was to show them that, to destroy the harvests of their enemies, fire would burn even in hail and flare in falling rain,


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whereas, on the other hand, it would even forget its own strength in the service of feeding the upright.


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For the creation, being at the service of you, its Creator, tautens to punish the wicked and slackens for the benefit of those who trust in you.


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And this is why, by changing into all things, it obediently served your all-nourishing bounty, conforming to the wishes of those who were in need;


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so that your beloved children, Lord, might learn that the various crops are not what provide nourishment, but your word which preserves all who believe in you.


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to show that, to give you thanks, we must rise before the sun and meet you at the dawning of the day;


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whereas the hope of the ungrateful melts like winter frost and flows away like water running to waste.


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While the wicked supposed they had a holy nation in their power, they themselves lay prisoners of the dark, in the fetters of long night, confined under their own roofs, banished from eternal providence.


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While they thought to remain unnoticed with their secret sins, curtained by dark forgetfulness, they were scattered in fearful dismay, terrified by apparitions.


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The hiding place sheltering them could not ward off their fear; terrifying noises echoed round them; and gloomy, grim-faced spectres haunted them.


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No fire had power enough to give them light, nor could the brightly blazing stars illuminate that dreadful night.


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The only light for them was a great, spontaneous blaze -- a fearful sight to see! And in their terror, once that sight had vanished, they thought what they had seen more terrible than ever.


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Their magical illusions were powerless now, and their claims to intelligence were ignominiously confounded;


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for those who promised to drive out fears and disorders from sick souls were now themselves sick with ludicrous fright.


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Even when there was nothing frightful to scare them, the vermin creeping past and the hissing of reptiles filled them with panic;


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Wickedness is confessedly very cowardly, and it condemns itself; under pressure from conscience it always assumes the worst.


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the less you rely within yourself on this, the more alarming it is not to know the cause of your suffering.


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And they, all locked in the same sleep, while that darkness lasted -- which was in fact quite powerless and had issued from the depths of equally powerless Hades-


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were now chased by monstrous spectres, now paralysed by the fainting of their souls; for a sudden, unexpected terror had attacked them.


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And thus, whoever it might be that fell there stayed clamped to the spot in this prison without bars.


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Whether he was ploughman or shepherd, or somebody at work in the desert, he was still overtaken and suffered the inevitable fate, for all had been bound by the one same chain of darkness.


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The soughing of the wind, the tuneful noise of birds in the spreading branches, the measured beat of water in its powerful course, the headlong din of rocks cascading down,


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the unseen course of bounding animals, the roaring of the most savage of wild beasts, the echo rebounding from the clefts in the mountains, all held them paralysed with fear.


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over them alone there spread a heavy darkness, image of the dark that would receive them. But heavier than the darkness was the burden they were to themselves.


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For your holy ones, however, there was a very great light. The Egyptians, who could hear them but not see them, called them fortunate because they had not suffered too;


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they thanked them for doing no injury in return for previous wrongs and asked forgiveness for their past ill-will.


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In contrast to the darkness, you gave your people a pillar of blazing fire to guide them on their unknown journey, a mild sun for their ambitious migration.


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But well those others deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, for they had kept in captivity your children, by whom the incorruptible light of the Law was to be given to the world.


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As they had resolved to kill the infants of the holy ones, and as of those exposed only one child had been saved, you punished them by carrying off their horde of children and by destroying them all in the wild water.


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That night had been known in advance to our ancestors, so that, well knowing him in whom they had put their trust, they would be sure of his promises.


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for by the very vengeance that you exacted on our adversaries, you glorified us by calling us to you.


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So the holy children of the good offered sacrifice in secret and with one accord enacted this holy law: that the holy ones should share good things and dangers alike; and forthwith they chanted the hymns of the ancestors.


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In echo came the discordant cries of their enemies, and the pitiful wails of people mourning for their children could be heard from far away.


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One and the same punishment had struck slave and master alike, and now commoner and king had the same sufferings to endure.


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Struck by the same death, all had innumerable dead. There were not enough living left to bury them, for, at one stroke, the flower of their offspring had perished.


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Those whose spells had made them completely incredulous, when faced with the destruction of their first-born, acknowledged this people to be child of God.


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down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all-powerful Word like a pitiless warrior into the heart of a land doomed to destruction. Carrying your unambiguous command like a sharp sword,


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Immediately, dreams and gruesome visions overwhelmed them with terror, unexpected fears assailed them.


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for the dreams that had troubled them had warned them why beforehand, so that they should not perish without knowing why they were being afflicted.


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Experience of death, however, touched the upright too, and a great many were struck down in the desert. But the Retribution did not last long,


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for a blameless man hurried to their defence. Wielding the weapons of his sacred office, prayer and expiating incense, he confronted Retribution and put an end to the plague, thus showing that he was your servant.


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He overcame Hostility, not by physical strength, nor by force of arms; but by word he prevailed over the Punisher, by recalling the oaths made to the Fathers, and the covenants.


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Already the corpses lay piled in heaps, when he interposed and beat Retribution back and cut off its approach to the living.


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For the whole world was on his flowing robe, the glorious names of the Fathers engraved on the four rows of stones, and your Majesty on the diadem on his head.


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From these the Destroyer recoiled, he was afraid of these. This one experience of Retribution was enough.


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But the godless were assailed by merciless anger to the very end, for he knew beforehand what they would do,


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how, after letting his people leave and hastening their departure, they would change their minds and give chase.


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They were actually still conducting their mourning rites and lamenting at the tombs of their dead, when another mad scheme came into their heads and they set out to pursue, as though runaways, the people whom they had expelled and begged to go.


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A well-deserved fate urged them to this extreme and made them forget what had already happened, so that they would add to their torments the one punishment outstanding


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and, while your people were experiencing a journey contrary to all expectations, would themselves meet an extraordinary death.


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For the whole creation, submissive to your commands, had its very nature re-created, so that your children should be preserved from harm.


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Overshadowing the camp there was the cloud; where there had been water, dry land was seen to rise; the Red Sea became an unimpeded way, the tempestuous waves, a green plain;


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They were like horses at pasture, they skipped like lambs, singing your praises, Lord, their deliverer.


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For they still remembered the events of their exile, how the land had bred mosquitoes instead of animals and the River had disgorged millions of frogs instead of fish.


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Later they were to see a new way for birds to come into being, when, goaded by greed, they demanded something tasty,


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On the sinners, however, punishments rained down not without violent thunder as early warning; and they suffered what their own crimes had justly deserved since they had shown such bitter hatred to foreigners.


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Others, indeed, had failed to welcome strangers who came to them, but the Egyptians had enslaved their own guests and benefactors.


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The sinners, moreover, will certainly be punished for it, since they gave the foreigners a hostile welcome;


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but the latter, having given a festive reception to people who already shared the same rights as themselves, later overwhelmed them with terrible labours.


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Hence they were struck with blindness, like the sinners at the gate of the upright, when, yawning darkness all around them, each had to grope his way through his own door.


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A new attuning of the elements occurred, as on a harp the notes may change their rhythm, though all the while preserving the same tone; and this is just what happened:


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flames, on the other hand, did not char the flesh of delicate animals that ventured into them; nor did they melt the heavenly food resembling ice and as easily melted.


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Yes, Lord, in every way you have made your people great and glorious; you have never failed to help them at any time or place.


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[The Law, the Prophets, and the other writers succeeding them have passed on to us great lessons, in consequence of which Israel must be commended for learning and wisdom. Furthermore, it is a duty, not only to acquire learning by reading, but also, once having acquired it, to make oneself of use to people outsideby what one can say or write. My grandfather Jesus, having long devoted himself to the readingof the Law, the Prophetsand other books of the Fathersand having become very learned in them, himself decided to write something on the subjects of learning and wisdom, so that people who wanted to learn might, by themselves accepting these disciplines, learn how better to live according to the Law. You are therefore askedto read this bookwith good will and attentionand to show indulgencein those places where, notwithstanding our efforts at interpretation, we may seemto have failed to give an adequate rendering of this or that expression;the fact is that there is no equivalentfor things originally written in Hebrew when it is a question of translating them into another language;what is more, the Law itself, the Prophetsand the other booksdiffer considerably in translation from what appears in the original text. It was in the thirty-eighth year of the late King Euergetesthat, coming to Egypt and spending some time here, and finding life here consistent with a high degree of wisdom, I became convinced of an immediate duty to apply myself in my turn with pains and diligence to the translation of the book that follows;and I spent much time and learning on itin the course of this period, to complete the work and to publish the bookfor the benefit of those too who, domiciled abroad, wish to study, to reform their behaviour, and to live as the Law requires.] All wisdom comes from the Lord, she is with him for ever.


