History of the Maccabees

FIRST MACCABEES 10.58–11.15

...[Ptolemy] brought his daughter along to the city of the Ptolemaians Ptolemais, modern-day Acre in the year one hundred and sixty-two Approx. 150 BCE in the Seleucid calendar. ⁵⁸And both kings met one another face to face, and [Ptolemy] gave Alexander his daughter; they celebrated the wedding with great preparation and great glory, according to the custom of kings, in the city of Ptolemais. ⁵⁹King Alexander sent a letter to Jonathan, asking him to come to him. ⁶⁰Jonathan set out with great glory to the city of Ptolemais and met both kings with great honor, and he found favor in their sight. ⁶¹Then some lawless men of Israel gathered against him to accuse him, but the king paid them no mind. ⁶²The king gave a command to strip Jonathan of his [ordinary] clothes and clothe him in purple The color of royalty and high status, and he had him sit beside him. ⁶³And he said to his princes: "Go out with him, and make a proclamation throughout the whole city that no one shall dare to accuse him, and let no one trouble him with even a single word." ⁶⁴And it happened that when those who were slandering him saw his glory, and heard the voice of the herald's proclamation, and saw that he was clothed in purple, they all fled, hid, and perished. ⁶⁵The king honored him among his "First Friends" A specific title for the inner circle of the Seleucid court and made him a General and Governor. ⁶⁶And Jonathan returned to Jerusalem full of joy and peace.

17 ⁶⁷In the year one hundred and sixty-five Approx. 147 BCE, Demetrius Demetrius II Nicator, son of Demetrius, came from the regions of Crete to the land of his ancestors. ⁶⁸Alexander was very grieved and returned to the city of the Antiochians. ⁶⁹Demetrius appointed Apollonius, who was formerly over Coele-Syria original: "Lower Assyria", and he gathered a large army and came to camp at Jamnia. He sent word to Jonathan the High Priest, saying: ⁷⁰"You alone stand proud against us, and I have become a laughingstock because of you. Why do you boast against us in your mountains? ⁷¹Now then, if you trust in your forces, come down to us on this plain so that we may face one another, for I have the forces of the cities with me. ⁷²Ask and learn who I am, or who those are who help us. They say: 'You have no place for your feet before us,' for twice your ancestors were put to flight in their own land. ⁷³And now you will not be able to withstand such cavalry on a plain where there is no bush for hiding, nor a place for flight, nor a rock for refuge, nor a pebble to throw by hand." ⁷⁴When Jonathan heard these messages from Apollonius, he became angry in his mind and immediately rose up. He chose ten thousand elite men from his army and went out from Jerusalem; his brother Simon met him to provide assistance. ⁷⁵They arrived at the city of the Joppites Jaffa. The citizens shut the gates against them because a garrison of Apollonius was stationed there; but they attacked the city. ⁷⁶Those inside opened the gates out of fear, and Jonathan's men entered and took control of the city. ⁷⁷When Apollonius heard this, he prepared three thousand armored cavalry and many other troops. ⁷⁸He went toward the region of Azotus Ashdod as if he were passing through, but he moved toward the plain because he trusted in his cavalry. Jonathan followed him to give battle. ⁷⁹Apollonius had left a thousand horsemen in ambush behind him. ⁸⁰When Jonathan saw that they had set an ambush behind him, they [the enemy] came and surrounded his camp and cast spears at his people from morning until evening, as Jonathan had commanded his men [to hold]. ⁸¹The cavalry grew weary and exhausted. ⁸²Simon took care of his own division and went up against the [enemy] battalion and fell upon them; while they were exhausted and weary, he attacked

them. He destroyed many there in the ambush. ⁸³The many horsemen fled across the face of the plain before him, and he pursued them as far as the region of Azotus. He pursued them with such haste and distress that the fugitives went into the Temple of Dagon A Philistine deity to take refuge. ⁸⁴Jonathan arrived with his troops and surrounded the Temple of Dagon and the city of Azotus and the surrounding towns, and took them as spoil. He burned the Temple of Dagon and those who had taken refuge in it with fire. ⁸⁵And those who fell by the sword, together with those who were burned, were about eight hundred thousand men The Armenian text says 800,000, though other historical versions record 8,000. ⁸⁶Jonathan departed from there and camped in the regions of Ascalon, and they came out from the city to meet him with great glory. ⁸⁷And Jonathan returned to Jerusalem with his battalion and much spoil, for he brought back a great amount of booty from the enemies. ⁸⁸And when Alexander heard this, he honored Jonathan even more. ⁸⁹He sent him a golden buckle original: "shinggh" — a brooch used to fasten a cloak, given only to royal kinsmen such as is custom to give to the King’s brothers; and he gave him Ekron and all its borders as an inheritance.

11 ¹Then the King of the Egyptians Ptolemy VI Philometor gathered a massive army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and many ships. He sought to seize Alexander’s kingdom by treachery and add it to his own kingdom. ²He set out for the regions of Syria with words of peace, and the people opened the gates to him and went out to meet him, for King Alexander had commanded it since Ptolemy was his father-in-law. ³But as Ptolemy entered the cities, he left a garrison of his own troops in each one. ⁴When they approached the city of Azotus, they showed him the burned Temple of Dagon, and the city and its surroundings burned during the war, and the corpses of those who had been burned piled up in heaps along the road. ⁵They told the king what things Jonathan had done, hoping to bring him into disfavor, but the king remained silent. ⁶Jonathan met the king at the city of Joppa with great glory; they greeted one another and stayed together that day. ⁷Jonathan went with the king as far as the river called the Eleutherus original: "Azat", then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem. ⁸King Ptolemy took control of the coastal cities as far as Seleucia-by-the-Sea, and he began to plot evil against Alexander. ⁹He sent messengers to King Demetrius, saying: "Come, let us make a covenant and a treaty with one another. I will give you my daughter, whom King Alexander now has, and you shall rule over your father’s kingdom. ¹⁰For I regret that I gave my daughter to him, for he has plotted to kill me." ¹¹He slandered him in this way because he coveted his kingdom. ¹²So he took his daughter and gave her to Demetrius; he broke with Alexander and his enmity became public. Ptolemy entered and took control of the cities, including Seleucia-by-the-Sea, and planned evil against Alexander. ¹³He entered the city of Antioch and put on the crown of Asia; thus he was crowned with two crowns—the crown of Asia and the crown of Egypt. ¹⁴At that time, King Alexander was in the regions of Cilicia because the people there had revolted against him. ¹⁵When Alexander heard of this, he came to fight against him. Ptolemy went out to meet him with a large army and put him to flight.