The Makers and Teachers of Judaism eBook

Charles Foster Kent
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 462 pages of information about The Makers and Teachers of Judaism.

The Makers and Teachers of Judaism eBook

Charles Foster Kent
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 462 pages of information about The Makers and Teachers of Judaism.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 7:27-32] When Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a great army, he sent to Judas and his brother a message of peaceful words with deceitful intent, saying, Let there be no battle between us.  I will come with a few men, that I may see your faces in peace.  And he came to Judas, and they saluted one another peaceably.  But the enemies were prepared to take away Judas, by violence.  And when the fact was clear to Judas, that he had come to him with deceit, he was very much afraid of him and would see his face no more.  So Nicanor knew that his plan was discovered, and he went out to meet Judas in battle near Capharsalama.  And there fell of those with Nicanor about five hundred men.  Then they fled into the city of David.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 7:33-38] Now after these things Nicanor went to Zion.  And when some of the priests came out of the sanctuary, and some the elders of the people, to salute him peaceably and to show him the whole burnt-offering that was being offered for the king, he mocked them, and laughed at them, and abused them, and talked insolently.  He also swore in a rage, saying, Unless Judas and his army are now delivered into my hands, if I come again in peace, I will burn up this temple.  He went out in a great rage.  Then the priests went in and stood before the altar and the temple; and they wept and said, Thou didst choose this temple to be called by thy name, to be a house of prayer and supplication for thy people.  Take vengeance on this man and his army, and let him fall by the sword.  Remember their blasphemies, and let them live no longer.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 7:39-48] And Nicanor set forth from Jerusalem and encamped in Bethhoron, and there the army of Syria met him.  But Judas encamped in Adasa with three thousand men.  Then Judas prayed and said, When they who came from the king blasphemed, thine angel went out and smote among them an hundred and sixty-five thousand.  Even so destroy thou this army before us to-day, and let all the rest know that he hath spoken wickedly against thy sanctuary, and judge thou him according to his wickedness.  So on the thirteenth day of the month Adar the armies joined battle; and Nicanor’s army was defeated, and he himself was the first to fall in the battle.  And when his army saw that Nicanor had fallen, they threw away their weapons and fled.  And [the Jews] pursued them a day’s journey from Adasa as far as Gazara when they sounded the trumpet-signal for the return.  Then they came out from all the villages of Judea on every hand and outflanked them; and the one turned them back on the other army, and they all fell by the sword, so that none of them was left.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 7:47-50] And they took the spoils and the booty, and they struck off Nicanor’s head and his right hand, which he had stretched out so haughtily, and brought them and hung them up in the citadel of Jerusalem.  And the people were very glad.  They also enacted an ordinance for the celebration of this day year by year, the thirteenth day of Adar.  So the land of Judah had rest for a brief period.

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The Makers and Teachers of Judaism from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.