THE Old and New Testaments CONNECTED, &c. BOOK IV. An. 164, cabæus 3. ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES being dead, was succeeded in the kingdom by Antiochus his son, a minor of nine years old. Before his Judas Macdeath, he called to him Philip, a favourite of his, and one of those who had been brought up with him, and constituting him regent of the Syrian empire, during the minority of his son, delivered to him his crown, his signet, and all other his ensigns of royalty, giving him in especial charge carefully to bring up his son in such manner as should best qualify him to reign. But when Philip came to Antioch, he found this office there usurped by another. For Lysias, b as soon as he heard of the death of Epiphanes, took Antiochus his son, who was then under his care, and placed him on the throne, giving him the name of Antiochus Eupator, and assumed to himself the tuition of his person, and the government of his kingdom, without any regard had to the appointment of the dead king. And Philip, finding himself too weak to contend with him about it, fled into Egypt, hoping there to have such assistance as should enable him to make good his claim to that which Lysias had usurped from him. с d At this time Ptolemy Macron, governour of ColeSyria and Phoenicia, from being a great enemy to the a Appianus in Syriacis. Euseb. in Chron. 1 Maccab. vi, 17. 2 Maccab. ix, 29; x, 10, 11. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 14 b 1 Maccab. vi, 17. 2 Maccab. x, 11. Appian. & Joseph. ibid. c 2 Maccab. ix, 29. d 2 Maccab. x, 11-13. Jews, becoming their friend, remitted of the rigour of his persecutions against them, and, as far as in him lay, endeavoured to have peace made with them; which handle being laid hold of by some of the courtiers to accuse him before the king, they sat very hard upon him, calling him traitor at every word, because, having been trusted by Ptolemy Philometor with the government of Cyprus, he had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes, and treacherously delivered up that island unto him for it seems, how beneficial soever the treason was, the traitor was still odious unto them for it. Whereon he was deprived of his government, and Lysias was placed in it in his stead; and, no other station being assigned him where he might be supported with honour or sufficiency of maintenance suitable to his degree, he could not bear this fall, and therefore poisoned himself and died. And this was an end which his treachery to his former master, and the great hand he had in the cruel and unjust persecution of the Jews sufficiently deserved. of In the interim, Judas Maccabæus was not idle for hearing how the neighbouring nations of the heathen had confederated to destroy the whole race of Israel, and had already begun it by cutting off as many them as were within their power (as hath been abovementioned,) he marched out with his forces to be revenged on them: and whereas f the Edomites had been the forwardest in this conspiracy, and, having joined with Gorgias, who was governour for the king of Syria in the parts thereabout, had done them much mischief, he began first with them, and, having fallen into that part of their country which was called Acrabattene, he there slew of them no fewer than twenty thousand From thence he led them against the children of Bean, another tribe of the Edomites that had been very troublesome to them; and, having beaten them out of the field, shut them up in two of their strongest fortresses; and, after having besieged them there for some time, at length took them both, and put all he men. e 1 Maccab. v, 1, 2. f 2 Maccab. x, 14, 15. g 1 Maccab. v, 3. 2 Maccab. x, 16, 17. found in them to the sword, who were above twenty thousand more. Some few were saved from this carnage by bribing some of the soldiers to let them escape; but Judas, having gotten knowledge of it, convicted them of the treachery before the rest of the people of the Jews that were with him, and caused them to be put to death for it. After this Judas passed over Jordan into the land of the Ammonites, where he had many conflicts with the enemies of the Jews; and, having slain great numbers of them, took Jazar, with the villages belonging thereto, and then returned again into Judea. Timotheus, who was governour for the king of Syria in those parts, the same whom Judas had overcome two years before, being much exasperated by this inroad made upon his province, gathered together all the forces he was able, even a very great army both of horse and foot, and with them invaded Judea, purposing no less than utterly to destroy the whole nation of the Jews. Whereon Judas went forth with his army to meet him, and having all, with humble supplication and earnest prayer, recommended their cause to God, in confidence of his merciful assistance, engaged these numerous forces with such courage and vigour, that they overthrew them with a great slaughter, there being then slain of them twenty thousand five hundred foot, and six hundred horsemen. Whereon Timotheus fled to Gazara, a city of the tribe of Ephraim near the field of battle, where Chereas his brother was governour. Judas, pursuing them thither, beset the place; and, having taken it on the fifth day, there slew Timotheus, Chereas his brother, and Apollophanes, another prime leader of the army. The heathen nationsm that lived about the land of Gilead hearing of this overthrow, and the death of so many of their friends that were slain in it, for the revenge hereof, gathered together with purpose to cut off and destroy all the Jews in those parts: and, falling first on those that dwelt in the land of Tob, which lay to the east of Gilead, slew one thousand men of them, i 2 Maccab. x, 21, 22. 1 2 Maccab. x, 24-38. k 1 Maccab. v, 6-8. took their goods for a spoil, and carried their wives and children into captivity. Whereon most of the other Jews that dwelt in those parts, for the avoiding of the like ruin, fled to a strong fortress in Gilead called Dathema, and there resolved to defend themselves: which the heathen bearing of, forthwith drew thither in a great body, under the command of another Timotheus, the successor, and most likely the son of the former Timotheus that was slain at Gazara, to besiege them. At the same time" the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, Ptolemais, and the other heathen thereabout, were drawing together, to cut off and destroy all the Jews of Galilee, in the same manner as had been attempted in Gilead. Judas being hereon sent to for help both from Gilead and Galilee on this exigency, by the advice of the sanhedrim, or general council of the Jews, whom he consulted on this occasion, divided his army into three parts. With the first part, consisting of eight thousand men, P he and Jonathan his brother marched for the relief of the Gileadites; with the second, P consisting of three thousand, Simon, another of his brothers, was sent into Galilee; and the rest were left at Jerusalem, under the command of Joseph and Azarias, two prime leaders, for the defence of that place and the country adjacent, to whom Judas gave strict charge not to engage with any of the enemy, but to stand wholly on the defensive, till he and Simon should be again returned. r Judas and Jonathan passing over Jordan, in their way from thence to Gilead, marched through some part of the country of the Nabatheans; with whom having peace, they learned from them the great distress which their friends were then in; for not only those in Dathema were hardly pressed by a strict siege, but all the rest of the Jewish nation that were in Bossora, Bosor, Casphon, Maked, and the other cities of Gilead, were there closely shut up and imprisoned, with intention, on the taking of the fortress of Dathema, to have them all put to death in one day. Whereon n 1 Maccab. v, 13, 14. o 1 Maccab. v, 16, 17. Judas and Jonathan, immediately falling on Bossora, surprised the city, and, having slain all the males, taken their spoils, and freed their brethren who were there imprisoned for slaughter, set the city on fire; and then, marching all night from thence towards Dathema, came thither the next morning, just as Timotheus and all his forces were storming the place; whereon, falling on them behind, they put them all to the rout; for, being surprised with this sudden and unexpected assault, and terrified with the name of Judas, they were seized with a panic fright, and therefore immediately flung down their arms and fled; and Judas slew of them in the pursuit about eight thousand men. After this, Judas took Maspha, Casphon, Maked, Bosor, and all the other cities of Gilead where the Jews were oppressed; and, having thereby delivered them from the destruction designed for them, he treated all those places in the same manner as he had Bossora, that is, slew all the males, took their spoils, and set the cities on fire, and then returned to Jerusalem. And Simon's success in Galilee was not much inferiour: for, on his coming into that country, he had there many conflicts and encounters with the enemy, in all which carrying the victory, he at length drove all those oppressors out of the country, and, having pursued them to the very gates of Ptolemais, slew of them in that pursuit about three thousand men, and took their spoils. But, finding that the Jews of those parts could not well be any longer there protected, by reason of the great number of their enemies in the regions round about them, and the difficulty of succouring them at so great a distance from Jerusalem, he gathered them all together, men, women, and children, with their stuff and all other their substance, to carry them with him into the land of Judah, where, being nearer to the protection of their brethren, they might live under it in better security. And he having accordingly, on his return, brought them thither with him, they were disposed of for the repeopling those places which had been desolated by the enemy during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. |