1 Maccabees 14

1And in the one hundred seventy-second year, King Demetrius gathered his forces and went into Media, to obtain help for himself so that he might make war against Tryphon.

2And Arsaces, the king of Persia and Media, heard that Demetrius had come into his territory, and he sent one of his commanders to capture him alive.

3And he went and struck the camp of Demetrius, and captured him, and brought him to Arsaces, and put him in prison.

4And the land was at rest all the days of Simon, and he sought good for his nation; and his authority and his glory were pleasing to them all his days.

5And with all his glory he took Joppa as a harbor, and made it an access point to the islands of the sea.

6And he enlarged the borders of his nation, and gained control of the country.

7And he gathered many captives, and he took control of Gezer and Beth-zur and the citadel, and he removed the uncleanness from it, and there was no one opposing him.

8And they were cultivating their land in peace, and the land was yielding its produce, and the trees of the fields their fruit.

9The elders sat in the public squares; all of them talked together about good things, and the young men put on splendid garments and armor.

10He supplied the cities with provisions, and equipped them with implements of fortification, until the name of his glory was named to the end of the earth.

11He made peace upon the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy.

12And each sat under his own vine and his own fig tree, and there was no one to frighten them.

13And he ceased fighting against them on the earth, and their kings were crushed in those days.

14And he strengthened all the humble of his people; he sought out the law, and removed every lawless and evil thing.

15He honored the holy things and increased the vessels of the sanctuary.

16And in Rome, and even as far as Sparta, they heard that Jonathan had died, and they were deeply grieved.

17But when they heard that Simon his brother had become high priest in his place and was ruling over the country and the cities in it,

18And they wrote to him on bronze tablets to renew with him the friendship and the alliance that they had established with Judas and Jonathan his brothers.

19and they were read before the assembly in Jerusalem.

20And this is the copy of the letter that the Spartans sent—the rulers of the Spartans and the city—to Simon the high priest, and to the elders and the priests and the rest of the people of the Jews, their brothers, greetings.

21The envoys who had been sent to our people reported to us about your glory and honor, and we rejoiced at their arrival.

22And after recording in the public records what had been said by them, thus: “Numenius son of Antiochus and Antipater son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, came to us renewing their friendship with us.”

23And it pleased the people to receive the men with honor, and to place a copy of their words in the public records of the people, so that the people of the Spartans might have a memorial of them; and they wrote a copy of these things to Simon the high priest.

24After these things Simon sent Numenius to Rome, carrying a large gold shield weighing a thousand minas, to establish the alliance with them.

25When the people heard these words, they said, “What favor shall we repay to Simon and to his sons?”

26For he and his brothers and his father's house stood firm, and they fought the enemies of Israel away from them, and established freedom for him, and recorded it on bronze tablets, and set them on a pillar on Mount Zion.

27And this is the copy of the writing: On the eighteenth of Elul, in the one hundred seventy-second year, and this was the third year under Simon the high priest,

28At Saramel, in a great assembly of the priests and the people and the leaders of the nation and the elders of the country, it was made known to us:

29Since wars had often arisen in the land, Simon son of Mattathias, one of the sons of Joarib, and his brothers gave themselves to danger and stood against the adversaries of their nation, so that their sanctuary and the law might stand, and they glorified their nation with great glory.

30And Jonathan gathered their nation, and became their high priest, and was added to his people.

31And their enemies planned to invade their land, to destroy their land and to stretch out their hands against their holy places.

32Then Simon rose up and fought for his nation, and spent much of his own money, and armed the men of his nation's forces, and gave them wages.

33And he fortified the cities of Judea, and Bethsura on the borders of Judea, where formerly the weapons of the enemies had been, and he stationed there a garrison of Jewish men.

34And he fortified Joppa, which is by the sea, and Gazara, which is on the borders of Azotus, where the enemies had formerly lived; and he settled Jews there, and placed in them whatever was needed for their restoration.

35And the people saw the faithfulness of Simon and the glory that he had purposed to bring about for his nation, and they appointed him as their leader and high priest, because he had done all these things, and because of the righteousness and the faithfulness that he had maintained for his nation, and because he had sought in every way to exalt his people.

36And in his days it prospered in his hands to remove the nations from their land, and those in the city of David in Jerusalem who had made for themselves a citadel, from which they would go out and defile the area around the sanctuary, and they inflicted great damage on its purity.

37And he settled Jewish men in it, and fortified it for the security of the country and the city, and raised the walls of Jerusalem.

38And King Demetrius confirmed the high priesthood to him accordingly,

39and he made him one of his Friends, and he honored him with great honor.

40For it was heard that the Jews are called friends and allies and brothers by the Romans, and that they received Simon’s envoys honorably.

41and that the Jews and the priests were pleased that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise.

42and that he should be their commander, and that he should take thought for the sanctuary, and appoint men over their works and over the country and over the weapons and over the strongholds.

43and that he should have charge of the holy things, and that he should be obeyed by all, and that all documents in the country should be written in his name, and that he should wear purple and gold.

44And it is not permitted for anyone of the people or of the priests to set aside any of these things, or to contradict what is said by him, or to convene an assembly in the country without him, or to put on purple and wear a gold clasp.

45But if anyone does anything contrary to these things, or sets aside any of them, he shall be liable.

46And all the people approved that Simon should act according to these words.

47And Simon accepted it, and agreed to be high priest and to be commander and ethnarch of the Jews and priests, and to be over them all.

48And they said that this document should be put on bronze tablets and set up in the court of the sanctuary, in a secure place.

49And copies of them were to be placed in the treasury, so that Simon and his sons might have them.