4 Maccabees 4

1For a certain Simon, opposing Onias, who had once held the high priesthood for life, a noble and good man, when he was unable, though slandering him in every way, to harm him on behalf of the nation, went away as an exile, intending to betray his homeland.

2Therefore he came to Apollonius, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia and Cilicia, and was saying,

3Simon, being hostile to the king’s interests, reported that many tens of thousands of private funds had been stored in the treasuries of Jerusalem, not connected with the temple, but that these belonged to King Seleucus.

4When Apollonius learned each of these things, he praised Simon for his loyalty to the king, but went up to Seleucus and reported the treasury of funds;

5and after taking authority over them, he quickly came into our homeland

6with the accursed Simon and a very heavy force. After coming forward, he said that he had come by the king’s commands, in order to take the private funds of the treasury.

7And when the nation was raging at the proposal and speaking against it, they considered it utterly dreadful if those who had entrusted their deposits to the sacred treasury should be deprived of them, since

8They were preventing him as much as they could. But with threats Apollonius was going to the temple.

9while the priests, with women and children, were in the temple imploring God to defend the place that was being treated with contempt,

10And when Apollonius came up with an armed force to seize the money, horse-mounted angels appeared beforehand from heaven, flashing around with their weapons and putting great fear and terror into them.

11So Apollonius, having fallen half-dead upon the lifeless court of the sanctuary, stretched out his hands to heaven and with tears begged the Hebrews to pray for him, so that they might appease the heavenly host.

12For he said that he had sinned, so that he was worthy even to die, and that, if he were saved, he would sing the blessedness of the holy place to all people.

13Distressed by these words, Onias the high priest, although otherwise being careful lest King Seleucus might ever think that Apollonius had been done away with by human plotting and not by divine justice, offered some prayer concerning him.

14And the one who had been saved unexpectedly went away, to report to the king the things that had happened to him.

15When Seleucus the king had died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to the rule, a proud and formidable man;

16He deposed Onias from the high priesthood and appointed Jason, his brother, as high priest, after he promised to give, if he would grant him the office, three thousand six hundred sixty talents per year.

17And he permitted him to serve as high priest and to lead the nation.

18He also sought out the nation and led it into every kind of lawlessness.

19so that he not only built a gymnasium at the very citadel of our homeland, but also abolished the guardianship of the temple.

20Because of these things, divine justice, having become indignant, made war against Antiochus himself.

21For while he was waging war against Ptolemy in Egypt, he also heard that, when a report had spread that he was dead, the people of Jerusalem were rejoicing as much as possible; so he quickly marched up against them.

22And when he had subdued them, he issued a decree that if any of them were found living according to the ancestral law, they should be put to death.

23And since he was in no way able to break the goodwill of the nation by means of decrees, but saw all his threats and punishments being nullified,

24so that even women, because they had circumcised their children, were thrown down headlong with their infants, though they knew beforehand that they would suffer this.

25Therefore, since his decrees were being despised by the people, he himself was forcing each one of the nation, by tortures, after tasting defiling foods, to renounce Judaism.

26Therefore, since his decrees were being despised by the people, he himself was compelling each and every one of the nation, by tortures, after tasting defiling foods, to renounce Judaism.