1–2 Maccabees, Sirach & Wisdom of Solomon, Newly Translated from the Greek · First Edition (2026)
1| After Alexander, Philip's son, the Macedonian ruler who set out from the land of Kittim, had defeated Darius king of the Persians and Medes, he took the throne in his place, having earlier reigned over Greece.
2| He waged many wars, captured strongholds, and slaughtered kings,
3| and he marched onward as far as the earth's farthest edges, plundering countless nations; the world fell silent before him, and his pride swelled, and his heart grew arrogant.
4| He gathered a very powerful army and ruled over countries and nations and rulers, and they became tributary to him.
5| After this he took to his bed and knew that he was dying.
6| So he called his honored servants, who had been raised with him from youth, and divided his kingdom among them while he was still living.
7| Alexander had reigned twelve years when he died.
8| His servants took control, each in his own place;
9| and after he died they all put on diadems, and their sons after them for many years, and they multiplied evils on the earth.
10| From them sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, whose father Antiochus had been king and who himself had once been held hostage in Rome; he took the throne in the one hundred thirty-seventh year of Greek rule.
11| In those days lawless men emerged from Israel and won many over, urging, "Come, let's form an alliance with the surrounding nations, since ever we kept apart from them, misfortune after misfortune has struck us."
12| This proposal pleased them,
13| and some of the people were eager for it and went to the king, who gave them authority to observe the ordinances of the nations.
14| So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the customs of the nations,
15| and they underwent surgery to disguise their circumcision, forsook the sacred covenant, allied themselves with the nations, and gave themselves over to wrongdoing.
16| When the kingdom was secure before Antiochus, he undertook to become king over the land of Egypt as well, so that he might reign over both kingdoms.
17| He entered Egypt with a heavy force, with chariots and elephants and cavalry and a great fleet,
18| and he made war on Ptolemy king of Egypt; and Ptolemy turned and fled before him, and many fell wounded.
19| They captured the walled cities throughout Egypt, and he carried off Egypt's plunder.
20| After defeating Egypt, Antiochus withdrew in the one hundred forty-third year, then marched on Israel and Jerusalem at the head of a massive army.
21| He entered the sanctuary in arrogance and took the golden altar, and the lampstand of light with all its equipment,
22| and the table of the presence, and the libation vessels and the bowls and the golden censers and the curtain and the crowns and the golden ornamentation on the front of the temple, and he stripped it all off.
23| He carried off the silver, the gold, and the costly vessels, along with whatever hidden treasures he could find.
24| Having taken everything, he departed to his own land. He committed bloody murder, and spoke with great arrogance.
25| There was great mourning over Israel in every place of theirs,
26| and rulers and elders groaned, young women and young men grew weak, and the beauty of the women was disfigured.
27| Every bridegroom took up lamentation; she who sat in the bridal chamber was in mourning.
28| The land shook over its inhabitants, and the whole house of Jacob was clothed with shame.
29| After two full years the king sent an officer of tribute to the cities of Judah, and he came to Jerusalem with a heavy force.
30| He spoke peaceable words to them deceitfully, and they believed him, and he fell upon the city suddenly, and struck it with a great blow, and destroyed many people from Israel.
31| He took the spoil of the city and set it on fire, and tore down its houses and its walls all around,
32| and they took captive the women and the children, and seized the livestock for themselves.
33| Then they fortified the City of David with a massive, sturdy rampart and towering bastions, turning it into their own stronghold.
34| There they installed a sinful nation, lawless men, and they entrenched themselves in it.
35| They stored up weapons and food, and gathering the spoils of Jerusalem they deposited them there, and it became a great snare,
36| a lurking threat against the sanctuary, a wicked foe to Israel without end.
37| They shed innocent blood all around the sanctuary, and defiled the sanctuary.
38| Because of them the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled, and it became a home for strangers; it became a stranger to its own offspring, and its own children abandoned it.
39| Its sanctuary was made desolate like a wilderness; its feasts were turned into mourning, its sabbaths into reproach, its honor into contempt.
40| As great as its glory had been, so its disgrace multiplied, and its exaltation was turned into mourning.
41| Then the king sent word throughout his entire realm that everyone was to become a single people,
42| and that each should abandon his own customs. All the nations accepted the king's command,
43| and many from Israel were pleased with his worship, and sacrificed to idols, and profaned the sabbath.
44| The king sent letters by the hand of messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, that they should follow customs foreign to the land,
45| and forbid whole burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, and profane the sabbaths and feasts,
46| and defile the sanctuary and the holy people,
47| that they should build altars and sacred precincts and idol-shrines, and sacrifice swine and common animals,
48| and leave their sons uncircumcised, and make their souls abominable with every unclean and profane thing,
49| so that they would forget the law and change all its ordinances.
50| Whoever did not act according to the word of the king was to die.
51| In accordance with all these words he wrote to his whole kingdom, and he appointed overseers over all the people, and commanded the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city by city.
52| Many from the people gathered to them, everyone who forsook the law, and they did evil in the land,
53| and drove Israel into hiding, into every place of refuge they had.
54| On the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected the desolating sacrilege on top of the altar, and throughout the surrounding cities of Judah they set up altars of their own,
55| and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets.
56| Any scrolls of the law they came across they ripped to shreds and set ablaze.
57| Wherever a book of the covenant was found in anyone's possession, and if anyone consented to the law, the king's decree put him to death.
58| By their power they did this to Israel, to those found month after month in the cities.
59| On the twenty-fifth day of the month they sacrificed on the altar that was upon the altar of burnt offering.
60| The women who had circumcised their children they put to death according to the decree,
61| and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks, together with their households, and those who had circumcised them.
62| Many in Israel were hanged to death; yet they held firm among themselves, resolved not to eat unclean food,
63| and they chose to die rather than be defiled by the food, or profane the holy covenant; and they died.
64| And there came exceedingly great wrath upon Israel.
1| In those days Mattathias, the son of John, grandson of Simeon, one of the priests descended from Joarib, rose up from Jerusalem and settled in Modein.
2| He had five sons: John, called Gaddis,
3| Simon, called Thassis,
4| Judas, called Maccabeus,
5| Eleazar, called Avaran, and Jonathan, called Apphus.
6| He saw the blasphemies being committed in Judah and in Jerusalem,
7| and he said, "Alas! Why was I born to see this — the ruin of my people and the ruin of the holy city, and to sit here while it is given into the hand of enemies, the sanctuary into the hand of strangers?
8| Her temple has become like a man without honor;
9| the vessels of her glory have been carried off as spoils; her infants have been killed in her streets, her young men by the sword of the enemy.
10| What nation has not inherited her kingdoms and seized her plunder?
11| All her adornment has been stripped away; where once she was free, now she wears the yoke of a slave.
12| And behold, our holy things, our beauty, and our glory have been laid waste, and the nations have profaned them.
13| Why should we go on living?"
14| Then Mattathias and his sons tore their garments, put on sackcloth, and mourned greatly.
15| Now the king's officers who were enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Modein to make them sacrifice.
16| Many from Israel came over to them, but Mattathias and his sons drew together.
17| The king's officers answered and said to Mattathias, "You are a ruler, honored and great in this city, and you are supported by sons and brothers.
18| Now come forward first and carry out the king's command, as all the nations have done, and the rulers of Judah, and those who remain in Jerusalem. Then you and your house will be among the king's friends, and you and your sons will be honored with silver and gold and many gifts."
19| Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice, "Even if all the nations within the king's realm obey him, each abandoning the worship of his fathers, and have chosen to follow his commands,
20| yet I, and my sons, and my brothers, will walk in the covenant of our fathers.
21| Far be it from us to abandon the law and its ordinances.
22| We will not listen to the king's word, to turn aside from our worship to the right or to the left."
23| Just as he finished speaking these words, a Jewish man came forward in the sight of all, to offer sacrifice on the altar at Modein according to the king's command.
24| When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal, and his heart trembled, and his wrath rose up as was fitting, and he ran and slaughtered him upon the altar.
25| He also killed the king's man who was forcing them to sacrifice, at that very time, and tore down the altar,
26| for he was zealous for the law, just as Phinehas had done against Zimri son of Salu.
27| Then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying, "Let everyone who is zealous for the law and stands by the covenant come out after me!"
28| And together with his sons he escaped to the hills, abandoning everything they owned in the city.
29| Then many who sought righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to settle there,
30| they and their sons and their wives and their livestock, because troubles pressed hard upon them.
31| And it was reported to the king's men and to the forces that were in Jerusalem, the city of David, that men who had broken the king's command had gone down to the hiding places in the wilderness.
32| Many ran after them, and having overtaken them, they encamped against them and drew up for battle against them on the sabbath day.
33| And they said to them, "Enough of this — come out and do as the king commands, and you will live."
34| But they said, "We will not come out, nor will we do as the king commands, to profane the sabbath day."
35| So the others hastened to attack them.
36| But they did not answer them, nor did they hurl a stone at them, nor block up their hiding places,
37| saying, "Let us all die in our innocence; heaven and earth bear witness for us that you are destroying us without a trial."
38| So the attackers launched their assault on that sabbath day, and the hidden ones perished — men, wives, children, and livestock alike — some thousand souls in all.
39| When Mattathias and his friends learned of this, they mourned for them greatly.
40| And each said to his neighbor, "If we all do as our brothers have done, and do not fight against the nations for our lives and our ordinances, they will soon wipe us off the earth."
41| So they decided on that day, saying, "Whoever comes against us to fight on the sabbath day, let us fight against him, so that we do not all die as our brothers died in the hiding places."
42| Then the company of the Hasideans joined them, mighty warriors of Israel, everyone who devoted himself willingly to the law.
43| And all who fled from these troubles joined them and became a support to them.
44| They organized a force and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath, and the rest fled to the nations to save themselves.
45| Mattathias and his sons made the rounds and tore down the altars,
46| and forcibly circumcised the uncircumcised boys whom they found within the borders of Israel.
47| They pursued the sons of arrogance, and the work prospered in their hands.
48| They rescued the law from the hand of the nations and from the hand of the kings, and they did not let the sinner gain the upper hand.
49| Now the days drew near for Mattathias to die, and he said to his sons, "Arrogance and reproach now hold sway, a time of ruin and furious wrath.
50| And now, children, burn with zeal for the law, and offer up your very lives on behalf of the covenant handed down from our fathers.
51| Remember the deeds our fathers did in their generations, and receive great glory and an everlasting name.
52| Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was counted to him as righteousness?
53| Joseph, during his season of hardship, held fast to the commandment, and rose to become master of Egypt.
54| Phinehas our father, because he was zealous with zeal, received the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.
55| Joshua, for fulfilling the word, became a judge in Israel.
56| Caleb, for testifying before the assembly, received a portion of land as an inheritance.
57| David, for his loyalty, inherited the throne of an everlasting kingdom.
58| Elijah, for burning with zeal for the law, was carried up to heaven.
59| Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, by believing, were saved from the flame.
60| Daniel, in his innocence, was rescued from the mouth of lions.
61| And so consider, generation after generation, that none who hope in him will fail in strength.
62| Do not be afraid of what a sinful man says, for his splendor ends in filth and maggots.
63| Today he will be exalted, and tomorrow he will not be found, because he has returned to his dust, and his scheming has come to nothing.
64| So you, children, be strong and act like men for your law, for by it you will be honored.
65| And behold, Simeon your brother — I know he is a man of counsel; listen to him always, he will be a father to you.
66| And Judas Maccabeus, mighty in strength from his youth, he will be your commander of the army and will fight the war of the peoples.
67| You shall gather to yourselves all who observe the law, and take vengeance for the wrong done to your people.
68| Pay back the nations in full, and hold fast to the commands of the law."
69| Then he pronounced a blessing over them and passed away to join his ancestors.
70| He died in the year one hundred forty-six, and his sons laid him to rest in the family tomb at Modein, while all Israel wept over him with deep mourning.
1| Then Judas, called Maccabeus, his son, rose up in his place.
2| All his brothers helped him, and all who had joined his father, and they fought the war of Israel with gladness.
3| He extended the glory of his people; he put on a breastplate like a giant, and girded on his weapons of war; he waged wars, sheltering the camp with his sword.
4| He was like a lion in his deeds, and like a lion's cub roaring for prey.
5| He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he set on fire.
6| The lawless cowered before him in dread, and every doer of iniquity fell into turmoil, and deliverance thrived by his hand.
7| He embittered many kings, and gladdened Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is a blessing forever.
8| He went through the cities of Judah, and destroyed the ungodly out of it, and turned wrath away from Israel.
9| He was renowned to the ends of the earth, and he gathered in those who were perishing.
10| Then Apollonius gathered the nations, and a great force from Samaria, to make war against Israel.
11| Judas learned of it, and went out to meet him, and struck him down and killed him; many fell wounded, and the rest fled.
12| They took their weapons, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius, and he fought with it all his days.
13| Now Seron, the commander of the army of Syria, heard that Judas had gathered a gathering and an assembly of the faithful with him, and men going out to war.
14| And he said, I will make myself a name, and win glory in the kingdom, and I will make war on Judas and those with him, who hold the king's word in contempt.
15| So he set out, and a strong camp of the ungodly went up with him to help him, to carry out vengeance on the sons of Israel.
16| He drew near as far as the ascent of Beth-horon, and Judas went out to meet him with but a few men.
17| But when they saw the camp coming to meet them, they said to Judas, How can we, so few, fight against so great a multitude? And we are faint, having eaten nothing today.
18| And Judas said, It is a simple thing for a multitude to be trapped in the grip of a handful; and in the sight of Heaven there is no distinction between rescue by many or by few.
19| For victory in war does not lie in the size of an army, but strength comes from Heaven.
20| They come against us full of insolence and lawlessness, to destroy us and our wives and our children, to plunder us.
21| But we are fighting for our lives and for our laws.
22| And he himself will crush them before our face; as for you, do not be afraid of them.
23| When he had finished speaking, he leapt upon them suddenly, and Seron and his camp were crushed before him.
24| They pursued them down the descent of Beth-horon as far as the plain; about eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25| Then the fear of Judas and his brothers began, and dread fell upon the nations around them.
26| His name reached even to the king, and every nation talked of the battles of Judas.
27| When king Antiochus heard these reports, he was enraged with anger, and he sent and gathered all the forces of his kingdom, a very strong army.
28| He opened his treasury, and gave a year's pay to his forces, and commanded them to be ready for every need for a year.
29| Then he saw that the silver in the treasuries had run out, and that the tribute of the country was scant because of the discord and disaster he had brought upon the land, in trying to abolish the laws that had existed from the earliest days.
30| And he feared that he might not have enough, as before, for his expenses and for the gifts which he used to give with a generous hand,
31| and he was greatly at a loss in his soul; and he resolved to go to Persia, to collect the tributes of the provinces, and to gather much silver.
32| So he left Lysias, an honored man of royal lineage, in charge of the king's affairs, from the river Euphrates to the borders of Egypt,
33| and to raise his son Antiochus until he should return.
34| He handed over to him half of the forces and the elephants, and gave him orders about all that he wished, and about all who lived in Judea and Jerusalem,
35| to send a force against them, to crush and tear out Israel's might and what remained of Jerusalem, and to erase all memory of them from that place,
36| and to settle foreigners in all their territory, and to divide their land by lot.
37| And the king took the remaining half of the forces, and set out from Antioch, the city of his kingdom, in the hundred and forty-seventh year; and he crossed the Euphrates river, and went through the upper provinces.
38| Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor and Gorgias, men of power among the king's friends.
39| And he sent with them forty thousand men and seven thousand cavalry, to go into the land of Judah and destroy it, according to the word of the king.
40| They set out with all their force and came, and encamped near Emmaus in the plain country.
41| And the merchants of the region heard their name, and took a great quantity of silver and gold, and slaves, and came to the camp to buy the sons of Israel as slaves; and troops from Syria and from the country of the foreigners joined them.
42| Judas and his brothers saw that the evils had multiplied, and that the forces were encamping in their territory; and they learned the orders the king had given, to destroy the people utterly.
43| And each said to his neighbor, Let us raise up the ruin of our people and fight for our people and the holy things.
44| And the assembly gathered to be ready for war, and to pray and to ask for mercy and compassion.
45| And Jerusalem was uninhabited like a wilderness; none of her own children went in or out; the sanctuary was trampled down, and the sons of foreigners were in the citadel, a lodging place for the nations; joy was taken away from Jacob, and the flute and the harp ceased.
46| So they gathered and came to Mizpah, opposite Jerusalem, because Mizpah had formerly been a place of prayer for Israel.
47| They fasted through that day, wrapped themselves in sackcloth, poured ashes on their heads, and rent their clothes.
48| And they spread open the book of the law, to search out the things concerning which the nations inquired of the likenesses of their idols.
49| They brought the garments of the priesthood, and the first-fruits, and the tithes; and they roused the Nazirites who had completed their days,
50| and they cried out to heaven in a loud voice, asking, What are we to do with these, and where are we to bring them?
51| For your holy things have been trampled down and profaned, and your priests are in mourning and humiliation.
52| And behold, the nations have gathered against us to destroy us; you know what they are plotting against us.
53| How will we manage to stand our ground against them, unless you come to our aid?
54| And they sounded the trumpets, and cried out with a great voice.
55| After this Judas appointed leaders of the people, commanders of thousands and of hundreds and of fifties and of tens.
56| And he told those who were building houses, or newly betrothed, or planting vineyards, or fearful, that each man should go back to his own home, as the law provided.
57| Then the camp set out, and they encamped south of Emmaus.
58| And Judas said, Gird yourselves, and be men of strength; be ready by morning to fight against these nations gathered against us to destroy us and our holy things.
59| For it is far preferable to fall in the fight than to stand by watching the calamities befall our nation and the holy things.
60| But as the will in heaven may be, so he will do.
1| Gorgias took five thousand men and a thousand picked cavalry, and the camp set out by night,
2| to fall upon the camp of the Jews and strike them suddenly; and the men of the citadel were his guides.
3| But Judas heard of it, and he himself and the mighty men set out to strike the king's force that was at Emmaus,
4| while the forces were still scattered away from the camp.
5| Gorgias came to Judas's camp by night and found no one; so he went hunting for them among the hills, saying, "These men are running away from us."
6| But at daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men; yet they did not have shields and swords as they wished.
7| And they saw the camp of the nations, strong and armored, with cavalry surrounding it, and these were men trained in war.
8| And Judas said to the men with him, "Do not fear their numbers, and do not be afraid of their onslaught.
9| Remember how our ancestors were rescued at the Red Sea, back when Pharaoh's army chased after them.
10| And now let us call out to heaven, to see whether he will show us favor, keeping in mind his covenant made with our ancestors, and shatter this army camp before our eyes today.
11| Then all the nations will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel."
12| And the foreigners raised their eyes and watched them advancing toward them,
13| and they went out from the camp to battle, and the men with Judas sounded the trumpet.
14| And they engaged, and the nations were crushed and fled to the plain.
15| And all the last of them fell by the sword, and they pursued them as far as Gazara and as far as the plains of Judea and Azotus and Jamnia, and about three thousand of them fell.
16| Then Judas and the army turned back from pursuing after them,
17| and he said to the people, "Do not desire the spoils, for there is a battle facing us,
18| and Gorgias and his army are on the mountain near us. Instead, stand now against our enemies and fight them, and afterward take the spoils freely."
19| While Judas was still saying this, a detachment appeared peering out from the mountain.
20| And Gorgias saw that his men had been routed, and that the enemy were setting the camp on fire; for the smoke that was seen made plain what had happened.
21| And when they perceived this, they were greatly terrified; and when they also saw Judas's army in the plain ready for battle,
22| they all fled into the land of the foreigners.
23| And Judas turned back to the plunder of the camp, and they took much gold and silver, and blue and purple cloth, and sea-purple, and great wealth.
24| And returning, they sang hymns and blessed heaven, "For his mercy is good forever."
25| And a great deliverance came to Israel on that day.
26| Now as many of the foreigners as escaped came and reported to Lysias all that had happened.
27| And when he heard it he was utterly dismayed and disheartened, because things had not turned out for Israel as he wished, and things had not come out as the king had commanded him.
28| And in the following year he mustered sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to make war on them.
29| And they came into Idumea and camped at Bethsura, and Judas confronted them, bringing ten thousand men.
30| And when he saw the mighty camp, he prayed and said, "Blessed are you, savior of Israel, who crushed the onslaught of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David, and gave over the camp of the foreigners into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul and the one who carried his weapons.
31| Shut up this camp in the hand of your people Israel, and let them be put to shame over their army and their cavalry.
32| Give them cowardice, and melt away the boldness of their strength, and let them be shaken by their own destruction.
33| Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, and let all who see your name praise you with hymns."
34| And they engaged one another, and about five thousand men fell from Lysias's camp, falling before them.
35| And when Lysias saw the rout of his own force, and the boldness that had come upon Judas's men, and how they stood prepared either to survive or to die with honor, he withdrew to Antioch; and he enlisted mercenaries, so that, having become far more numerous, he might come again into Judea.
36| Then Judas and his brothers said, "Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and rededicate it."
37| So the whole camp assembled, and they went up to Mount Zion.
38| And they saw the sanctuary lying in ruin, the altar defiled, the gateways scorched to the ground, and growth sprouting in the courts as if in a thicket or on some hillside, with the priests' chambers pulled down.
39| And they tore their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads.
40| And they fell on their faces to the ground, and sounded the trumpets of the alarm signals, and cried out to heaven.
41| Then Judas assigned men to fight against those in the citadel, until he should cleanse the sanctuary.
42| And he chose blameless priests devoted to the law;
43| and they cleansed the sanctuary, and carried away the stones of defilement to an unclean place.
44| And they deliberated concerning the altar of burnt offering that had been profaned, what they should do with it.
45| And a good plan occurred to them, to tear it down, lest it become a reproach to them, because the nations had defiled it; so they tore down the altar.
46| And they stored the stones on the mountain of the house, in a suitable place, until a prophet should come to give an answer concerning them.
47| And they gathered unhewn stones, as the law required, and raised a fresh altar resembling the one before it.
48| And they built the sanctuary and the interior of the house, and consecrated the courts.
49| And they made new holy vessels, and carried into the temple the lampstand, the offering-altar together with the incense-altar, and the table.
50| And they burned incense on the altar, and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple.
51| And they set loaves on the table, and hung up the curtains, and completed all the works they had undertaken.
52| And they rose early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month—this is the month Chislev—in the hundred and forty-eighth year.
53| And they presented sacrifice, as the law directed, upon the newly built altar of burnt offering,
54| at the very time and on the very day on which the nations had profaned it, on that day it was rededicated, with songs and lyres and harps and cymbals.
55| And all the people fell upon their faces, and worshiped and blessed heaven, who had prospered them.
56| And they observed the altar's rededication across eight days, presenting burnt offerings joyfully, and offering a sacrifice of deliverance and thanksgiving.
57| And they decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields, restored the gates and the priests' chambers, and fitted these with doors.
58| And there was very great gladness among the people, and the reproach of the nations was turned away.
59| And Judas and his brothers, along with the entire assembly of Israel, decreed that the anniversary of the altar's rededication should be observed each year on its set date, for eight days beginning the twenty-fifth of Chislev, with joy and celebration.
60| And at that time they built up Mount Zion with high walls all around and strong towers, lest the nations should come again and trample it down, as they had done before.
61| And they stationed there a force to guard it, and they fortified it to guard Bethsura, so that the people might have a stronghold facing Idumea.
1| Now when the surrounding nations heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary rededicated as before, they were very angry.
2| And they plotted to destroy the race of Jacob living among them, and they began to kill among the people and to wipe them out.
3| And Judas made war against the sons of Esau in Idumea, in the region of Akrabattene, because they were besieging Israel; and he struck them a great blow, and beat them down, and took their spoils.
4| And he remembered the wickedness of the sons of Baean, who had been a trap and a snare to the people, lying in wait for them along the roads.
5| And they were shut up by him in their towers, and he laid siege against them, and put them under the ban, and burned their towers with fire, together with everyone in them.
6| Then he crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and found a strong force there, and a great people, with Timotheus leading them.
7| And he fought many battles against them, and they were crushed before him, and he struck them down.
8| And he seized Jazer and its villages, and returned to Judea.
9| Then the nations in Gilead gathered together against the Israelites within their borders to destroy them; and the Israelites fled to the stronghold of Dathema.
10| And they sent letters to Judas and his brothers, saying: The nations round about us have gathered together against us to destroy us,
11| and they are preparing to come and seize the stronghold to which we have fled; and Timotheus is leading their camp.
12| Now therefore come and rescue us from their hand, for a great number of us have fallen.
13| And all our kinsmen who were in the region of Tob have been put to death, and their wives and children and possessions have been taken captive, and about a thousand men have perished there.
14| While the letters were still being read, behold, other messengers arrived from Galilee with their clothes torn, bringing word to this same effect,
15| saying: The Gentiles of Ptolemais and Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee of the nations have gathered together against them, to consume us utterly.
16| As soon as Judas and his people had heard this report, a large gathering convened to weigh what could be done for their kinsmen, who were suffering and under enemy assault.
17| And Judas said to Simon his brother, Choose men for yourself, and go and rescue your kinsmen in Galilee; my brother Jonathan and I will head into Gilead.
18| And he left Joseph son of Zechariah, and Azariah, a leader of the people, with the rest of the forces in Judea to guard it,
19| and he commanded them, saying: Take charge of this people, and do not engage the nations in battle until we return.
20| And three thousand men were assigned to Simon to go into Galilee, and eight thousand to Judas to go into Gilead.
21| So Simon went into Galilee, and fought many battles against the nations, and the nations were crushed before him.
22| And he pursued them to the gates of Ptolemais; and about three thousand of the nations fell, and he took their spoils.
23| And he took with him those from Galilee and Arbatta, together with their wives and children and all that belonged to them, and brought them into Judea with great rejoicing.
24| Meanwhile Judas Maccabeus and Jonathan his brother crossed the Jordan, and journeyed three days through the wilderness.
25| And they met the Nabateans, who received them peaceably, and told them all that had happened to their kinsmen in Gilead,
26| and that many of them had been shut up in Bosora and Bosor, in Alema, Chaspho, Maked, and Carnaim — all these being strong, great cities.
27| And men were also shut up in the remaining cities of Gilead; and tomorrow the enemy planned to encamp against the strongholds, to seize them and destroy all these people in a single day.
28| Then Judas turned aside with his camp, taking the road into the wilderness toward Bosor without warning; and he seized the city, and put every male to death with the sword's edge, seized their entire plunder, and set it ablaze.
29| And he set out from there by night, and marched on toward the stronghold.
30| And it came to be morning, and they lifted up their eyes, and behold, a people beyond number, carrying ladders and siege engines to seize the stronghold; and they were making war against those within.
31| And Judas saw that the battle had begun, and that the city's outcry was rising skyward amid trumpet blasts and a mighty shout;
32| and he said to the men of his forces, Fight today for our kinsmen.
33| And he went out in three companies from behind them; and they sounded the trumpets, and cried out in prayer.
34| And the camp of Timotheus recognized that it was the Maccabee, and they fled before him, and he struck them a great blow; and about eight thousand of them fell that day.
35| Then he turned aside to Maapha and made war against it, and seized it, and killed every male in it, and took its spoils, and burned it with fire.
36| From there he set out and captured Chasphor, Maked, Bosor, and the rest of the cities of Gilead.
37| After these events, Timotheus gathered another camp, and encamped opposite Raphon, on the far side of the ravine.
38| And Judas sent men to scout out the camp; and they reported to him, saying: All the nations round about us have gathered together to them, a very great force,
39| and Arabs have been hired to help them, and they are encamped beyond the ravine, ready to come against you in battle. So Judas went out to meet them.
40| And Timotheus said to the officers of his forces, as Judas and his camp drew near the ravine of water: If he crosses over to us first, we will have no power to stand against him, for he will certainly overpower us.
41| But if he is afraid and encamps on the far side of the river, we will cross over against him.
42| Now when Judas drew near to the ravine of water, he stationed the officers of the people at the ravine, and gave them this order: Let no man make camp, but let all come into the battle.
43| And he crossed over against them first, and all his people behind him; and all the nations were crushed before him, and they threw down all their weapons, and fled to the sacred precinct at Carnaim.
44| And they seized the city, and burned the sacred precinct with fire, together with everyone in it; and Carnaim was overthrown, and could no longer stand against Judas.
45| Then Judas gathered together all Israel who were in Gilead, small and great alike, with their wives and children and possessions, a very great camp, to go into the land of Judah.
46| And they came as far as Ephron, a great city lying on the way in, very strong, with no turning aside to the right or the left, but only a path straight through the middle of it.
47| But the people of the city shut them out, and blocked the gates with stones.
48| And Judas sent to them with peaceable words, saying: Grant us passage across your territory so we may reach our own land; no one will do you harm, we will only pass through on foot. But they were not willing to open to him.
49| Then Judas ordered a proclamation to be made in the camp that each man should encamp where he stood.
50| So the men of his forces encamped, and they fought against the city that whole day and that whole night, and the city was given into his hands.
51| And he destroyed every male by the edge of the sword, and razed the city to the ground, and took its spoils, and passed through the city over the bodies of the slain.
52| Then they crossed the Jordan into the great plain facing Beth-shan.
53| And Judas kept gathering in those who lagged behind, and encouraging the people all along the way, until he came into the land of Judah.
54| And they went up to Mount Zion with gladness and joy, and offered whole burnt offerings, because not one of them had fallen before they returned in peace.
55| Now in the days when Judas and Jonathan were in Gilead, and Simon his brother was in Galilee facing Ptolemais,
56| Joseph son of Zechariah, and Azariah, commanders of the forces, heard of the brave deeds and the fighting they had done;
57| and they said, Let us also make a name for ourselves, and let us go and make war against the nations round about us.
58| So they gave orders to the forces that were with them, and they marched against Jamnia.
59| And Gorgias came out from the city, with his men, to meet them in battle.
60| And Joseph and Azariah were routed, and were pursued to the borders of Judea; and about two thousand of the people of Israel fell that day.
61| And there was a great rout among the people, because they had not listened to Judas and his brothers, thinking to do a brave deed themselves.
62| But they were not of the stock of those men, to whom it was given to bring about the deliverance of Israel by their own hand.
63| And the man Judas and his brothers were greatly glorified before all Israel and all the nations, wherever their name was heard;
64| and people gathered to them with words of praise.
65| Then Judas and his brothers went out and fought against the sons of Esau in the southern territory, and he struck Hebron and its villages, and tore down its stronghold, and burned its towers all around.
66| And he set out for the territory of the Philistines, journeying by way of Samaria.
67| On that day certain priests fell in battle, wanting to do a brave deed, when they went out to fight rashly.
68| And Judas turned aside into Azotus, the land of the Philistines, and tore down their altars, and burned the carved images of their gods, and plundered the spoils of the cities, and returned to Judea.
1| King Antiochus was passing through the upper provinces, and he heard that there was in Elymais, in Persia, a city famous for its wealth of silver and gold,
2| and that its temple was very rich, containing golden coverings, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, son of Philip, the Macedonian ruler who was the first to reign over the Greeks.
3| So he came and sought to seize the city and plunder it, but he could not, because the people of the city learned of his plan.
4| They rose up against him for battle, and he fled and departed from there in great grief, to return to Babylon.
5| While he was in Persia someone came bringing him a report that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah had been routed,
6| and that Lysias had marched out first with a strong force but had been driven back before them, and that they had grown strong through the weapons they took from the camps they cut down;
7| and that they had torn down the abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem, and had walled the sanctuary round about with high walls as it had been before, and had done the same to Bethzur, his city.
8| Hearing this report, the king was struck with dismay and greatly shaken; he took to his bed and fell sick from grief, because things had not turned out for him as he had intended.
9| He remained there many days, for great grief kept renewing itself upon him, and he reckoned that he was dying.
10| So he called all his friends and said to them, Sleep has fled from my eyes, and my heart has sunk within me from anxiety.
11| And I said to my own heart, To what distress have I come, and into what a great storm, in which I now find myself? For I was kind and beloved in my power.
12| But now I remember the wrongs I did in Jerusalem: I took all the vessels of silver and gold that were there, and I sent men to destroy the inhabitants of Judah for no reason.
13| I know that it is on account of these things that these evils have found me, and now, look, I am perishing in great grief in a foreign land.
14| Then he called Philip, one of his friends, and set him over the whole of his kingdom.
15| He gave him the crown, his robe, and his ring, so that he might guide his son Antiochus and raise him to become king.
16| And King Antiochus died there, in the hundred and forty-ninth year.
17| When Lysias learned that the king had died, he set up in his place Antiochus his son, whom he had raised from boyhood, to be king, and he named him Eupator.
18| Meanwhile those in the citadel were shutting in Israel all around the sanctuary, continually seeking their harm, and acting as a support for the gentiles.
19| So Judas resolved to destroy them, and he assembled all the people to besiege them,
20| in the year one hundred fifty, setting up siege engines and machines against them.
21| But some of them broke out of the blockade, and certain ungodly men of Israel joined themselves to them,
22| and they went to the king and said, How long will you delay to render judgment and avenge our brothers?
23| We were content to serve your father, to walk by what he commanded, and to follow his decrees;
24| but because of this our own people turned against us — indeed, as many of us as were found were put to death, and our inheritances were plundered.
25| And it was not only against us that they stretched out their hand, but against all their borders as well.
26| And look, at this very moment they have encamped against the citadel in Jerusalem to seize it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Bethzur.
27| And if you do not move against them quickly, they will do worse things than these, and you will not be able to restrain them.
28| The king was enraged when he heard this, and he gathered all his friends, the commanders of his forces, and those in charge of the cavalry;
29| and there came to him mercenary forces from other kings and from the islands of the seas.
30| The number of his forces was a hundred thousand foot soldiers and twenty thousand horsemen, and thirty-two elephants trained for war.
31| They came through Idumea and encamped against Bethzur, and fought there for many days and built machines; but the defenders sallied out and burned these with fire, and fought bravely.
32| Then Judas withdrew from the citadel and encamped at Bethzachariah, opposite the king's camp.
33| The king rose early in the morning and moved the army in full force along the road to Bethzachariah, and the forces made ready for battle and sounded the trumpets.
34| To the elephants they showed the blood of grapes and mulberries, to rouse them for battle.
35| They divided the beasts among the battle lines, and stationed beside each elephant a thousand men armored in chain mail, with bronze helmets on their heads, and five hundred picked horsemen assigned to each beast.
36| These men kept their position wherever the beast was; wherever it went, they went along with it, and never left its side.
37| And upon each beast were strong wooden towers, fitted with protective coverings, girded to them by devices; and on each were thirty-two men who fought from them, besides the beast's Indian driver.
38| The rest of the cavalry he stationed on either side, on the two flanks of the camp, shaking their weapons and arraying themselves in the battle lines.
39| When the sun shone upon the golden shields, the mountains gleamed with their light and blazed like torches of fire.
40| Part of the king's army was spread out over the high mountains and some over the lowlands, and they advanced securely and in order.
41| All who heard the sound of their multitude, the marching of that great host, and the clashing of their weapons trembled, for the army was very great and very strong.
42| Judas and his army drew near for battle, and six hundred men fell from the king's army.
43| And Eleazar, called Avaran, saw one of the beasts armored with royal breastplates, and it stood taller than all the other beasts, and it appeared to him that the king was on it.
44| So he gave himself up, to save his people and win for himself an everlasting name.
45| He ran boldly toward it into the middle of the line, killing to the right and to the left, so that men fell back from him on either side.
46| He slipped in under the elephant, thrust his sword into it, and killed it; and it fell to the ground on top of him, and he died there.
47| When the Jews saw the strength of the kingdom and the fury of its forces, they turned away from them.
48| Meanwhile forces from the king's camp went up to meet them at Jerusalem, and the king encamped against Judea and against Mount Zion.
49| He made peace with the men of Bethzur, and they left the city, for they had no supplies on hand to endure a siege, since the land was lying fallow that year.
50| So the king took Bethzur and stationed a garrison there to hold it.
51| Then he encamped against the sanctuary for many days, and set up there siege engines, machines, fire-throwers, stone-throwers, small catapults for shooting arrows, and slings.
52| The defenders in turn built machines to counter theirs, and fought for many days.
53| But there was no food in the sanctuary, since it was the seventh year, and those who had taken refuge in Judea from the gentile nations had eaten up what remained of the stores;
54| so only a few men were left in the sanctuary, for famine had overpowered them, and each one scattered to his own place.
55| Meanwhile Lysias heard that Philip, whom King Antiochus, while still alive, had appointed to raise his son Antiochus to be king,
56| had returned from Persia and Media, along with the forces that had gone with the king, and that he was seeking to take control of the government.
57| So he hurried and was eager to depart, and he said to the king, the officers of the army, and the men, We grow weaker every day, our food is scarce, the site of our encampment is well defended, and the burdens of governing weigh upon us.
58| Now then, let us extend our right hand to these men, coming to terms with them and their entire nation;
59| and let us grant them the right to live by their own laws as before, for it was on account of the laws, which we abolished, that they became angry and did all these things.
60| This proposal pleased the king and the officers, and he sent to them to make peace, and they accepted.
61| And the king and the officers swore an oath to them on these terms; and they came out of the stronghold,
62| and the king entered Mount Zion and saw the strength of the place; but he broke the oath he had sworn, and gave orders to tear down the wall all around.
63| Then he departed in haste and returned to Antioch, where he found Philip in control of the city; he made war on him, and captured the city through force.
1| In the one hundred and fifty-first year Demetrius son of Seleucus set out from Rome, and went up with a few men to a city by the sea, and there he became king.
2| And it happened that as he was entering the royal house of his fathers, the army seized Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him.
3| And when the matter was made known to him he said, "Do not let me see their faces."
4| So the army killed them, and Demetrius sat upon the throne of his kingdom.
5| Then there came to him all the lawless and godless men of Israel, with Alcimus leading them, who wanted to be high priest.
6| And they accused the people before the king, saying, "Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your friends, and have scattered us from our land.
7| Now therefore send a man whom you trust, and let him go and see all the destruction Judas has done to us and to the king's country, and let him punish them and all who help them."
8| So the king chose Bacchides, one of the king's friends, who ruled beyond the river, a powerful figure within the realm and loyal to his sovereign,
9| and sent him and the godless Alcimus, and gave Alcimus the priesthood, and commanded him to take vengeance on the sons of Israel.
10| So they set out and came with a great army into the land of Judah; and Bacchides sent messengers to Judas and his brothers with peaceable words, but treacherously.
11| But they did not heed their words, for they saw that they had come with a great army.
12| Still, an assembly of scribes gathered before Alcimus and Bacchides, to seek what was just.
13| And the Hasideans were first among the sons of Israel to seek peace from them,
14| for they said, "A priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army; he will do us no wrong."
15| And Bacchides spoke peaceable words with them, and swore to them, saying, "We will seek no harm against you or your friends."
16| So they trusted him; but he seized sixty of them and killed them in one day, according to the word that was written,
17| "The flesh of your holy ones and their blood they poured out all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them."
18| Fear and trembling fell upon all the people because of this, for they said, "There is no truth or justice among them, for they have broken the agreement and the oath they swore."
19| Then Bacchides moved away from Jerusalem and camped at Bezeth, and he sent and seized many of the men who had deserted to him, and some of the people, and slaughtered them into the great pit.
20| And he put Alcimus in charge of the country, and left with him a force to support him; and Bacchides went away to the king.
21| And Alcimus struggled to hold the high priesthood.
22| And all who were troubling their own people gathered to him, and they took control of the land of Judah and did great harm in Israel.
23| And Judas saw all the evil that Alcimus and those with him had done among the sons of Israel, worse than the nations had done;
24| so he went out into all the territory of Judea, on every side, and took vengeance on the men who had deserted, and they were held back from going about in the country.
25| But when Alcimus saw that Judas and those with him had grown strong, and knew that he could not stand against them, he returned to the king and brought wicked charges against them.
26| So the king sent Nicanor, one of his most honored commanders, a man who hated Israel and was hostile toward it, and commanded him to destroy the people.
27| And Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a great army, and sent to Judas and his brothers, treacherously, with peaceable words, saying,
28| "Let no fighting break out between us; I will bring only a small escort, so that I may look upon your faces in peace."
29| So he came to Judas, and they greeted one another peaceably; but the enemy were ready to seize Judas.
30| Judas learned of the plot, that Nicanor had come to him treacherously, and he was alarmed by him, and no longer wished to see his face.
31| And Nicanor, realizing that his plan had been uncovered, went out to meet Judas in battle at Capharsalama.
32| And about five thousand of Nicanor's men fell, and the survivors escaped into David's citadel.
33| After these events Nicanor went up to Mount Zion; and some of the priests from the sanctuary, and some of the elders of the people, came out to greet him peaceably and to show him the burnt offering that was offered for the king.
34| But he jeered at them, sneering, and treated them shamefully, and spoke with arrogance.
35| And he swore in anger, saying, "Unless Judas and his army are handed over into my hands now, if I return in safety I will burn down this house." And he went out in anger.
36| Then the priests entered and took their place before the altar and the sanctuary, and wept, and said,
37| "You chose this house to be called by your name upon it, to be a house of prayer and supplication for your people.
38| Take vengeance on this man and on his army, and cut them down with the blade; do not forget their blasphemies, and grant them no rest."
39| So Nicanor went out from Jerusalem and camped at Beth-horon, and the army of Syria met him there.
40| And Judas camped at Adasa with three thousand men; and Judas prayed and said,
41| "When the messengers of the king spoke blasphemy, your angel went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand of them.
42| So crush this army before us today; and let the rest know that he has spoken wickedly against your holy things, and judge him according to his wickedness."
43| And the armies joined battle on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and the army of Nicanor was crushed, and he himself fell first in the battle.
44| And when his army saw that Nicanor had fallen, they threw down their weapons and fled.
45| And they pursued them a day's journey from Adasa until they came to Gazara, and sounded the trumpets of alarm behind them.
46| And men came out from all the villages of Judea around, and surrounded them; and they turned back on one another, and every one of them was cut down, with no survivor remaining.
47| And they took the spoils and the plunder, and severed Nicanor's head along with the right arm he had raised in arrogance, and carried them off to display near Jerusalem.
48| And the people were filled with joy, and observed that day as one of tremendous rejoicing.
49| And they decreed that this day should be kept every year, on the thirteenth of Adar.
50| And the land of Judah had rest for a few days.
1| Now Judas heard of the name of the Romans, that they were mighty in strength, and that they showed goodwill toward all who joined themselves to them, and that whoever came to them, with them they established friendship,
2| and that they were mighty in strength; and men related to him their wars and the brave deeds that they were doing among the Gauls, and how they had mastered them and brought them under tribute;
3| and everything they accomplished within Spanish territory, to gain control of the silver and gold mines located there,
4| and how by their counsel and their patience they had mastered the whole place, though the place was very far distant from them, and how they mastered the kings who came against them from the ends of the earth, until they crushed them and struck them with a great blow, while the rest paid them tribute every year;
5| and Philip, and Perseus king of the Kittians, and those who rose up against them, they crushed in war and mastered them;
6| and Antiochus the great king of Asia, who marched to war against them with a hundred and twenty elephants, cavalry, chariots, and a truly massive host, was defeated by them;
7| and they captured him alive, and fixed terms that he and his successors on the throne must pay heavy annual dues, hand over hostages, and yield a fixed share of territory,
8| along with the regions of India, Media, and Lydia, taken from among his finest provinces, and having stripped these from him they gave them to Eumenes the king;
9| and how those from Greece had planned to come and destroy them,
10| and the matter became known to them, and they sent against them a single general, and made war against them, and many of them fell wounded, and they took captive their wives and their children, and plundered them, and mastered their land, and tore down their strongholds, and plundered them, and enslaved them until this very day;
11| and the remaining kingdoms, and the islands, as many as ever rose up against them, they destroyed and enslaved to themselves;
12| but with their friends, and those who relied on them, they kept friendship; and they mastered kingdoms both near and far, so that all who heard their name feared them;
13| and whom they wished to help to a kingdom, these should reign; and whom they wished, these they removed; and they were exalted exceedingly.
14| And in all this, not one of them put on a diadem, nor did they wrap themselves in purple, so as to be exalted by it.
15| And they made for themselves a senate house, and every day three hundred and twenty men took counsel, deliberating continually concerning the people, to keep good order among them.
16| And they entrust to one man the rule over them each year, and the lordship over all their land, and all obey the one, and there is no envy nor jealousy among them.
17| So Judas chose Eupolemus son of John, son of Akkos, and Jason son of Eleazar, and dispatched them to the city of Rome, to establish friendship and alliance with them,
18| and to remove their yoke, since they could see that the realm ruled by the Greeks was pressing Israel into servitude.
19| So they went to Rome, and the way was very long; and they entered the senate house, and spoke, saying,
20| Judas, called Maccabeus, and his brothers, and the body of the Jewish people, have sent us to you, to establish alliance and peace with you, and that we should be enrolled as your allies and friends.
21| And the proposal was pleasing in their sight.
22| And here follows the text of the reply they inscribed on bronze tablets and sent to Jerusalem, so it would remain there as a record of the peace and alliance:
23| May it go well for the Romans and for the nation of the Jews, by sea and on land, forever, and may sword and enemy be kept far from them.
24| But if war comes first upon Rome, or upon any of their allies, in all their dominion,
25| the nation of the Jews shall fight beside them, as the occasion shall be indicated to them, with a whole heart.
26| And to those making war on them they shall give and supply nothing — grain, weapons, silver, ships — as Rome has decreed; and they shall keep these obligations, taking nothing in return.
27| And likewise, should conflict strike the Jewish nation before it strikes Rome, the Romans shall stand and fight at their side wholeheartedly, as circumstances direct.
28| And to those allied with them shall be given no grain, weapons, or silver, as Rome has decreed; and they shall keep these obligations, and without deceit.
29| On these terms the Romans concluded their pact with the Jewish people.
30| But if, after these terms, these or those should decide to add to them or take away, they shall do so at their own choice, and whatever they add or take away shall be valid.
31| And concerning the wrongs that King Demetrius is doing against them, we wrote to him, saying: Why have you made your yoke heavy upon our friends and allies, the Jews?
32| If then they appeal to us again against you, we will render them justice, and will make war on you by sea and by land.
1| Now Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his forces had fallen in battle, and he resolved to send Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judah a second time, with the right wing along with them.
2| They marched by the road that goes to Gilgal and camped against Mesaloth in Arbela, and they seized it and destroyed many human lives.
3| In the first month of the year one hundred and fifty-two they encamped against Jerusalem.
4| Then they set out and went to Berea, with twenty thousand men and two thousand horse.
5| Judas was encamped at Elasa, and with him three thousand chosen men.
6| When they saw the multitude of the forces, how many they were, they were greatly afraid, and many slipped away from the camp, until only eight hundred men of them were left.
7| Judas saw that his camp had slipped away from him, and the battle pressed hard upon him; and his heart was broken, since there was no chance left to muster them again.
8| He grew faint, yet he said to those who remained, "Let us rise up and go against our enemies, if perhaps we are able to fight them."
9| But they tried to turn him back, saying, "We will surely not be able. Let us instead save our own lives for now, and let us return with our brothers, and fight them then; but as we are, we are too few."
10| And Judas replied, "Never let it be said I ran from them! If our hour has arrived, let us die bravely for the sake of our brothers, and let us leave no stain upon our name."
11| So the army set out from the camp, and took its stand to meet them; the cavalry was divided into two companies, and the slingers and the archers went ahead of the army, along with all the champions who were mighty men.
12| Bacchides was on the right wing, and the phalanx drew near from both sides; they sounded their trumpets, and Judas's men also sounded their trumpets.
13| The earth shook at the noise of their armies, and the battle was joined and continued from morning until evening.
14| Judas saw that Bacchides and the strength of his camp were on the right, and all who were stout of heart joined him.
15| The right wing was broken by them, and he pursued them as far as the mountain of Azotus.
16| But when those on the left wing saw that the right wing had been broken, they turned around and followed hard after Judas and those with him, from behind.
17| The battle grew fierce, and many fell wounded on this side and on that.
18| And Judas fell, and the rest fled.
19| Jonathan and Simon carried off the body of Judas their brother and laid him to rest in the family tomb at Modin.
20| They wept for him there, and all Israel mourned him with great lamentation, and grieved for many days, saying,
21| "How the mighty one has fallen — the savior of Israel!"
22| Now the rest of the acts of Judas, and his wars, and the brave deeds that he did, and his greatness — these were not written down, for they were very many.
23| After the death of Judas, the lawless men lifted their heads throughout all the borders of Israel, and all who worked wickedness sprang up.
24| In those days there arose a very great famine, and the countryside went over to their side.
25| Bacchides chose out the godless men, and set them up as lords of the country.
26| They sought out and searched for the friends of Judas and brought them before Bacchides, and he took vengeance on them and made sport of them.
27| There came a great affliction upon Israel, the like of which had not been since the day when a prophet ceased to be seen among them.
28| Then all the friends of Judas gathered together and said to Jonathan,
29| "Since your brother Judas died, there is no man like him to go out against our enemies, against Bacchides and those who are hostile to our nation.
30| Now therefore we have chosen you this day to be ruler and leader over us in his place, to fight our battle."
31| So Jonathan accepted the leadership at that time, and rose up in place of Judas his brother.
32| When Bacchides learned of it, he sought to kill him.
33| But Jonathan and Simon his brother and all who were with him learned of it, and they fled into the wilderness of Tekoa and encamped by the water of the pool of Asphar.
34| Bacchides learned of it on the sabbath day, and he came with all his army across the Jordan.
35| Jonathan sent his brother, a leader of the people, and pleaded with the Nabateans his friends to store their great baggage with them.
36| But the sons of Jambri came out from Medeba, seized John along with everything belonging to him, and carried it away.
37| After these events, word reached Jonathan and Simon, his brother, that the sons of Jambri were holding a great wedding celebration, bringing the bride from Nadabath — the daughter of one of Canaan's leading nobles — with a large procession.
38| Recalling John their brother, they climbed up and concealed themselves in the mountain's cover.
39| They lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a noisy crowd with much baggage; and the bridegroom came out, with his friends and his kinsmen, to meet them with drums and musicians and many weapons.
40| Then they rose up against them from the ambush and killed them; many fell wounded, and the rest fled into the mountains, and the brothers took all their belongings.
41| So the wedding was turned into mourning, and the sound of their music into a dirge.
42| Thus they took vengeance in full for the blood of their brother, and turned back to the marshland by the Jordan.
43| When Bacchides heard of it, he came on the sabbath day as far as the banks of the Jordan with a great force.
44| Jonathan said to his companions, "Let us stand up right now and fight for our very lives, for today is unlike yesterday or the day before.
45| Look — there is fighting ahead of us and fighting at our backs; the Jordan's waters lie on this side and that, with marsh and thicket around, and nowhere to turn aside.
46| Now therefore cry out to heaven, that you may be delivered from the hand of our enemies."
47| Then the battle was joined, and Jonathan stretched out his hand to strike Bacchides, but he turned away from him and drew back.
48| So Jonathan and those with him leaped into the Jordan and swam across to the far side; and the enemy did not cross the Jordan after them.
49| About a thousand men of Bacchides' side fell that day.
50| Then they returned to Jerusalem, and built fortified cities in Judea — the stronghold at Jericho, and Emmaus, and Beth-horon, and Bethel, and Timnath-pharathon, and Tephon — with high walls and gates and bars.
51| And they set garrisons in them to be hostile to Israel.
52| They also fortified the city, and Beth-zur, and Gezer, and the citadel, and placed forces in them, along with stores of food.
53| They took the sons of the leading men of the country as hostages, and put them under guard in the citadel at Jerusalem.
54| In the year one hundred and fifty-three, in the second month, Alcimus gave the order for the wall of the sanctuary's inner courtyard be torn down, destroying the work left by the prophets, and the demolition began.
55| At that very time Alcimus was struck down, and his work was hindered; his mouth was stopped up, and he was paralyzed, so that he could no longer speak a word or give orders concerning his house.
56| And Alcimus died at that time in great torment.
57| Once Bacchides saw that Alcimus had died, he went back to report to the king, and Judah's land had peace for two years.
58| Then all the lawless men took counsel together, saying, "Look, Jonathan and his men are dwelling in security, trusting in peace; now then let us bring Bacchides, and he will seize them all in a single night."
59| So they went and took counsel with him.
60| He set out to come with a great force, and sent letters secretly to all his allies who were in Judea, that they should seize Jonathan and those with him; but they could not, because their plan became known to them.
61| Jonathan's men seized about fifty of the men of the country who were ringleaders of the wickedness, and put them to death.
62| Then Jonathan and Simon and those with him withdrew to Bethbasi, in the wilderness, and rebuilt what had been torn down there, and made it strong.
63| When Bacchides learned of this, he gathered together all his multitude, and gave orders to those from Judea.
64| He came and encamped against Bethbasi, and fought against it for many days, and built siege engines.
65| But Jonathan left Simon his brother in the city, and went out into the country, and came with a chosen number.
66| He struck down Odomera and his kinsmen, and the sons of Phasiron, in their camp, and they began to strike and advance with their forces.
67| Simon and those with him also came out of the city and burned the siege engines.
68| They fought against Bacchides, and he was crushed by them, and they distressed him greatly, for his plan and his campaign had come to nothing.
69| He turned his anger against the lawless men who had advised him to come into the country, and he killed many of them, and resolved to depart to his own land.
70| When Jonathan learned of this, he sent envoys to him, to make peace with him and to have him restore the prisoners.
71| Bacchides accepted, and did according to his words, and swore to him that he would seek no harm against him all the days of his life.
72| He restored to him the captives whom he had earlier taken from the land of Judah, and he turned back and departed to his own land, and did not come again into their territory.
73| So the sword ceased from Israel, and Jonathan settled at Michmash; and Jonathan began to judge the people, and he destroyed the godless out of Israel.
1| In the hundred and sixtieth year Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, went up and seized Ptolemais; and the people received him, and he became king there.
2| When King Demetrius heard of it, he gathered very great forces and marched out to meet him in battle.
3| Demetrius also sent Jonathan letters with words of peace, so as to exalt him.
4| For he said, "Let us move first to make peace with them, before he makes peace with Alexander against us.
5| For he will remember all the wrongs we have done him, and to his brothers, and to his nation."
6| So he gave him authority to gather forces, and to make weapons, and to be his ally, and he ordered that the hostages in the citadel be handed over to him.
7| Jonathan came to Jerusalem and read the letters aloud in the hearing of all the people and of those in the citadel.
8| They were struck with great fear upon learning of the authority the king had granted him to raise forces.
9| And those in the citadel handed over the hostages to Jonathan, and he gave them back to their parents.
10| Jonathan settled in Jerusalem and began to build and renew the city.
11| He directed the workmen to build the walls and to fortify Mount Zion all around with squared stones, and so they did.
12| Then the foreigners who were in the strongholds that Bacchides had built fled;
13| each one abandoned his post and went off to his own land.
14| Only in Bethsura did some of those who had forsaken the law and the commandments remain, for it was a refuge for them.
15| Now King Alexander heard of all the promises that Demetrius had sent to Jonathan, and men told him of the wars and the brave deeds that he and his brothers had done, and of the hardships they had endured.
16| And he said, "Shall we find another man like him? Let us now make him our friend and ally."
17| So he wrote a letter and sent it to him in these words, saying,
18| "King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings.
19| We have heard of you, that you are a man mighty in strength and fit to be our friend.
20| And now we appoint you this day high priest of your nation, and you are to be called Friend of the King" — and along with this he dispatched to him a purple robe and a golden crown — "and to be of one mind with us and to keep friendship with us."
21| So Jonathan put on the holy robe in year one hundred sixty, in its seventh month, during the feast of Tabernacles, and he gathered forces and prepared many weapons.
22| When Demetrius heard of these things, he was grieved and said,
23| "What have we done, that Alexander has gotten ahead of us in securing the friendship of the Jews to strengthen himself?
24| I too will write them words of encouragement and honor, and gifts, so that they may be with me for help."
25| So he sent to them in these words: "King Demetrius to the nation of the Jews, greetings.
26| Since you have kept your covenants with us and remained in friendship with us, and have not gone over to our enemies, we have heard of it and rejoiced.
27| Now continue still to keep faith with us, and we will repay you good in return for what you do for us.
28| We will grant you many exemptions and give you gifts.
29| And now I release you, and free all the Jews from the taxes, and from the tax on salt, and from the crowns;
30| and instead of a third of the seed, and instead of half the fruit of the trees that falls to me, I release it from this day forward, so that nothing is taken from the land of Judah, and from the three districts added to it from Samaria and Galilee, from this day and for all time.
31| And let Jerusalem be holy and exempt, with its borders, its tithes, and its tolls.
32| I also release my authority over the citadel in Jerusalem, and hand it over to the high priest, so that he may post in it men of his own choosing to guard it.
33| And every Jewish person carried captive from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom I set free without ransom; and let all be released from their taxes, even on their livestock.
34| And let all the feasts, the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed days, and the three days before a feast and the three days after a feast, all be days of exemption and release for all the Jews in my kingdom.
35| And no one shall have authority to exact anything from them or to trouble any of them about any matter.
36| And let Jews be enrolled in the king's forces up to thirty thousand men, and let provisions be given them, as is due to all the king's forces.
37| And some of them shall be stationed in the great strongholds of the king, and from among them some shall be appointed to positions of trust in the kingdom; and let their officers and commanders be from among themselves, and let them walk by their own laws, just as the king has ordered in the land of Judah.
38| And as for the three districts added to Judea from the region of Samaria, let them be joined to Judea, to be reckoned as belonging to one authority, so that they obey no other power but that of the high priest.
39| Ptolemais and the land adjoining it I have given as a gift to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, for the expenses proper to the sanctuary.
40| And I myself give fifteen thousand shekels of silver yearly from the king's revenues, from the appropriate places.
41| And all the surplus that was not paid from the accounts, as in the former years, shall from now on be given for the work of the house.
42| And besides this, the five thousand shekels of silver that they used to take from the temple revenues, as in the former years, from the account each year — this too is released, because it belongs to the priests who minister there.
43| And whoever takes refuge in the temple at Jerusalem, or within any of its precincts, being in debt to the king or owing any other matter, let them be released, together with all that belongs to them in my kingdom.
44| And for the building and renewal of the works of the sanctuary, the expense shall be given from the king's account.
45| And for erecting the walls of Jerusalem and fortifying them all around, the expense shall be given from the king's account, as well as for building walls in Judea."
46| Now when Jonathan and his people heard this message, they neither believed it nor accepted it, because they remembered the great wrong that Demetrius had done in Israel, and how greatly he had oppressed them.
47| So they favored Alexander instead, because he had been the first to speak peaceful words to them, and they remained his allies all their days.
48| Then King Alexander gathered great forces and encamped opposite Demetrius.
49| The two kings joined battle, and the army of Demetrius fled, and Alexander pursued them and prevailed over them.
50| He pressed the battle hard until the sun went down, and Demetrius fell that day.
51| Then Alexander sent envoys to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, with this message, saying,
52| "Since I have returned to my kingdom and sat upon the throne of my fathers and taken hold of the rule, and have crushed Demetrius and gained mastery of our country —
53| for I joined battle with him, and he and his army were crushed by us, and we have sat upon the throne of his kingdom —
54| now let us establish friendship with each other; give me now your daughter as wife, and I will become your son-in-law, and I will give both you and her gifts worthy of you."
55| King Ptolemy answered, saying, "Happy is the day on which you returned to the land of your fathers and sat upon the throne of their kingdom.
56| And now I will do for you as you have written; but meet me at Ptolemais, so that we may see one another, and I will become your father-in-law, as you have said."
57| So Ptolemy set out from Egypt, he and his daughter Cleopatra, and came to Ptolemais in the hundred and sixty-second year.
58| King Alexander met him there, and Ptolemy gave him his daughter Cleopatra, and celebrated her wedding at Ptolemais with great splendor, as kings do.
59| Then King Alexander wrote to Jonathan to come and meet him.
60| So he went with splendor to Ptolemais and met the two kings, and gave them silver and gold, and gifts to their friends besides, and won favor in their eyes.
61| But certain pestilent men from Israel, lawless men, gathered against him to bring charges against him; yet the king paid them no heed.
62| Rather the king commanded that Jonathan's own garments be taken off him and that he be clothed in purple; and so they did.
63| And the king seated him beside himself, and said to his officers, "Go out with him into the middle of the city, and proclaim that no one is to bring any charge against him about any matter, and no one is to trouble him about anything."
64| And when his accusers saw his splendor as it was proclaimed, and saw him clothed in fine linen, they all fled.
65| So the king honored him, numbered him among his chief friends, and appointed him general and governor of a province.
66| And Jonathan returned to Jerusalem in peace and gladness.
67| In the hundred and sixty-fifth year Demetrius, son of Demetrius, came from Crete to the land of his fathers.
68| When King Alexander heard of it, he was greatly grieved and returned to Antioch.
69| And Demetrius appointed Apollonius, who was governor of Coele-Syria, and he gathered a great army and encamped at Jamnia, and sent to Jonathan the high priest, saying,
70| "You alone lift yourself up against us, while I have become an object of mockery and reproach because of you. Why do you set yourself up as ruler over us in the hills?
71| Now then, if you trust in your forces, come down to us into the plain, and let us test ourselves there, for the strength of the cities is with me.
72| Ask and learn who I am, and who the rest are who help us; and men say, 'You have no footing to stand against us, for your fathers were twice routed in their own land.'
73| And now you will not be able to withstand such cavalry and such an army in the plain, where there is no stone nor pebble nor place to flee."
74| When Jonathan heard the words of Apollonius, he was stirred in his mind, and chose ten thousand men and set out from Jerusalem, and Simon his brother met him to help him.
75| He encamped against Joppa, and the people of the city shut him out, because Apollonius had a garrison in Joppa, and he made war against it.
76| Then the people of the city were afraid and opened the gates, and Jonathan gained possession of Joppa.
77| When Apollonius heard of it, he drew up three thousand cavalry and a large army, and marched to Azotus as though passing through, but at the same time pushed forward onto the open plain, since his cavalry was numerous and he relied on it.
78| Jonathan pursued after him to Azotus, and the armies joined battle there.
79| Now Apollonius had left a thousand cavalry hidden behind them;
80| and Jonathan learned that there was an ambush behind him. His men surrounded his army and shot their arrows at the people from morning until evening.
81| But the people stood firm as Jonathan had commanded them, while the enemy's horses grew weary.
82| Then Simon brought up his force and engaged the infantry line — for the cavalry had spent itself — and they were crushed before him and fled.
83| The cavalry scattered across the plain, and they escaped to Azotus and took refuge in Beth-dagon, the shrine of their idol, to save their lives.
84| But Jonathan set fire to Azotus and the surrounding towns, and seized their plunder; and the shrine of Dagon, together with those who had taken refuge in it, he burned to the ground.
85| And those who fell by the sword, together with those burned to death, numbered about eight thousand men.
86| From there Jonathan withdrew and encamped at Ashkelon, and the people of the city came out to meet him with great splendor.
87| Then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem with those who were with him, carrying much spoil.
88| Now when King Alexander learned of these things, he resolved to honor Jonathan still further.
89| And he sent him a golden buckle, such as is customarily given to the king's kinsmen, and gave him Ekron and all its territory as a possession.
1| Now the king of Egypt gathered together great forces, as many as the sand on the seashore, and many ships, and sought to gain control of the kingdom of Alexander by deceit, and to add it to his own kingdom.
2| And he went out into Syria with words of peace, and the men of the cities opened their gates to him and met him, because it was Alexander the king's command to meet him, since he was his father-in-law.
3| But as he entered into the cities of Ptolemais, he stationed troops as a garrison in each city.
4| And when he drew near to Azotus, they showed him the temple of Dagon burned down, and Azotus and its surrounding villages demolished, and bodies flung about, and the burnt remains of those whom Jonathan had burned in the war, for they had made heaps of them along his way.
5| And they related to the king what Jonathan had done, in order to bring blame upon him; but the king kept silent.
6| And Jonathan met the king at Joppa with great honor, and they greeted one another, and they slept there.
7| And Jonathan went with the king as far as the river called Eleutherus, and then returned to Jerusalem.
8| So King Ptolemy took possession of the coastal cities as far as Seleucia by the sea, and he was plotting evil designs against Alexander.
9| And he sent ambassadors to Demetrius the king, saying, Come, let us make a covenant with one another, and I will give you my daughter whom Alexander now has, and you shall reign over your father's kingdom.
10| For I regret having given him my daughter, since he has sought to kill me.
11| And he brought blame on Alexander because he coveted his kingdom.
12| And taking his daughter away from him, he gave her to Demetrius, and Alexander's face was changed toward him, and their hostility became plain.
13| So Ptolemy entered Antioch and put on the diadem of Asia; he set two diadems on his head, that of Asia and of Egypt.
14| Meanwhile King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people of those regions were in revolt.
15| And when Alexander heard of it, he came against him in battle; and Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force, and put him to flight.
16| And Alexander fled into Arabia to find shelter there, while King Ptolemy was exalted.
17| And Zabdiel the Arab cut off Alexander's head and sent it to Ptolemy.
18| And King Ptolemy died on the third day, and those who were in his strongholds were destroyed by those in the strongholds.
19| So Demetrius became king in the hundred and sixty-seventh year.
20| In those days Jonathan gathered together the men of Judea to make war on the citadel in Jerusalem, and they set up many siege engines against it.
21| But some who hated their own nation, lawless men, went to the king and reported to him that Jonathan was besieging the citadel.
22| And when he heard it, he was enraged; and as soon as he heard, he set out at once and came to Ptolemais, and he wrote to Jonathan not to continue the siege but to meet him at once at Ptolemais, to confer with him.
23| But when Jonathan heard this, he ordered the siege to continue; and he chose some of the elders of Israel and of the priests, and gave himself over to the danger.
24| And taking silver and gold and clothing and many other gifts, he went to the king at Ptolemais, and found favor before him.
25| And some lawless men of the nation brought accusations against him.
26| But the king treated him as those before him had treated him, and exalted him before all his friends.
27| And he confirmed him in the high priesthood, and whatever other honors he had held before, and made him one of the chief friends.
28| And Jonathan asked the king to make Judea, and the three districts, and Samaria, free of tribute, and he promised him three hundred talents.
29| And the king consented, and wrote letters to Jonathan concerning all these things, in this manner:
30| King Demetrius to Jonathan his brother, greetings, and to the nation of the Jews.
31| The copy of the letter which we wrote to Lasthenes our kinsman concerning you, we have written also to you, that you may see it.
32| King Demetrius to Lasthenes his father, greetings.
33| To the nation of the Jews, our friends, who keep faith with what is just toward us, we have decided to do good, on account of their goodwill toward us.
34| We have therefore confirmed to them the territory of Judea and the three districts, Aphairema and Lydda and Rathamin — these were added to Judea from Samaria — together with everything belonging to them, for all who sacrifice at Jerusalem, in place of the royal dues which the king used to receive from them formerly, year by year, from the produce of the land and the fruit of the trees.
35| And as for the rest of what is due to us from now on, of the tithes and the tolls due to us, and the salt pools, and the crowns due to us, we release them all to them.
36| And not one of these things shall be revoked from now on for all time.
37| Now therefore see to it that a copy of this is made, and let it be given to Jonathan, and set up on the holy mountain in a conspicuous and fitting place.
38| And when King Demetrius perceived that his realm had settled into calm and no one opposed him any longer, he released all his troops, sending each man home, except for the foreign soldiers he had enlisted from the islands of the nations; and all his father's former forces turned against him.
39| Now Trypho had formerly been one of Alexander's followers, and he saw that all the forces were murmuring against Demetrius, so he went to Simalcue the Arab, who was raising the boy Antiochus, son of Alexander;
40| and he pressed him to hand the boy over to him, so that he might become king in his father's place; and he told him all that Demetrius had done, and the hatred which his forces bore toward him; and he remained there many days.
41| Meanwhile Jonathan sent to King Demetrius, asking him to expel those in the citadel of Jerusalem and those in the strongholds, for they were making war on Israel.
42| And Demetrius replied to Jonathan, promising, Not only shall I grant this to you and your people, but I will bestow great honor on you and your nation as soon as circumstances allow.
43| Now therefore you would do well to send me men who will fight for me, since all my forces have deserted me.
44| So Jonathan sent three thousand men, mighty in strength, to Antioch, and they came to the king, and the king rejoiced at their arrival.
45| And the people of the city gathered together into the middle of the city, a hundred and twenty thousand men, and they intended to kill the king.
46| And the king fled to the courtyard, but the people of the city seized the streets of the city and began to fight.
47| Then the king called on the Jews for help, and they all gathered to him at once and scattered through the city, and killed on that day about a hundred thousand.
48| And they set the city on fire, and took much spoil that day, and saved the king.
49| And when the people of the city realized the Jews now held the city just as they intended, their nerve broke, and they called out to the king in supplication, saying,
50| Give us your right hand, and let the Jews stop fighting against us and the city.
51| And they laid down their arms and struck a truce; so the Jews gained honor before the king and before everyone in his realm, and they went back to Jerusalem with a great deal of plunder.
52| Thus Demetrius took his seat as king over his realm once more, and his domain rested undisturbed under his rule.
53| But he broke every promise he had made, and became estranged from Jonathan, and did not repay the kindnesses Jonathan had shown him, but oppressed him greatly.
54| After this Trypho returned, and with him Antiochus, a very young boy; and he became king and put on the diadem.
55| And all the forces which Demetrius had cast off gathered to him, and they fought against Demetrius, and he fled and was routed.
56| And Trypho captured the war elephants and took possession of Antioch.
57| And the young Antiochus wrote to Jonathan, saying, I confirm you in the high priesthood, and I appoint you over the four districts, and I make you one of the king's friends.
58| And he sent him vessels of gold and a set of table service, and gave him authority to drink from gold vessels, to wear purple, and to have a golden buckle.
59| And he appointed his brother Simon as governor from the Ladder of Tyre to the borders of Egypt.
60| Then Jonathan went out and traveled through the region beyond the river and among the cities, and all the forces of Syria gathered to him as allies; and he came to Ascalon, and the people of the city met him with honor.
61| And from there he went on to Gaza, but the people of Gaza shut him out; so he laid siege to it, and burned its surrounding villages with fire, and plundered them.
62| Then the people of Gaza pleaded with Jonathan, and he gave them his right hand; and he took the sons of their rulers as hostages, and sent them off to Jerusalem, and he passed through the country as far as Damascus.
63| And Jonathan heard that the officers of Demetrius were at Kedesh in Galilee with a large force, intending to remove him from his position.
64| And he went to meet them, but left his brother Simon in the country.
65| And Simon encamped before Bethsura, and fought against it for many days, and shut it in.
66| And they asked him for his right hand, and he gave it to them; and he drove them out from there and took possession of the city, and set a garrison over it.
67| Meanwhile Jonathan and his camp encamped by the waters of Gennesaret, and they rose early in the morning to the plain of Hazor.
68| And there, behold, a camp of foreigners met him in the plain, and they had set an ambush against him in the hills, while they themselves advanced to meet him from the front.
69| Then the ambush rose up out of their places, and they joined battle; and all who were with Jonathan fled.
70| Not one of them was left, except Mattathias son of Absalom and Judas son of Chalphi, commanders of the army's forces.
71| And Jonathan tore his garments, and put dust on his head, and prayed.
72| Then he turned back to fight against them, and routed them, and they fled.
73| And when those who had fled from him saw this, they returned to him, and they pursued together with him as far as Kedesh, to their camp, and there they encamped.
74| And on that day about three thousand of the foreigners fell; and Jonathan returned to Jerusalem.
1| Jonathan saw that the time was working in his favor, and he chose men and sent them to Rome to confirm and renew the friendship with them.
2| He also sent letters to the same effect to the Spartans and to other places.
3| So they went to Rome, and they went into the senate house, and declared, "Jonathan, high priest of the Jewish nation, along with his people, has sent us to renew the friendship and alliance with them as before."
4| And they gave them letters to the authorities in each place along the way, so that they might send them on to the land of Judah in peace.
5| And this is a copy of the letter that Jonathan wrote to the Spartans.
6| "Jonathan the high priest, together with the council of elders of our people, our priests, and the rest of the Jewish nation, to the Spartans our brothers, greetings.
7| Even before this, letters were sent to Onias the high priest from Arius, who was reigning among you, stating that you are our brothers, as the copy set out below shows.
8| And Onias welcomed the man who was sent with honor, and received the letters, in which the matter of alliance and friendship was set out plainly.
9| We ourselves, then, though we have no need of these things, having as our encouragement the holy books that are in our hands,
10| have undertaken to send to you to renew the brotherhood and friendship, so that we might not become strangers to you; for many years have passed since you sent to us.
11| We, then, at every season without ceasing, both at the festivals and on the other appointed days, remember you, when we offer sacrifices and in our prayers, as it is right and fitting to remember brothers.
12| And we rejoice in your glory.
13| But many troubles and many wars have surrounded us, and the kings around us have made war on us.
14| We were unwilling, then, to trouble you and our other allies and friends in these wars.
15| For we have the help from heaven that helps us, and we have been delivered from our enemies, and our enemies have been humbled.
16| We therefore chose Numenius, Antiochus's son, together with Antipater, whose father was Jason, and sent them to the Romans to renew our former friendship and alliance with them.
17| We have also charged them to go to you and greet you, and to deliver to you our letters concerning the renewal and our brotherhood.
18| And now you will do well to send us a reply to this."
19| And this is the copy of the letter that they sent to Onias.
20| "Areus, king of the Spartans, to Onias the great priest, greetings.
21| It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Jews that they are brothers, and that they are of the family of Abraham.
22| Now therefore, since we have learned this, you will do well to write to us about your welfare.
23| And we for our part write back to you: your livestock and your possessions are ours, and ours are yours. We therefore command that this be reported to you accordingly."
24| Jonathan heard that Demetrius's commanders had returned with a much larger force than before to make war against him.
25| So he set out from Jerusalem and met them in the region of Hamath; for he did not give them the opportunity to invade his own territory.
26| And he sent spies into their camp, and they returned and reported to him, "They are arranging to fall upon us this very night."
27| So when the sun went down, Jonathan ordered his men to keep watch and to stay under arms, ready for battle all through the night, and he posted outposts around the camp.
28| And the enemy heard that Jonathan and his men had made ready for battle, and they were afraid and their hearts quailed within them, and they lit fires in their camp.
29| But Jonathan and his men did not learn of it until morning, for they saw the fires burning.
30| And Jonathan pursued after them but did not overtake them, for they had crossed the Eleutherus river.
31| So Jonathan turned aside against the Arabs called the Zabadeans, and struck them, and took their spoils.
32| Then he broke camp and came to Damascus, and traveled through the whole region.
33| Simon also went out and traveled as far as Ascalon and the strongholds nearby, and turned aside to Joppa and seized it beforehand,
34| for he had heard that they intended to hand over the stronghold to Demetrius's men, and he stationed a garrison there to guard it.
35| Then Jonathan returned and called an assembly of the elders of the people, and took counsel with them about building strongholds in Judea,
36| and raising the walls of Jerusalem higher, and building a great height between the citadel and the city, to separate it from the city, so that it would stand alone, unable to buy or sell.
37| And they gathered to build, and part of the wall over the Kidron valley on the east side fell down, and he repaired the section called Chaphenatha.
38| Simon also built up Adida in the lowland, and fortified it with gates and bars.
39| Now Trypho was seeking to become king of Asia and to put on the diadem, and to raise his hand against King Antiochus.
40| But he was afraid that Jonathan would not allow it and might make war against him, and so he looked for a way to seize him and put him to death. And he set out and came to Beth-shan.
41| Jonathan marched out to encounter him, bringing forty thousand troops picked for combat, and reached Beth-shan.
42| And when Trypho saw that he had come with so large a force, he was afraid to raise his hand against him.
43| So he received him with honor, introduced him to all his friends, presented him with gifts, and commanded his friends and troops to obey him just as they obeyed himself.
44| Then he said to Jonathan, "Why have you worn out all these people, when there is no war between us?
45| So now send them away to their homes, but choose for yourself a few men to stay with you, and come with me to Ptolemais, and I will hand it over to you along with the rest of the strongholds and the remaining forces and all the officials, and then I will turn back and depart; for this is the reason I have come."
46| And Jonathan trusted him and did as he said, and sent away his forces, and they went off to the land of Judah.
47| But he kept with himself three thousand men; two thousand of these he left in Galilee, and one thousand went along with him.
48| But when Jonathan entered Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais shut the gates and seized him, and killed with the sword all who had come in with him.
49| And Trypho sent forces and cavalry into Galilee, into the great plain, to destroy all of Jonathan's men.
50| But they learned that Jonathan had been seized and had perished, along with those with him, and they encouraged one another and marched on in close formation, ready for battle.
51| When those pursuing them saw that it was a matter of life and death for them, they turned back.
52| So they all came in peace to the land of Judah, and they mourned for Jonathan and those who had been with him, and they were greatly afraid; and Israel mourned a great mourning.
53| And all the nations around them sought to wipe them out, for they said, "They have no leader or helper; now, then, let us make war on them and blot out their memory from among men."
1| Simon heard that Trypho had gathered a large force to come into the land of Judah and destroy it.
2| And he saw that the people were trembling and terrified, so he traveled to Jerusalem and called the people to assemble.
3| He encouraged them, saying to them: "You yourselves know all that I and my brothers and my father's whole household have accomplished on behalf of the laws and the sanctuary, and the wars and the hardships we have endured.
4| For this cause all my brothers have perished for Israel's sake, and I alone am left.
5| Now far be it from me to spare my own life in any time of distress, for I am no better than my brothers.
6| Instead I will stand up for my nation, our holy place, and our wives and little ones, because every surrounding nation has massed together to wipe us out in hatred."
7| And the spirit of the people was kindled again as they heard these words,
8| and they responded in a great shout, declaring, "You are our leader in place of Judas and your brother Jonathan.
9| Fight our battle, and whatever you tell us we will do."
10| So he gathered together all the fighting men, and hurried to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and fortified it all around.
11| He sent Jonathan son of Absalom to Joppa with a sufficient force, and he drove out those who were in it and remained there in it.
12| Then Trypho set out from Ptolemais with a large force to enter the land of Judah, and Jonathan was with him under guard.
13| Simon encamped at Adida, facing the plain.
14| When Trypho learned that Simon had risen up in place of his brother Jonathan, and that he intended to meet him in battle, he sent envoys to him, saying,
15| "It is over the silver which your brother Jonathan owed the royal treasury, on account of the obligations he had, that we are holding him.
16| Now send us a hundred talents' weight of silver, together with two of his sons as pledges, so that once freed he will not turn against us, and we will let him go."
17| Simon knew that they were speaking to him with deceit, but he sent the silver and the boys, so that he might not bring great hostility upon himself from the people,
18| who would say, "Because I did not send him the silver and the boys, he perished."
19| So he sent the boys and the hundred talents; but Trypho lied, and did not release Jonathan.
20| After this Trypho came to invade the land and destroy it, and circled around by the road to Adora; but Simon and his camp moved alongside him wherever he went.
21| Meanwhile those in the citadel kept sending envoys to Trypho, urging him to come to them by way of the desert and to send them provisions.
22| Trypho made ready all his cavalry to go; but that night there was very heavy snow, and he did not come because of the snow. So he set out and went into the region of Gilead.
23| And as he drew near Baskama, he killed Jonathan, and he was buried there.
24| Then Trypho turned back and went away to his own land.
25| Simon sent and took the bones of his brother Jonathan, and buried him at Modein, the city of his fathers.
26| All Israel mourned him with great mourning, and grieved for him many days.
27| And Simon built over the tomb of his father and his brothers, and raised it up to be seen, with polished stone on the back and on the front.
28| He set up seven pyramids, one facing another, honoring his father, his mother, and his four brothers.
29| For these he made elaborate structures, setting great columns around them, and on the columns he made suits of armor for an everlasting memorial, and beside the suits of armor carved ships, so that they could be seen by all who sail the sea.
30| This is the tomb which he made at Modein, and it stands to this day.
31| Now Trypho dealt treacherously with the young King Antiochus, and killed him,
32| and reigned in his place, and put on the crown of Asia, and inflicted a terrible disaster on that country.
33| Simon built up the strongholds of Judea, and surrounded them with high towers and great walls and towers and gates and bars, and stored provisions in the strongholds.
34| Simon also chose men and sent them to King Demetrius, to secure a release for the country, because all of Trypho's actions had been acts of plunder.
35| King Demetrius replied to him along these lines, and answered him, and wrote him a letter of this kind:
36| "King Demetrius to Simon, high priest and friend of kings, and to the elders and the nation of the Jews, greetings.
37| The golden crown and the palm branch which you sent have reached us, and we stand ready to establish a lasting peace with you, and to instruct the officials in charge to grant you release from tribute.
38| And whatever agreements we have made with you stand, and the strongholds which you have built shall remain yours.
39| We forgive you your unwitting offenses and your sins up to this present day, and the crown tax which you owed; and if any other tax was collected in Jerusalem, let it no longer be collected.
40| And if any of you are qualified to be enrolled among our own men, let their names be recorded, and let peace be established between us."
41| In the hundred and seventieth year the yoke of the nations was lifted from Israel,
42| and the people of Israel began to date their documents and contracts, "In the first year under Simon, high priest, general, and leader of the Jews."
43| In those days Simon encamped against Gaza, and surrounded it with his forces, and made a siege engine, and brought it up against the city, and struck one of its towers, and captured it.
44| Those inside the siege engine leapt into the city, and there was a great commotion in the city.
45| Those in the city went up onto the wall with their wives and children, with their garments torn, and cried out with a loud voice, begging Simon to grant them terms of peace.
46| They said, "Do not judge us by our offenses, but deal with us in your mercy."
47| So Simon came to terms with them and did not fight them; but he expelled them from the city, purified the buildings where the idols had stood, and then entered it with hymns and praise.
48| He removed every uncleanness from it, and settled in it men who observe the law; and he strengthened its fortifications, and built himself a residence there.
49| Those in the citadel at Jerusalem were prevented from going out into the countryside to buy and sell; and they grew very hungry, and many of them perished by famine.
50| They cried out to Simon to grant them terms, and he gave them terms, and drove them out from there, and cleansed the citadel from its defilements.
51| He entered it on the twenty-third day of the second month, in year one hundred seventy-one, with praise and palm branches, and with lyres and cymbals and harps, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.
52| And he ordained that this day be kept every year with celebration. He also strengthened the hill of the temple that lies beside the citadel, and he and his men lived there.
53| Simon saw that his son John was now a man, and he appointed him commander of all the forces; and he lived at Gazara.
1| In the year one hundred and seventy-two, King Demetrius gathered his forces and went to Media to draw help to himself, so that he might make war on Trypho.
2| And Arsaces, ruler of Persia and Media, heard that Demetrius had entered his territory, and he sent one of his commanders to capture him alive.
3| And he went and struck the camp of Demetrius and seized him, and brought him to Arsaces, and he put him under guard.
4| And the land was quiet all the days of Simon, and he sought good things for his nation, and his authority and his glory pleased them all their days.
5| And along with all his glory he took Joppa for a harbor, and made it an entrance for the islands of the sea.
6| And he enlarged the borders of his nation, and gained control of the country.
7| And he gathered together many captives, and became master of Gazara and Bethsura and the citadel; and he removed the uncleanness from it, and there was no one to oppose him.
8| And they farmed their land in peace, and the land gave its produce, and the trees of the plains their fruit.
9| The elders sat in the streets, all of them conversing about pleasant matters, and the young men dressed in splendor and garments of war.
10| To the cities he supplied provisions, and set them up as fortified strongholds, until the name of his glory was renowned to the end of the earth.
11| He made peace across the land, and Israel exulted with great joy.
12| And every man sat beneath his own vine and his own fig tree, with no one to frighten them.
13| And there ceased to be anyone warring against them in the land, and their kings were crushed in those days.
14| And he strengthened all the lowly of his people; the law he sought out, and he removed every lawless and wicked man.
15| The holy things he glorified, and he multiplied the vessels of the sanctuary.
16| And it was heard in Rome that Jonathan had died, and as far as Sparta, and they grieved greatly.
17| But when they heard that Simon his brother had become high priest in his place and held sway over the country and the cities in it,
18| they wrote to him on bronze tablets to renew with him the friendship and alliance which they had established with Judas and Jonathan his brothers.
19| And these were read before the assembly in Jerusalem.
20| Here is a transcript of the letters which 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, our brothers, greeting.
21| The envoys sent to our people reported to us about your glory and honor, and we rejoiced at their coming.
22| And what they said we have recorded in the decisions of our people, thus: Numenius the son of Antiochus, along with Antipater the son of Jason, envoys of the Jews, came to us to renew the friendship with us.
23| And it pleased our people to receive the men with honor, and to place a copy of their words among the books appointed for the people, so that the people of the Spartans might keep them in memory; and a copy of these things they wrote to Simon the high priest.
24| After this Simon sent Numenius to Rome, carrying a great golden shield of a thousand minas' weight, to confirm the alliance with them.
25| Now when the people heard these words, they asked, How shall we show our gratitude to Simon and his sons?
26| For he and his brothers and the house of his father stood firm, and fought off the enemies of Israel from them, and secured freedom for them. And they wrote it on bronze tablets, and set it up on a pillar on Mount Zion.
27| Here is a transcript of the writing: On the eighteenth of Elul, in the year one hundred and seventy-two, which is the third year under Simon the high priest,
28| at Saramel, in a great assembly of the priests and the people and the rulers of the nation and the elders of the country, it was made known to us:
29| Since wars occurred often in the country, Simon son of Mattathias, of the sons of Joarib, and his brothers, gave themselves to the danger and stood against the adversaries of their nation, so that their sanctuary and the law might stand firm, and they glorified their nation with great glory.
30| And Jonathan gathered their nation together, and became high priest for them, and was gathered to his people.
31| And their enemies determined to invade their country to crush their land, and to stretch out their hands against their sanctuary;
32| then Simon stood up and struggled on behalf of his people, spending a great deal of his own money, and armed the fighting warriors of his nation, and paid them wages;
33| and he fortified the cities of Judea, and Bethsura on the borders of Judea, where the weapons of the enemy had formerly been, and he set there a garrison of Jewish men;
34| and Joppa he fortified, on the sea, and Gazara on the borders of Azotus, where the enemy had formerly dwelt, and he settled Jews there, and whatever was needed for their restoration he provided among them.
35| And the people saw the faithfulness of Simon and the glory he intended to bring to his nation, and they made him their leader and high priest, since he had accomplished all these things, and because of the justice and the faithfulness he kept toward his nation, and because he sought in every way to exalt his people.
36| And in his days it prospered in his hands, so that the nations were removed from their land, and also those inside Jerusalem's City of David who had turned it into a citadel, from which they used to go out and defile the surroundings of the sanctuary and inflict great harm on its purity;
37| and he settled Jewish men in it, and fortified it for the security of the country and of the city, and raised the walls of Jerusalem.
38| And King Demetrius confirmed the high priesthood for him on these terms,
39| and made him one of the King's Friends, and honored him with great honor;
40| for it had been heard that the Jews were addressed by the Romans as friends and allies and brothers, and that they had met the envoys of Simon with honor;
41| and that the Jews and the priests had resolved that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise;
42| and that he should be their general, and should have charge of the sanctuary, appointing officers through his authority over their tasks, and over the country, and over the weapons, and over the strongholds;
43| and that he should have charge of the sanctuary, and should be obeyed by all, and that all contracts in the country should be written in his name, and that he was to be arrayed in purple and adorned with gold.
44| And it shall not be permitted to any of the people or the priests to set aside any of these things, or to oppose what he decrees, or to convene a meeting anywhere in the land without his consent, or to dress in purple or wear a golden clasp;
45| and whoever acts contrary to these things or sets aside any of them shall be liable.
46| And all the people resolved to establish for Simon that he should act according to these words.
47| And Simon accepted, and consented to be high priest and to be general and ethnarch of the Jews and the priests, and to preside over all.
48| And they decreed that this writing be set on bronze tablets, and that they be set up within the precincts of the sanctuary, in a trustworthy place;
49| and that copies of them be deposited in the treasury, so that Simon and his descendants might keep them.
1| Antiochus, son of King Demetrius, sent letters from the islands of the sea to Simon, priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and to the whole nation.
2| They ran along these lines: King Antiochus to Simon, high priest and ethnarch, and to the nation of the Jews, greeting.
3| Since certain pests have seized control of the kingdom of our fathers, and I intend to lay claim to the kingdom so as to restore it as it formerly was, and I have raised a large body of mercenary forces and built warships,
4| and I intend to land in the country so that I may deal with those who have ruined our country and those who have laid waste many cities in the kingdom,
5| now, then, I confirm to you all the tax remissions that the kings before me granted you, and whatever other remissions they granted you,
6| and I permit you to mint your own coinage as money for your country,
7| and Jerusalem and the sanctuary are to be free; and all the weapons you have made ready, and the fortresses you have built, which you now hold, shall remain yours.
8| And every debt owed to the crown, and every future debt to the crown, from now and for all time, is released to you.
9| And when we have established our kingdom, we will glorify you and your nation and the temple with great glory, so that your glory will become manifest in all the earth.
10| In the year one hundred and seventy-four Antiochus set out for the land of his fathers, and all the forces gathered to him, so that few remained with Tryphon.
11| And Antiochus the king pursued him, and he came to Dor, fleeing along the coast.
12| For he knew that troubles had gathered against him, and his forces abandoned him.
13| And Antiochus encamped against Dor, and with him a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men and eight thousand cavalry.
14| And he surrounded the city, and the ships closed in from the sea; and he pressed the city hard from both land and sea, and let no one go out or come in.
15| Meanwhile Numenius and his companions arrived from Rome bearing letters to the kings and to the countries, in which the following was written
16| Lucius, consul of the Romans, to King Ptolemy, greeting.
17| The envoys of the Jews came to us as our friends and allies, renewing the friendship and alliance from of old, sent by Simon the high priest and by the people of the Jews,
18| and they brought a golden shield weighing five thousand minas.
19| It has therefore seemed good to us to write to the kings and to the countries that they should seek no harm against them, nor make war on them or on their cities or their territories, and that they should not ally themselves with those who make war on them.
20| And it seemed good to us to accept the shield from them.
21| If, then, any troublemakers have fled from their country to you, hand them over to Simon the high priest, so that he can deal with them under the law of his own nation.
22| And he wrote the same to King Demetrius, and to Attalus, and to Ariarathes, and to Arsaces,
23| and likewise to every province: to Sampsames, to the Spartans, to Delos, to Myndos, to Sicyon, to Caria, to Samos, to Pamphylia, to Lycia, to Halicarnassus, to Cos, to Side, to Aradus, to Rhodes, to Phaselis, to Gortyna, to Cnidus, to Cyprus, and to Cyrene.
24| And a copy of these he wrote also to Simon the high priest.
25| Antiochus the king, meanwhile, was encamped against Dor a second time, continually pressing it with his forces and building siege engines, and he shut Tryphon in so that he could neither go out nor come in.
26| And Simon dispatched two thousand picked soldiers to fight beside him, together with silver, gold, and abundant supplies.
27| But he refused to accept them; instead he broke off everything he had earlier agreed with him, and turned against him.
28| And he sent to him Athenobius, one of his friends, to confer with him, saying, You hold Joppa and Gazara and the citadel in Jerusalem, cities of my kingdom.
29| You have laid waste their territories, done great harm to the land, and taken control of many places in my kingdom.
30| Now therefore hand over the cities you have seized, and the tribute of the places you have taken control of, which lie beyond the borders of Judea.
31| Otherwise, pay instead five hundred talents in silver; and, on account of the damage you inflicted plus the tribute owed by the cities, another five hundred talents besides. If you refuse, we will march against you in war.
32| So Athenobius, a friend of the king, arrived in Jerusalem, and he saw the splendor of Simon, and a cabinet of gold and silver vessels, and considerable state; and he was astonished, and he relayed to Simon what the king had said.
33| And Simon answered and said to him, We have neither taken foreign land nor seized what belongs to others, but only the inheritance of our fathers, which for a time was unjustly held by our enemies.
34| We, having now the opportunity, are holding fast to the inheritance of our fathers.
35| As for Joppa and Gazara, which you ask about, these were doing great harm among the people and to our land; for these we will give a hundred talents. And he gave him no other answer.
36| Athenobius returned to the king in anger, and reported to him these words and the splendor of Simon and all that he had seen; and the king was greatly enraged.
37| Tryphon boarded a ship and fled to Orthosia.
38| And the king appointed Cendebaeus commander-in-chief of the coastland, and gave him infantry and cavalry forces.
39| And he ordered him to encamp facing Judea, and he ordered him to build up Cedron and fortify the cities, and to make war on the people; and the king himself pursued Tryphon.
40| And Cendebaeus arrived at Jamnia, and set about harassing the population and pressing into Judea, seizing residents as captives and putting them to death.
41| And he built up Cedron, and stationed there cavalry and forces so that they could go out and patrol the roads of Judea, as the king had ordered him.
1| John went up from Gazara and reported to Simon his father what Cendebeus had been doing.
2| Then Simon called his two older sons, Judas and John, and said to them: I and my brothers and my father's house have fought Israel's wars from my youth until this very day, and things have prospered in our hands so that we rescued Israel many times.
3| But now I have grown old, while you, by mercy, are of sufficient years. Take my place and my brother's, and go out and fight for our nation, and may the help that comes from heaven be with you.
4| And he chose from the country twenty thousand fighting men and cavalry, and they marched against Cendebeus, and they camped for the night at Modein.
5| And rising early they went into the plain, and there was a great force to meet them, foot soldiers and cavalry, and a torrent-bed lay between them.
6| And he drew up his forces facing them, he and his people, and he saw the people afraid to cross the torrent, so he crossed first; and the men saw him and crossed after him.
7| And he divided the people, putting the cavalry in the middle of the infantry, for the enemy's cavalry was very great.
8| And they sounded the trumpets, and Cendebeus and his camp were routed, and many of them fell wounded, while the rest fled to the stronghold.
9| At that time Judas, John's brother, was wounded; but John pursued them until he came to Kedron, which Cendebeus had built.
10| And they fled into the towers in the territory of Azotus, and John set it on fire; and about a thousand of them fell, and he returned to Judea in peace.
11| Now Ptolemy son of Abubus had been appointed commander over the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold,
12| for he had married the daughter of the high priest.
13| And his heart grew proud, and he wanted to gain control of the country, and he plotted treacherously against Simon and his sons, to do away with them.
14| Simon was going about the cities of the country, attending to their needs, and he went down to Jericho, he and Mattathias and Judas his sons, in the hundred and seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month — this is the month Shebat.
15| And the son of Abubus received them treacherously into the little stronghold called Dok, which he had built, and he made them a great banquet, and hid men there.
16| And when Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptolemy rose up with his men, and they took their weapons and came in upon Simon at the banquet, and killed him and his sons and some of his servants.
17| Thus he committed a great treachery, and repaid good with evil.
18| And Ptolemy wrote all this and sent word to the king, asking him to send forces to help him and to hand over their country and its cities.
19| And he sent others to Gazara to kill John, and to the captains of thousands he sent letters, calling them to him, so that he could reward them with silver, with gold, and with other gifts.
20| And he sent others to seize Jerusalem and the temple mount.
21| But someone ran ahead and reported to John at Gazara that his father and his brothers had perished, and that Ptolemy had sent men to kill him too.
22| And on hearing this he was greatly shaken, and he seized the men who had come to kill him and put them to death, for he knew they were seeking to destroy him.
23| Now the rest of the acts of John, his wars and the brave deeds he did, the building of the walls he built, and his other deeds,
24| behold, these are written in the book of the days of his high priesthood, from the time he became high priest after his father.
1| To the Jewish brothers throughout Egypt, greetings from the Jewish brothers in Jerusalem and those in the country of Judea: good peace.
2| May God do good to you, and remember his covenant made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, those servants who kept faith with him.
3| May he grant all of you a heart set on reverence for him, ready to carry out what he wills, with generous spirit and a soul that is willing.
4| May he open your heart to his law and his commandments, and grant peace.
5| May he listen to your prayers, and be reconciled to you, and never abandon you in an evil time.
6| And now we are here praying for you.
7| In the reign of Demetrius, in the year one hundred and sixty-nine, we the Jews wrote to you in the affliction and the crisis that came upon us in these years, from the time Jason and those with him revolted from the holy land and the kingdom,
8| and set fire to the gate, and shed innocent blood. But we prayed to the Lord and were heard; we offered sacrifice and fine flour, and we lit the lamps, and we set out the loaves of bread.
9| And now, keep the days of Booths in the month of Chislev.
10| In the year one hundred and eighty-eight, from Jerusalem. Those in Judea and the council of elders and Judas, to Aristobulus, teacher of King Ptolemy, who belongs to the lineage of priests set apart by anointing, and to our fellow Jews living in Egypt: greetings and good health.
11| Having been saved by God from great dangers, we thank him greatly, as men who have taken the field against a king.
12| For he it was who cast out those who took the field against the holy city into Persia.
13| For when the leader had arrived, along with the force around him that seemed irresistible, they were cut down in the temple of Nanaia, the priests of Nanaia having practiced a deception.
14| For as though he were to marry her, Antiochus came to the place, along with his friends who were with him, for the purpose of receiving the great sums of money in the name of a dowry.
15| And when the priests of the temple of Nanaia had set the money out, and he had come forward with a few men into the enclosure of the sacred precinct, the temple doors were closed the moment Antiochus stepped inside,
16| and opening a hidden door in the paneled ceiling, they hurled stones and struck down the leader, and cutting him limb from limb and severing the heads, they flung them out to those outside.
17| Blessed in every way is our God, who has given up the impious to their fate.
18| Since we are about to keep, on the twenty-fifth of Chislev, the purification of the temple, we thought it right to inform you, so that you too may keep the feast of Booths and of the fire, recalling when Nehemiah, who then built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.
19| For indeed, when our fathers were being led away to Persia, the pious priests of that time took some of the fire from the altar and secretly hid it in the hollow of a dry well, where they secured it so that the place would be unknown to anyone.
20| And when many years had passed, when it pleased God, Nehemiah, sent from the king of Persia, dispatched the descendants of the priests who had hidden it to fetch the fire.
21| And when they reported to us that they had not found fire but thick water, he ordered them to draw some up and bring it; and when the materials for the sacrifices had been brought up, Nehemiah ordered the priests to sprinkle the water on the wood and on what lay upon it.
22| And when this had been done, and time had passed, and the sun, which had been hidden by cloud, shone out, a great fire blazed up, so that all were amazed.
23| And while the sacrifice was being consumed, the priests offered a prayer, both the priests and everyone else, Jonathan leading and the rest responding, along with Nehemiah.
24| The prayer went in this way: Lord God, creator of all things, fearsome and mighty and just and merciful, the only king and the only good one,
25| the only provider, the only just and almighty and eternal one, who saves Israel from every evil, who made our fathers chosen, and sanctified them,
26| accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and guard your portion and consecrate it.
27| Gather together our scattered people, set free those enslaved among the nations, look upon those who are despised and abhorred, and let the nations know that you are our God.
28| Bring torment on those who oppress us and insult us in their arrogance.
29| Plant your people firmly in your holy place, as Moses said.
30| And the priests were singing the hymns.
31| And when the sacrifice had been consumed, Nehemiah ordered the water that remained to be poured over some large stones.
32| And when this was done, a flame blazed up; but it was consumed by the light shining back from the altar.
33| And when the matter became known, and it was reported to the king of the Persians that in the place where the deported priests had hidden the fire, the water had appeared, with which Nehemiah and his companions had purified the sacrifices,
34| the king enclosed the place and made it sacred, after testing the matter.
35| And to those he favored the king would give many different gifts, sharing them out generously.
36| And Nehemiah and his companions called this thing Nephthar, which is translated Purification, but it is called Nephthar by most people.
1| It is found in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those being deported to take some of the fire, as has been recorded,
2| and how the prophet, giving them the law, instructed the exiles never to let go of the Lord's commandments in their minds, and not to be led astray in their thinking on seeing the golden and silver images and the finery about them.
3| And saying other things of this kind, he urged them not to let the law depart from their hearts.
4| It was also in the writing how the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, when he went out to the mountain which Moses climbed and viewed the inheritance of God.
5| And Jeremiah, coming there, found a cave-like dwelling, and he carried in the tent, the ark, and the incense altar, then sealed up the entrance.
6| And some of those who had followed him came forward meaning to note the path, but were unable to locate it.
7| But when Jeremiah learned of this, he rebuked them and said, "The place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows mercy.
8| And then the Lord will bring these things to light, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, along with the cloud, just as it was shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be greatly sanctified."
9| It was also related how Solomon, having wisdom, offered a sacrifice for the dedication and the completion of the temple.
10| Just as Moses prayed to the Lord and flame descended from heaven and consumed the offerings, so also Solomon prayed, and fire likewise came down and consumed the whole burnt offerings.
11| And Moses said, "Because it was not eaten, the sin offering was consumed."
12| In the same way Solomon also kept the eight days.
13| These same things were also recounted in the records and in the memoirs of Nehemiah, and how, founding a library, he gathered together the books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings concerning votive offerings.
14| In the same way Judas also gathered together for us the writings that had been scattered because of the war that came upon us, and they are still in our possession.
15| So then, whatever of these you may need, send those who can bring them to you.
16| Since we are soon to observe the festival of purification, we have written to you; you will therefore do well to keep the days.
17| Now God, who saved all his people and gave back the inheritance to all, and the kingship and the priesthood and the consecration,
18| just as he promised through the law -- for we hope in God that he will soon have mercy on us, and gather us together from everywhere under heaven into his holy place; for he has rescued us out of great evils, and has cleansed the place --
19| Now the events concerning Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, and the purification of the greatest temple, and the dedication of the altar,
20| and further the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator,
21| and the appearances from heaven that came to those who fought so nobly and zealously on behalf of Judaism, so that, though few in number, they plundered the whole land and pursued the barbarian hordes,
22| and recovered the temple famous throughout the whole inhabited world, and freed the city, and restored the laws that were about to be abolished, the Lord having become gracious to them with all forbearance --
23| all this, set forth by Jason of Cyrene in five volumes, we will attempt to condense into a single treatise.
24| For considering the flood of numbers, and the difficulty that faces those wishing to plunge into the narratives of the history because of the sheer bulk of the material,
25| we have taken care that those who wish to read may find enjoyment, that those who are inclined to commit it to memory may find it easy, and that all who come upon it may derive benefit.
26| For us who have taken up the toil of this abridgment, it is no light task, but a matter of sweat and sleeplessness,
27| just as it is no easy thing for one preparing a banquet and seeking the advantage of others; yet for the sake of the gratitude of many we will gladly endure the toil,
28| leaving the exact treatment of every particular to the original author, and applying our own effort only to following the outlines of the abridgment.
29| For just as it is for the master builder of a new house to be concerned with the whole framework, while the one undertaking to decorate and paint it must consider only what is fitting for its adornment, so, I think, it is with us also.
30| To enter into the subject and make a full circuit of it in speech, and to be meticulous over particulars, belongs to the original author of the history;
31| but to pursue conciseness of expression and to avoid the elaborate treatment of the subject matter must be allowed to the one who is making the condensation.
32| Let us then begin our narrative from this point, adding only this much to what has already been said; for it is foolish to be long-winded before a history and yet cut short the history itself.
1| While the holy city was inhabited in complete peace, and the laws were being kept in the very best way, on account of the piety and hatred of wickedness of Onias the high priest,
2| it came about that the kings themselves honored the place, and glorified the temple with the finest gifts,
3| so that even Seleucus, king of Asia, supplied out of his own revenues all the expenses proper to the services of the sacrifices.
4| But a certain Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been appointed overseer of the temple, fell into a dispute with the high priest over the administration of the market in the city.
5| And being unable to get the better of Onias, he went to Apollonius son of Thraseas, who at that time was governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia,
6| and told him the Jerusalem treasury held riches beyond reckoning, an amount so vast it could not be counted and bore no relation to the tally of the sacrifices, and that it was possible for these to fall under the authority of the king.
7| When Apollonius met with the king, he disclosed to him the money that had been reported to him; and the king, choosing out Heliodorus, who was over his affairs, sent him with orders to carry off the aforementioned money.
8| Heliodorus set out on his journey at once, ostensibly to inspect the cities of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, but in fact to carry out the king's purpose.
9| And when he arrived in Jerusalem and had been warmly received by the high priest of the city, he laid before him the report that had been made, and made clear for what reason he had come; and he inquired whether these things were in truth as reported.
10| The high priest explained to him that these were deposits belonging to widows and orphans,
11| and that some also belonged to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a man of very high standing — the wicked Simon having falsely represented the matter — and that the entire amount came to four hundred talents' weight in silver plus two hundred more in gold,
12| and that to wrong those who had put their trust in the sanctity of the place and in the majesty and inviolability of the temple, honored throughout the whole world, was altogether unthinkable.
13| But the other, on account of the royal orders he held, said flatly that this money must be confiscated for the king's treasury.
14| Having set a day, Heliodorus went in to carry out his inspection of these matters; and there was no small anguish throughout the whole city.
15| The priests, in their priestly robes, cast themselves down before the altar and called upon heaven, upon him who had given the law concerning deposits, to keep these things safe for those who had deposited them.
16| Whoever looked upon the appearance of the high priest was wounded in mind, for his face and the change in his color revealed the anguish of his soul.
17| For a dread and a shuddering of body had poured over the man, by which the pain now present in his heart became plain to those who beheld him.
18| Others streamed out of their houses in crowds for a public supplication, because the place was about to fall into contempt.
19| The women, girded with sackcloth beneath their breasts, filled the streets in great numbers; and the maidens who were kept indoors ran, some to the gates, some to the walls, and some peered out through the windows,
20| and all, stretching out their hands toward heaven, made their supplication.
21| It was pitiful to see the prostration of the whole mingled multitude, and the anxious waiting of the high priest in his great anguish.
22| So they called upon the Lord almighty to keep safe, with all security, the things entrusted to those who had entrusted them.
23| But Heliodorus went on carrying out what had been decided.
24| Now while he was already present there with his bodyguard beside the treasury, the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority made so great a manifestation that all who had dared to accompany him were struck with terror at the power of God, and were turned to faintness and fear.
25| For there appeared to them a horse with a fearsome rider upon it, arrayed in the most beautiful trappings; and rushing furiously, it struck at Heliodorus with its forefeet; and the one seated upon it was seen to have golden armor.
26| Two other young men also appeared to him, remarkable in strength, most beautiful in appearance, and splendidly clothed, who stood on either side of him and scourged him without ceasing, inflicting many blows upon him.
27| And when he suddenly fell to the ground and was enveloped in great darkness, they caught him up and put him on a stretcher,
28| and carried him — the very man who had just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great escort and his whole bodyguard — utterly helpless, now that he plainly recognized the power of God.
29| And he lay there, speechless because of the divine working, and deprived of all hope and deliverance;
30| but the others blessed the Lord who had wondrously glorified his own place; and the temple, which shortly before had been full of fear and confusion, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the Lord almighty had appeared.
31| Then quickly some of Heliodorus's companions begged Onias to call upon the Most High, and to grant life to the man who now lay at his very last breath.
32| The high priest, fearing that the king might suspect the Jews of some plot against Heliodorus, offered up a sacrifice on behalf of the man's recovery.
33| And while the high priest was making the atonement, the same young men again appeared to Heliodorus, clothed in the same garments, and standing there they said, "Give great thanks to Onias the high priest, for it is on his account that the Lord has granted you your life.
34| And you, since you have been scourged from heaven, declare to all the greatness of God's might." And having said these things, they vanished from sight.
35| Heliodorus, after offering a sacrifice to God and making great vows to him who had preserved his life, and having warmly thanked Onias, returned with his army to the king,
36| and testified to all the works of the greatest God that he had seen with his own eyes.
37| When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of man would be fit to be sent to Jerusalem once again, he answered,
38| "If you have any enemy or plotter against your affairs, send him there, and you will get him back well scourged, if indeed he survives at all, for there is truly some power of God about that place.
39| For he who has his dwelling in heaven himself watches over and helps that place, and strikes down and destroys those who come to do it harm."
40| Such, then, was the outcome of the affair of Heliodorus and the safeguarding of the treasury.
1| Now the aforementioned Simon, who had turned informer against the funds and against his own country, kept slandering Onias, saying that it was he who had provoked Heliodorus and had been the architect of the whole calamity.
2| The benefactor of the city, the guardian of his own people, the zealot for the laws — him he dared to call a schemer against the state.
3| The hostility grew to such a pitch that murders were even carried out through one of the men whom Simon had put forward,
4| and Onias, seeing how dangerous the rivalry had become, and that Apollonius son of Menestheus, governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, was fanning Simon's malice still further,
5| went up to the king, not to bring accusation against his fellow citizens but to look to the common good and the private good of the whole people.
6| For he saw that without the king's intervention it was impossible for affairs to find peace, and that Simon would not give up his madness.
7| When Seleucus departed this life and Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took over the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by underhanded means,
8| promising the king at an audience three hundred and sixty talents of silver, and from another source of revenue eighty talents besides.
9| Beyond this he undertook to make over a further hundred and fifty, if he were granted authority to establish a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enroll the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.
10| When the king had given his consent and Jason had secured the office, he immediately set about shifting his countrymen over to the Greek way of life.
11| He set aside the royal grants of favor to the Jews that had been secured through John the father of Eupolemus — the man who went on the embassy to the Romans for friendship and alliance — and, overturning the lawful institutions, he introduced new customs contrary to the law.
12| For he took eager delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel itself, and he brought the noblest of the young men under his control and made them wear the Greek hat.
13| Such was the high tide of Hellenism and the advance of foreign ways, brought on by the surpassing impurity of Jason, ungodly wretch that he was and no true high priest,
14| that the priests were no longer eager about the services of the altar; instead, despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hurried to take part in the unlawful exercises of the wrestling-ground once the signal for the discus-throw had called them,
15| holding the honors of their fathers in no esteem at all, but counting the glories of the Greeks the finest of all.
16| For this reason a grievous turn of fortune overtook them, and the very people whose ways of life they envied and whom they longed to resemble in everything became their enemies and their tormentors.
17| For it is no light thing to act impiously against the divine laws — but the time that followed will make that plain.
18| When the games held every four years were being celebrated at Tyre, and the king was present there,
19| the vile Jason sent envoys from Jerusalem, registered as Antiochenes, to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules — though the men who carried them thought it fitting not to use the money for the sacrifice at all,
20| but rather, since it was on hand, for the building of triremes.
21| Now when Apollonius son of Menestheus had been sent to Egypt for the enthronement of King Philometor, Antiochus, learning that Philometor had turned hostile to his interests, took thought for his own security; he therefore went to Joppa and from there came on to Jerusalem.
22| He was received there magnificently by Jason and by the city, brought in with torch-bearing processions and with shouts of acclaim; after which he encamped his army in Phoenicia.
23| Three years later Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the aforementioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete certain memoranda concerning urgent business.
24| But Menelaus, once commended to the king, and having glorified himself before him by the appearance of authority, secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.
25| Having received the royal mandate he came back, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood, but carrying the temper of a savage tyrant and the rage of a barbarous beast.
26| And so Jason, who had cheated his own brother, was in turn cheated by another and driven as a fugitive into the land of the Ammonites.
27| Menelaus, for his part, held on to the office, but as for the money he had promised the king, none of it was he putting in proper order,
28| though Sostratus, the commander of the citadel, kept pressing the demand — for the collection of the revenues fell to him. For this reason the two of them were summoned before the king;
29| Menelaus left his brother Lysimachus as his deputy in the high priesthood, and Sostratus left Crates, the officer over the Cypriots.
30| While matters stood thus, it happened that the people of Tarsus and Mallus rose in revolt, because their cities had been given as a gift to Antiochis, the king's concubine.
31| The king therefore hastened to go and put down the disturbance, leaving Andronicus, one of his men in high standing, to act in his place.
32| Menelaus, thinking he had found a fine opportunity, stole some of the golden vessels of the temple and made a gift of them to Andronicus, and other vessels he had, as it happened, already sold off in Tyre and the neighboring cities.
33| When Onias learned of this for certain, he denounced him, having withdrawn to a place of asylum at Daphne, near Antioch.
34| At this Menelaus took Andronicus aside privately and urged him to lay hands on Onias. Andronicus went to Onias and, deceiving him, clasped his hand and swore solemn pledges to gain his trust, though Onias still had his suspicions, and induced him to come out of the asylum; then he shut him in at once, showing no respect for justice.
35| For this reason not only the Jews but many of the other nations as well were indignant and took it hard, over the unjust murder of the man.
36| And when the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the Jews of the city appealed to him, joined by the Greeks who shared their hatred of the wrong, over the unreasonable killing of Onias.
37| Antiochus was genuinely grieved at heart and moved to pity, and he wept, recalling the dead man's self-restraint and great orderliness of life,
38| and, inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped Andronicus of his purple robe, tore off his tunics, and led him around the whole city to the very spot where he had committed his outrage against Onias, and there did away with the murderer, the Lord repaying him the punishment he deserved.
39| Many acts of temple-robbery had by that time been carried out across the city through Lysimachus, acting with Menelaus's connivance, and when word of it got out, the populace gathered in protest against Lysimachus, for a great quantity of the golden vessels had already been carried off.
40| As the crowds rose up in fury, Lysimachus put roughly three thousand men under arms and set off on a course of violent, lawless action, with a certain Auranus taking the lead, a man advanced in years but no less advanced in folly.
41| But when the people perceived the assault of Lysimachus, some snatched up stones, others clubs of wood, and some grabbed handfuls from the ashes lying nearby, and in the confusion they hurled them at the men around Lysimachus.
42| For this reason they wounded many of them, struck some down, and drove all of them to flight, and the temple-robber himself they seized and killed beside the treasury.
43| Concerning these events a trial was brought against Menelaus.
44| When the king arrived at Tyre, three men sent by the council of elders presented the case against him in his presence.
45| But Menelaus, now that he saw himself losing, promised Ptolemy son of Dorymenes a considerable sum of money to win the king over.
46| So Ptolemy took the king aside into a certain colonnade, as though to let him cool off, and there changed his mind.
47| Menelaus, the man responsible for the whole wickedness, he released from the charges brought against him, while on those unfortunate men — who, had they pleaded their case even before Scythians, would have been let go uncondemned — he passed sentence of death.
48| So those who had spoken up for the city and its people and the sacred vessels quickly paid the unjust penalty.
49| For this reason even the Tyrians, indignant at the wrong, provided magnificently for their burial.
50| But Menelaus, thanks to the greed of those in power, remained in office, growing ever more entrenched in his wickedness, now established as the great schemer against his fellow citizens.
1| About this time Antiochus made his second expedition into Egypt.
2| And it happened that for nearly forty days over the whole city there appeared, racing through the air, horsemen in gold-embroidered robes, armed with lances drawn up in troops,
3| and the drawing of swords, and squadrons of horses drawn up in order, and charges and onslaughts made by both sides, and the brandishing of shields, and a great mass of spears, and the hurling of missiles, and the flashing of golden ornaments, and armor of every kind.
4| So all prayed that the apparition might prove to be for good.
5| But when a false rumor arose that Antiochus had departed this life, Jason took no fewer than a thousand men and suddenly launched an assault on the city; and when the men on the wall had been forced back and the city was at last on the point of being taken, Menelaus fled into the citadel.
6| Jason went on slaughtering his own countrymen without mercy, not realizing that success against one's kinsmen is the greatest misfortune, but thinking that he was setting up trophies over enemies and not over fellow-countrymen.
7| Yet he did not gain control of the government, but in the end got only shame as the fruit of his plot, and fled again as a fugitive into the country of the Ammonites.
8| So he met a wretched end: shut up in the house of Aretas, tyrant of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by everyone, hated as a rebel against the laws and abhorred as the executioner of his country and fellow citizens, he was cast out into Egypt.
9| He who had driven so many from their homeland perished in a foreign land, having crossed over to the Lacedaemonians in hope of finding shelter there because of his kinship with them.
10| And he who had thrown out a multitude of the unburied was mourned by no one, and received no funeral of any kind, nor any place among his ancestors' tombs.
11| When news of what had happened reached the king, he concluded that Judea was in revolt; so setting out from Egypt in a savage rage, he seized the city through armed assault,
12| and ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy anyone they met, and to slaughter those who took refuge in their houses.
13| There was killing of young and old alike, destruction of grown men, women, and children, and the slaughter of virgins and infants.
14| Within the space of three days, eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting, and no fewer were sold into slavery than were slain.
15| Not content with this, he dared to enter the holiest temple in all the earth, guided by Menelaus, who had turned traitor both to the sacred law and to his own homeland,
16| and with polluted hands he took the sacred vessels, and with profane hands swept away the offerings which other kings had set up to increase the glory and honor of the place.
17| And Antiochus was lifted up in his mind, not perceiving that it was because of the sins of those who inhabited the city that the Master had been angered for a little while, and that this was why the place had been overlooked.
18| For if it had not happened that they were entangled in many sins, then, just as Heliodorus was sent by King Seleucus to inspect the treasury, this man too, the moment he came forward, would have been scourged and turned back from his insolence.
19| But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the place, but the place for the sake of the nation.
20| Therefore the place itself, having shared in the nation's misfortunes, later shared also in its blessings; and what had been forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was, in the reconciliation of the great Master, restored again with all glory.
21| So Antiochus, having carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, hurried back to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could turn dry ground into sea-lanes and walk across the waves on foot, so far had the pride of his heart carried him aloft.
22| And he left behind overseers to afflict the people: in Jerusalem, Philip, by birth a Phrygian and in character more barbarous than the man who appointed him;
23| and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these, Menelaus, who lorded it over his fellow citizens worse than the rest, harboring a hostile disposition toward his Jewish countrymen.
24| He also sent Apollonius, captain of the Mysian troops, with an army of twenty-two thousand, with orders to slaughter all the grown men and sell the women and the younger ones.
25| This man, on arriving at Jerusalem and pretending to be peaceable, waited until the holy day of the Sabbath, and then, finding the Jews at rest from work, ordered his men to parade fully armed.
26| He ran through all who had come out to watch and, rushing into the city with his armed men, cut down great numbers of the people.
27| But Judas, also called Maccabeus, withdrew with about nine others into the hills, and lived there like wild animals with those who were with him, continuing to eat only what grew wild, so as not to share in the defilement.
1| Shortly afterward the king dispatched an elderly Athenian official to force the Jews away from the ancestral customs of their people and to stop them living according to the statutes of God,
2| and to defile the temple in Jerusalem and rename it for Olympian Zeus, and the one on Gerizim, since the people living in that place happened to be strangers, for Zeus the Friend of Strangers.
3| The onset of this evil was harsh and utterly hard to bear for everyone.
4| For the temple was filled with the licentiousness and revelry of the Gentiles, who dallied with prostitutes and had relations with women inside the sacred precincts, and brought in besides things that were not fitting.
5| The altar was covered with the abominable things forbidden by the laws.
6| It was not possible to keep the Sabbath, nor to observe the ancestral feasts, nor even simply to profess oneself a Jew.
7| Under harsh compulsion they were led month by month to the sacrificial feast held on the king's birthday, and when the festival of Dionysus came they were forced, wearing wreaths of ivy, to march in the procession of Dionysus.
8| A decree went out to the neighboring Greek cities, on the suggestion of Ptolemy, that they should follow the same policy against the Jews and make them join in the sacrifices,
9| and that those who refused to go over to Greek customs should be put to death. So one could see the misery that had come upon them.
10| For two women were brought in for having circumcised their children; these they led publicly around the city with their infants hung from their breasts, and then hurled them down from the wall.
11| Others who had run together to nearby caves to keep the seventh day in secret were betrayed to Philip and burned together, because their reverence held them back from defending themselves, out of regard for the honor of that most holy day.
12| Now I urge those who happen upon this book not to be dismayed at these calamities, but to reckon that these punishments were not for the destruction but for the discipline of our nation.
13| For it is in fact a sign of great kindness that the impious are not left alone for long, but immediately meet with retribution.
14| For in the case of the other nations the Master patiently waits before punishing them, until they have reached the full measure of their sins, but he has determined it should not be so with us,
15| so that he might not take vengeance on us afterward, once our sins had reached their fullness.
16| Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us; and though he disciplines with calamity, he does not abandon his own people.
17| Let this much be said to bring it to remembrance; we must come, after these few words, to the narrative itself.
18| A certain Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man already advanced in age and most noble in the appearance of his face, was being forced, with his mouth pried open, to eat pig's flesh.
19| But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with defilement, went forward of his own will to the instrument of torture,
20| spitting out the meat first, in the way that those ought to approach who are resolved to hold out against things it is not right to taste, out of tender love for life.
21| Those in charge of that unlawful sacrificial feast, because of their long acquaintance with the man from earlier times, took him aside privately and urged him to bring meat of his own that it was lawful for him to use, prepared by himself, and only pretend to eat the portions of sacrificial meat prescribed by the king,
22| so that by doing this he might be released from death, and, because of their old friendship with him, find this kindness.
23| But he, forming a noble resolve worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hair he had so honorably attained, and of his excellent conduct from childhood, and above all of the holy and God-given law, declared his answer accordingly, telling them to send him at once to Hades.
24| For it is not fitting for men of our years to play false, that many of the young should suppose that Eleazar, at ninety, had gone over to foreign ways,
25| and that through my pretense, for the sake of a brief and momentary life, they should be led astray because of me, and I should bring stain and defilement upon my old age.
26| For even if for the present I should escape the punishment of men, yet whether living or dead I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty.
27| Therefore, by manfully parting with life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age,
28| and I will leave behind to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and nobly for the sake of the honorable and holy laws. Having said this much, he went at once to the instrument of torture,
29| while those who a little before had shown him goodwill turned to ill will because of the words he had just spoken, which they took to be sheer madness.
30| And when he was about to die from the blows, he groaned and said, To the Lord, who holds the sacred knowledge, it is plain that though I might have been released from death, I am enduring terrible pains in my body under this scourging, but in my soul I gladly suffer these things because of my fear of him.
31| And so he departed this life in this manner, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a memorial of virtue not only to the young but to the greater part of the nation.
1| It also happened that seven brothers, seized together with their mother, were being forced by the king, under whips and cords, to touch the forbidden flesh of swine.
2| One of them, becoming their spokesman, said, "What are you going to ask and learn from us? We would sooner face death than break the laws handed down from our ancestors."
3| The king, enraged, ordered pans and cauldrons to be heated up.
4| And when these had at once been heated, he ordered the tongue cut out of the one who had spoken for them, and, after scalping him Scythian-style, to cut off his extremities, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.
5| When he had been rendered useless in this way, he ordered him brought to the fire still breathing, and fried in the pan. And as the vapor from the pan spread far and wide, the others, together with their mother, urged one another to die nobly, saying:
6| "The Lord God is watching, and in truth he is moved to compassion over us, just as Moses made clear through the song that testifies to his face, saying, 'And he will be moved to compassion over his servants.'"
7| When the first had passed on in this way, they led the second forward to their sport; and having torn off the skin of his head together with the hair, they asked him, "Will you eat, before your body is punished limb by limb?"
8| He answered in the ancestral tongue and said, "No." For this reason he too received the next torment in turn, as the first had.
9| And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You, accursed one, release us from our current life, but the King of the universe will bring us back to life, since it is for his laws that we are dying, and give us a renewal of life without end."
10| After him the third was made sport of, and when his tongue was demanded he put it forward at once, and stretched out his hands courageously,
11| and said nobly, "These I got from Heaven, and because of his laws I hold them in contempt, and it is from him that I expect to get them back once more."
12| So that the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, seeing that he set the pains at nothing.
13| And when this one too had passed on, they tortured and abused the fourth in the same way.
14| And when he came near to death, he spoke thus: "It is a good thing, when dying at men's hands, to look forward to the hopes given by God, that we will be raised up again by him; but for you there will be no resurrection to life."
15| Next they brought the fifth forward and tormented him.
16| But he looked at him and said, "You have power among men, and though you are mortal, you do what you wish; but do not think that our race has been abandoned by God.
17| As for you, hold on, and watch his mighty power, how it will torment you and your offspring."
18| After him they brought the sixth, and as he was about to die he said, "Do not deceive yourself for nothing; for we suffer these things on our own account, having sinned against our own God; things worthy of astonishment have come to pass.
19| But you—do not suppose you will go unpunished, having undertaken to fight against God."
20| The mother was exceedingly admirable and worthy of good memory, who, watching seven sons perish within a single day, bore it with good courage because of her hopes set on the Lord.
21| She encouraged each of them in the ancestral tongue, filled with a noble spirit, and stirring her womanly reasoning with manly courage, she said to them:
22| "I do not know how you came to be in my womb; it was not I who gave you spirit and life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of each of you.
23| Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the origin of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give back to you again spirit and life, since you now regard yourselves as nothing for the sake of his laws."
24| Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and suspecting the tone of reproach, while the youngest was still alive, appealed to him not merely in speech, but backed his promises with oaths, vowing to make him wealthy and enviable if he abandoned the ways of his ancestors, and pledging that he would treat him as a friend and put public affairs in his hands.
25| But when the young man paid no attention at all, the king summoned the mother and urged her to become an adviser to the boy for his own safety.
26| After he had urged her at length, she agreed to persuade her son.
27| But bending over him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she spoke thus in the ancestral tongue: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you nine months in the womb, and nursed you for three years, and reared you and brought you up to this age, and provided for you.
28| I beg you, child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see all that is in them, and know that God did not make them out of things that existed, and that the human race comes to be in the same way.
29| Do not fear this executioner, but show yourself worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you back again together with your brothers."
30| While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the command of the king; I obey the command of the law given to our fathers through Moses.
31| But you, who have become the inventor of every evil against the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God.
32| For we are suffering because of our own sins;
33| and if our living Lord has been angered for a little while, for the sake of rebuke and discipline, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.
34| But you, unholy man, most vile of all men, do not be lifted up in vain, puffed up with uncertain hopes, as you raise your hand against the children of heaven;
35| for you have not yet escaped the judgment of God the Almighty who watches over all.
36| For our brothers, having now endured a brief pain, have come to stand within God's pledge of unending life; but you, by God's sentence, will bear the just penalties of your arrogance.
37| As for me, like my brothers, I give up both body and life for the sake of the laws of our fathers, calling upon God to be quickly merciful to our nation, and that you, through trials and plagues, may confess that he alone is God;
38| and that in me and in my brothers the wrath of the Almighty, which has justly been brought upon our whole race, may come to a stop."
39| The king, enraged, dealt with this one more cruelly than with the others, taking it bitterly that he had been mocked.
40| And so this one also passed on undefiled, putting his whole trust in the Lord.
41| Last of all the sons, the mother died.
42| Let this account of the sacrificial tortures and the excessive cruelties suffice as far as it has gone.
1| Judas, called Maccabeus, and his companions made their way secretly into the villages and called together their kinsmen, and taking in with them those who had remained faithful in Judaism, they gathered about six thousand.
2| And they called upon the Lord to look upon the people who were being trampled by all, and to have pity on the temple that had been profaned by ungodly men,
3| and to have mercy on the city that was being destroyed and was about to be leveled to the ground, and to listen to the blood crying out to him,
4| and to remember also the lawless slaughter of the innocent children, and the slanders hurled at his name, and to hate wickedness.
5| When Maccabeus had gathered his force, he at once became unbearable to the nations, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy.
6| Coming unexpectedly upon cities and villages, he set them ablaze; and seizing the strategic positions, he routed no small number of the enemy,
7| choosing the nights above all as allies for such undertakings, and the report of his valor spread everywhere.
8| Now Philip, seeing the man advancing little by little, and gaining ground more and more with his successes, wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king's affairs.
9| And he quickly appointed Nicanor, son of Patroclus, one of the king's chief friends, and sent him out, putting under his command mixed nations numbering no fewer than twenty thousand, to wipe out the whole race of Judea; and they associated with him also Gorgias, a general and a man experienced in military matters.
10| And Nicanor undertook to raise for the king the tribute owed to the Romans, two thousand talents, out of the sale of the Jewish captives.
11| At once he sent to the coastal cities inviting men to come and buy Jewish slaves, promising to hand over ninety bodies for a talent, not reckoning the judgment that was soon to follow him from the Almighty.
12| Word came to Judas concerning Nicanor's approach; and when he told those with him of the arrival of the army,
13| the cowardly and those who did not trust in the justice of God fled and removed themselves elsewhere;
14| but the others sold all that remained to them, and at the same time begged the Lord to rescue those who had been sold by the impious Nicanor before they were even brought together,
15| and if not for their own sake, then for the sake of the covenants made with their fathers, and because his name, majestic and glorious, had been called upon them.
16| So Maccabeus, gathering those with him, six thousand in number, urged them not to be shaken by the foe or dread the vast horde of nations wrongfully advancing against them, but to fight nobly,
17| keeping before their eyes the lawless outrage the enemy had committed against the holy place, and the mistreatment of the humiliated city, and further, the overthrow of their ancestral way of life.
18| "For they trust in weapons and in acts of daring," he said, "but we trust in the Almighty God, who is able with a single nod to strike down both those coming against us and the whole world."
19| And he recounted to them also the deliverances that had come to their forefathers, both the one in the days of Sennacherib, when a hundred eighty-five thousand perished,
20| and the battle that took place in Babylonia against the Galatians, how in all only eight thousand went into the action, together with four thousand Macedonians, and when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the six thousand destroyed the hundred twenty thousand because of the help that came to them from heaven, and took great spoil besides.
21| With these words he made them courageous and willing to die on behalf of the laws and their homeland, and he divided the army into four divisions,
22| appointing his own brothers to lead each division — Simon and Joseph and Jonathan — putting under each of them fifteen hundred men,
23| and Eleazar besides; and after reading aloud from the sacred book, and giving as a watchword "The help of God," he himself led the first company and joined battle with Nicanor.
24| And since the Almighty was their ally, they cut down more than nine thousand of the enemy, and wounded and maimed the greater part of Nicanor's army, and forced them all to flee.
25| They took also the money of those who had come to buy them as slaves. And having pursued them a good distance, they turned back, being pressed for time,
26| since it was the day preceding the Sabbath, and for this reason they pressed the pursuit no further.
27| And when they had gathered up the weapons and stripped the enemy of their spoils, they kept the Sabbath, blessing and giving thanks abundantly to the Lord, who had preserved them to this day, having appointed it as the beginning of mercy for them.
28| After the Sabbath they gave a share of the spoils to those who had been mistreated, and to the widows and orphans, and divided the rest among themselves and their children.
29| When they had done these things and made a common supplication, they begged the merciful Lord to be fully reconciled with his servants.
30| And having engaged the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, they killed more than twenty thousand of them, and gained mastery over high strongholds with great ease, and divided a very large amount of spoil, giving equal shares to those who had been mistreated, and to the orphans and widows, and also to the elderly.
31| And having gathered up the weapons, they carefully stored them all in the strategic places, and carried the rest of the spoils to Jerusalem.
32| They also killed the commander of Timothy's forces, a most unholy man who had caused the Jews much suffering.
33| And while celebrating the victory in their homeland, they burned those who had set fire to the sacred gates, together with Callisthenes, who had fled into a small house; and so he received the wages his impiety deserved.
34| But the thrice-wretched Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews,
35| being humbled by the help of the Lord through those he had reckoned the least of all, laid aside his splendid robe, and making his way alone through the interior like a runaway slave, came to Antioch, having succeeded, beyond all else, only in the destruction of his army.
36| And he who had promised the Romans to make good the tribute from the captivity of the people of Jerusalem now proclaimed that the Jews had a champion, and that for this reason the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws he had laid down for them.
1| About that time it happened that Antiochus had retreated in disgrace from the regions around Persia.
2| For he had made his way into the town known as Persepolis, hoping to strip its temple of valuables and keep the town under his thumb; but once the inhabitants rose against him, taking up weapons in their own defense, Antiochus ended up beaten back by the locals and had to retreat in disgrace.
3| While he was near Ecbatana, word reached him of what had happened to Nicanor and to Timothy's forces.
4| Lifted up with rage, he thought to make the men who had put him to flight pay for the wrong done to him by venting it on the Jews; so he ordered his charioteer to drive without ceasing and finish the journey, the judgment of heaven now pressing hard upon him; for he had spoken so arrogantly, saying, 'I will make Jerusalem a graveyard of Jews when I arrive there.'
5| But the Lord who sees all things, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and invisible blow; for scarcely had he finished speaking these words when an incurable pain of the bowels seized him, and bitter torments of the inward parts,
6| quite justly, since he had tormented the bowels of others with many strange and cruel sufferings.
7| Yet he did not let up on his insolence in the least, but grew only more swollen with arrogance, seething with fury at the Jewish people and ordering the pace of the journey to be pushed still faster; and as it happened, he tumbled from his speeding chariot, and in that violent fall every joint in his body was wrenched out of place.
8| He who a little before, in his more-than-human arrogance, had thought himself able to command the waves of the sea, and imagined he could weigh the peaks of mountains on a scale, was now brought low to the ground and carried along in a litter, showing to all the manifest power of God,
9| so that worms swarmed up out of the body of the impious man, and while he yet lived, in pain and agony, his flesh fell away in decay, and the whole army was oppressed by the stench of his corruption.
10| And the man who a little before had seemed to touch the stars of heaven, no one could bear to carry, because of the unbearable weight of the stench.
11| At this point, then, broken as he was, he began to abandon the greater part of his arrogance and to come to a recognition of the truth under the divine scourge, as his pains increased moment by moment.
12| And when he could no longer even bear his own stench, he said this: 'It is right to submit to God, and for a mortal not to think proud thoughts as though he were God.'
13| And the vile man kept praying to the Lord who would no longer show him mercy, speaking thus:
14| that the holy city, which he had been hurrying to level to the ground and make into a graveyard, he would now declare free;
15| and the Jews, whom he had determined not even to grant burial, but to throw out to be devoured by birds of prey along with their infants, together with the wild beasts, he would now make all equal to citizens of Athens;
16| and the holy temple, which he had formerly plundered, he would adorn with the finest offerings, and would restore all the sacred vessels many times over, and would provide from his own revenues the expenses required for the sacrifices;
17| and beyond this, he would even become a Jew himself, and would visit every inhabited place proclaiming the power of God.
18| But since his sufferings did not cease at all — for the just judgment of God had come upon him — having lost all hope for himself, he wrote to the Jews the letter written below, containing the form of a supplication, to this effect:
19| 'To the worthy Jews, his fellow citizens, King Antiochus and general sends hearty greetings and good health and prosperity.',
20| 'If you and your children are well, and your affairs are as you would wish, I give great thanks. As for me, I have my hope set on heaven,',
21| 'I have remembered your honor and goodwill with affection. On my way back from the regions of Persia, I fell into a troublesome illness, and I have thought it necessary to take thought for the common safety of you all;',
22| 'not that I have despaired of my own condition, but because I have great hope of escaping this illness.',
23| 'Now I observe that my father also, at the time when he campaigned in the upper regions, designated his successor,',
24| 'so that, should anything unexpected happen or any difficulty arise, those in the country, knowing to whom affairs had been left, would not be thrown into confusion;',
25| 'and besides this, taking note that the neighboring rulers and those bordering the kingdom watch the times closely and wait to see what will happen, I have designated my son Antiochus as king, whom I have often entrusted and commended to most of you when I hurried up to the upper satrapies; and I have written to him what is set out below.',
26| 'I urge you, then, and ask you, remembering the benefits done to you both publicly and privately, that each of you preserve your present goodwill toward me and toward my son;',
27| 'for I am persuaded that he, following my own policy with gentleness and humanity, will deal fairly with you.'
28| So the murderer and blasphemer, having suffered the worst torments, just as he had inflicted on others, died in a foreign land in the mountains by a most pitiable death.
29| His body was conveyed by Philip, his foster-brother; who, fearing the son of Antiochus, withdrew to Ptolemy Philometor in Egypt.
1| Now Maccabeus and those with him, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city.
2| The altars that the foreigners had built in the marketplace, and the sacred precincts as well, they tore down.
3| And having purified the sanctuary, they made another altar; and striking fire from flints, they took fire from these and offered sacrifices after an interval of two years, and incense, and lamps, and they set out the loaves of the presence.
4| When they had done these things, they fell upon their faces and begged the Lord that they might no longer fall into such evils, but that if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with clemency, and not handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.
5| Now on the very day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, it happened that the purification of the temple came about on that same day, the twenty-fifth of the same month, which is Chislev.
6| And they kept eight days with rejoicing in the manner of the feast of booths, remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths, they had been living in the mountains and in caves like wild animals.
7| Therefore, carrying wands wreathed with leaves and beautiful branches, and palm fronds too, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had brought success in purifying his own place.
8| And they decreed by a common ordinance and vote, for the whole nation of the Jews, to keep these days every year.
9| Such, then, was the manner of the death of Antiochus who was called Epiphanes.
10| Now we shall set forth what concerns Antiochus surnamed Eupator, who was the son of that impious man, condensing the evils that attended his reign.
11| For this man, on taking over the kingdom, appointed a certain Lysias to have charge of affairs, as chief governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia.
12| For Ptolemy, called Macron, taking the lead in maintaining justice toward the Jews because of the wrong that had been done to them, tried to conduct affairs with them peaceably.
13| Whereupon, being accused before Eupator by his friends, and hearing himself called a traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus, which had been entrusted to him by Philometor, and had withdrawn to Antiochus Epiphanes, and having brought no honor to his noble office, he poisoned himself and departed from life.
14| Gorgias, having become military governor of the region, kept hiring foreign troops, and at every opportunity kept the war going against the Jews through his own men.
15| Along with him, the Idumeans too, being in control of well-placed strongholds, harassed the Jews, and taking in those who had fled from Jerusalem, they attempted to keep the war alive.
16| Now the men with Maccabeus, having made supplication and having implored God to become their ally, rushed upon the strongholds of the Idumeans.
17| Attacking them vigorously, they gained control of the places, and beat back all who fought upon the wall, and cut down those who fell into their hands, killing no fewer than twenty thousand.
18| When no fewer than nine thousand had fled together into two very strong towers, having everything needed for a siege,
19| Maccabeus, leaving Simon and Joseph, and also Zacchaeus and those with him in sufficient number for the siege of these men, himself went off to more urgent places.
20| But those with Simon, being fond of money, were persuaded with silver by some of the men in the towers; and having received seventy thousand drachmas, they let a number of them slip away.
21| When the matter was reported to Maccabeus, he gathered the leaders of the people and accused these men of having sold their brothers for silver by releasing the enemy against them.
22| These men, then, having become traitors, he put to death, and immediately he took the two towers.
23| Succeeding in everything he undertook by arms, he destroyed in the two strongholds more than twenty thousand.
24| Now Timotheus, who had earlier been defeated by the Jews, gathered together a vast multitude of foreign forces and assembled no small number of horses brought from Asia, and came intending to seize Judea by force of arms.
25| But the men with Maccabeus, as he drew near, scattered dust over their heads and wrapped their waists in sackcloth, pleading before God,
26| and falling before the base opposite the altar, begged that he would become gracious to them, be an enemy to their enemies, and stand against their adversaries, just as the law makes clear.
27| Having finished their prayer, they took up their arms and advanced further from the city; and drawing near to the enemy, they held themselves apart.
28| Just as the dawn was spreading its light, both sides joined battle: the one side having, as a pledge of success and victory together with valor, their refuge in the Lord, the other taking rage as the leader of their struggle.
29| While the battle was raging fiercely, there appeared to the adversaries from heaven five splendid men on horses with golden bridles, and they led the way for the Jews, two of them
30| taking Maccabeus between them, and shielding him with their own armor, kept him unwounded, while they hurled arrows and thunderbolts against the enemy; so that, thrown into confusion by blindness, they were cut to pieces, filled with panic.
31| There fell twenty thousand five hundred, and six hundred horsemen.
32| Timotheus himself fled for refuge into a stronghold called Gazara, a very well-fortified fortress, with Chaereas commanding there.
33| The men with Maccabeus eagerly laid siege to the fortress for forty days.
34| But those inside, trusting in the strength of the place, kept blaspheming excessively and hurling out unlawful words.
35| As the twenty-fifth day was dawning, young men of Maccabeus's company, inflamed with rage over the blasphemies, attacked the wall, and with manly and beast-like fury cut down whoever fell in their way.
36| Others likewise climbed up in the same assault against those inside, set the towers on fire, and kindling flames, burned the blasphemers alive; while others broke down the gates, and letting in the rest of the troops, seized the city beforehand,
37| and they slaughtered Timotheus, who had hidden himself in a certain cistern, and his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.
38| Having accomplished these things, with hymns and thanksgiving they blessed the Lord who greatly benefits Israel and gives them the victory.
1| Not long after this — a very short time indeed — Lysias, the king's guardian and kinsman, who was in charge of affairs, took what had happened very hard,
2| and gathering about eighty thousand men and all his cavalry, he came against the Jews, intending to turn the city into a settlement for Greeks,
3| to make the temple a source of tribute money, like the sacred precincts of the other nations, and to put the high priesthood up for sale every year,
4| giving no thought whatever to God's might, but swollen with pride over his tens of thousands of infantry, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.
5| Entering Judea, he drew near Bethsura, a fortified place about five schoinoi from Jerusalem, and pressed it hard.
6| When Maccabeus and his men learned that he was besieging the strongholds, they begged the Lord with wailing and tears, together with the crowds, to send a good angel to save Israel.
7| Maccabeus himself took up arms first and urged the others to risk themselves alongside him and go to the aid of their brothers; and together they set out eagerly.
8| While they were still there near Jerusalem, a horseman appeared leading them, dressed in white, brandishing weapons of gold.
9| Then all together they blessed the merciful God, and their spirits were so strengthened that they stood ready to wound not only men but the fiercest beasts, and even walls of iron.
10| They advanced in battle order, having as their ally the one from heaven, since the Lord had shown them mercy.
11| Falling upon the enemy like lions, they struck down eleven thousand of their infantry and sixteen hundred of their cavalry, and forced all the rest to flee.
12| Most of them escaped stripped and wounded; and Lysias himself escaped only by a shameful flight.
13| But he was not without sense; weighing within himself the defeat he had suffered, and realizing that the Hebrews were unconquerable because the mighty God fought on their side, he sent word
14| and persuaded them to come to terms on every just condition, promising also that he would persuade the king, compelling him to become their friend.
15| Maccabeus agreed to everything Lysias asked, having regard for what was advantageous; for whatever Maccabeus submitted to Lysias in writing concerning the Jews, the king granted.
16| For the letters written to the Jews on Lysias's part read as follows: Lysias, to the people of the Jews, greetings.
17| John and Abessalom, sent by you, having delivered the signed memorandum, asked about the matters set out in it.
18| Whatever needed to be brought before the king, I made clear; and what could be granted, he granted.
19| If then you maintain your goodwill toward our affairs, I will try in what remains to be a cause of good things for you.
20| Concerning these matters I have instructed these men, and those sent from me, to discuss them with you in detail.
21| Farewell. In the year one hundred and forty-eight, on the twenty-fourth of Dios Corinthios.
22| The king's letter read as follows: King Antiochus, to his brother Lysias, greetings.
23| Since our father has passed to the gods, wishing that those within the kingdom be free from disturbance so they may attend to their own affairs,
24| and having heard that the Jews did not agree to our father's policy of converting them to Greek customs, but preferred to keep their own way of life and asked that their own laws be permitted them,
25| choosing therefore that this nation too should be free from disturbance, we decide that their temple be restored to them, and that they may go on living by the practices handed down from their forebears.
26| You will do well, then, to send to them and give them pledges of friendship, so that, knowing our intention, they may be of good cheer and go about their own affairs with contentment.
27| To the nation, the king's letter was as follows: King Antiochus, to the council of elders of the Jews and to the other Jews, greetings.
28| Farewell. May it be as we wish; we ourselves are in good health.
29| Menelaus has informed us that you wish to go down and return to your own affairs.
30| To those, then, who go down by the thirtieth of Xanthicus there will be a pledge of safety and immunity,
31| so that the Jews may make use of their own food and laws just as before; and none of them shall be troubled in any way for offenses committed in ignorance.
32| I have also sent Menelaus to encourage you.
33| Farewell. In the year one hundred and forty-eight, on the fifteenth of Xanthicus.
34| The Romans also sent them a letter to the same effect: Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, envoys of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings.
35| Whatever Lysias the king's kinsman has granted you, we too approve.
36| But as for the matters he decided should be referred to the king, send someone at once to look into them, so that we may put forward what is fitting for you; for we are on our way to Antioch.
37| Therefore hurry, and send some men, so that we too may learn what your judgment is.
38| Farewell. In the year one hundred and forty-eight, on the fifteenth of Xanthicus.
1| When these agreements had been made, Lysias departed to the king, and the Jews returned to their farming.
2| But the local commanders — Timothy and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, and also Hieronymus and Demophon, and besides these Nicanor the governor of Cyprus — would not let them live in peace and quiet.
3| The people of Joppa committed an act of such impiety: they invited the Jews living among them to embark, with their wives and children, on boats they themselves had provided, as though no hostility existed toward them,
4| and when this had been agreed by public vote of the city, and the Jews had accepted it, wishing to live in peace and suspecting nothing, they took them out and drowned them, no fewer than two hundred souls.
5| When Judas learned of this cruelty done to his countrymen, he gave orders to the men under his command,
6| and invoking God who judges rightly, he moved against those who had murdered his kinsmen; he set fire to the harbor by night and burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there.
7| Since the town was shut against him, he withdrew, intending to come back again and root out the whole population of Joppa.
8| Learning also that the people of Jamnia meant to deal in the same way with the Jews living among them,
9| he fell upon the people of Jamnia by night and set fire to the harbor together with the fleet, so that the glow of the flames was seen as far as Jerusalem, two hundred and forty stadia away.
10| From there, when they had marched nine stadia on their way against Timothy, Arabs fell upon him, no fewer than five thousand foot and five hundred horse.
11| A fierce battle followed, and when Judas's men prevailed with God's help, the defeated nomads begged Judas to give them his right hand in pledge, promising to give him cattle and to help him in every other way.
12| Judas, judging that they truly could be useful in many things, agreed to make peace with them; and having received the pledge of their right hands, they departed to their tents.
13| He also attacked a certain city called Caspin, a fortified place, walled about and inhabited by a mixed population of every nation.
14| Those within, trusting in the strength of their walls and their store of provisions, behaved with great insolence toward Judas's men, hurling insults and adding blasphemies and words that were not to be spoken.
15| But Judas's men, calling upon the great Sovereign of the world, who without battering-rams or engines of war had cast down Jericho in the days of Joshua, hurled themselves at the wall like wild beasts,
16| and taking the city by the will of God, they made countless slaughter, so much so that the neighboring lake, two stadia wide, appeared full and overflowing with the blood that poured into it.
17| From there, when they had gone a distance of seven hundred and fifty stadia, they arrived at the stronghold, among the Jews called the Tubians.
18| They did not find Timothy in that region, for he had by then left the place without accomplishing anything, though he had left behind a garrison in one spot, and a very strong one.
19| Dositheus and Sosipater, officers under Maccabeus, went out and destroyed those whom Timothy had left behind in the stronghold, more than ten thousand men.
20| Maccabeus organized his army into companies and set them over the divisions, and marched against Timothy, who had with him a hundred and twenty thousand foot and two thousand seven hundred horse.
21| When Timothy learned of Judas's approach, he sent ahead the women, the children, and the rest of the baggage to the place called Carnion, for the site was hard to besiege and hard to approach, being narrow on every side.
22| But when Judas's company appeared first, and terror fell upon the enemy through the manifestation of him who sees all things, they broke and fled in every direction, so that many were struck down by their own comrades and run through by the points of their own swords.
23| Judas pressed the pursuit all the harder, cutting down the wicked, and destroyed as many as thirty thousand men.
24| Timothy himself was captured by Dositheus and Sosipater, and with much cunning begged to be let go alive, since he was holding the parents of many, and the brothers of others, who would otherwise be disregarded and killed.
25| When he had given firm assurance with many pledges to restore these unharmed, they released him, for the sake of saving their brothers.
26| Then Judas marched out against Carnion and the temple of Atargatis, and slaughtered twenty-five thousand people.
27| After this rout and destruction, he marched also against Ephron, a fortified city where a mixed multitude dwelt; sturdy young men stood before the walls and fought back vigorously, and there were great stores of engines and missiles within.
28| But calling upon the Sovereign who with his might shatters the strength of the enemy, they took the city into their hands, and struck down twenty-five thousand of those within.
29| Setting out from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis, six hundred stadia from Jerusalem.
30| But when the Jews settled there bore witness to the goodwill the people of Scythopolis had shown them, and how kindly they had treated them in times of misfortune,
31| they gave thanks and urged them further to remain well-disposed toward their people in the future, and they came to Jerusalem, since the feast of Weeks was close at hand.
32| After the festival called Pentecost, they marched against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea.
33| He came out with three thousand foot and four hundred horse,
34| and when battle was joined, it happened that a few of the Jews fell.
35| A certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor's men, a horseman and a man of strength, seized Gorgias and, catching hold of his cloak, was dragging him off by force, wishing to take the accursed man alive, when one of the Thracian horsemen bore down on him and cut off his shoulder, so that Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
36| When Esdris's men had been fighting for a long time and were worn out, Judas called upon the Lord to appear as their ally and to go before them in the battle,
37| and raising the battle cry in the tongue of their fathers, together with hymns, he fell upon Gorgias's men unexpectedly and put them to rout.
38| Judas then took his army and came to the city of Adullam; and as the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves there according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
39| On the following day, since the need had now arisen, Judas's men came to bring back the bodies of those who had fallen, to restore them to their kinsmen in the tombs of their fathers.
40| They found under the tunics of each of the dead sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear; and it became clear to everyone that this was the reason these men had fallen.
41| So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who brings hidden things to light,
42| and turned to prayer, asking that the sin committed be wholly blotted out. And that noble man Judas urged the people to remain free of sin, having seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
43| He then took up a collection, man by man, amounting to two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sin offering made, acting in this very finely and nobly, with the resurrection in mind.
44| For if he had not expected that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.
45| But if he was looking to the splendid reward laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. That is why he made atonement for the dead, that they might be released from their sin.
1| In the hundred and forty-ninth year, word reached Judas and his men that Antiochus Eupator was coming against Judea with a great host,
2| and with him Lysias his guardian, who had charge of affairs, each commanding a Greek force of a hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred scythe-bearing chariots.
3| Menelaus also joined them, and with great duplicity kept urging Antiochus on, not for the safety of his country, but supposing that he himself would be established in office.
4| But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against this wretch, and when Lysias pointed out that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, the king ordered him taken to Beroea and put to death there, as is the custom in that place.
5| Now there is in that place a tower fifty cubits high, full of ashes, fitted with a wheel-like device that slopes down on every side sheer into the ash.
6| There anyone guilty of sacrilege, or notorious for other grave crimes, is thrust by all into destruction.
7| By such a death it befell the lawbreaker Menelaus to die, not even obtaining burial in the earth;
8| and quite justly. For since he had committed many sins against the sacred hearth, holy in both flame and cinder, he met his death amid ashes.
9| The king, his mind now hardened, came on, intending to show the Jews things worse than what had happened in his father's time.
10| When Judas learned of this, he ordered the people to call upon the Lord day and night, that now, as at other times, he would come to their aid,
11| for they were about to be robbed of their law, their country, and the holy temple, and he begged that the people, who had only just begun to breathe again, not be handed over to blasphemous nations.
12| After the whole assembly had carried this out, and had implored the compassionate Lord through tears, fasting, and prostration for three unbroken days, Judas exhorted them and ordered them to be ready.
13| Meeting privately with the elders, he resolved that, before the king's army invaded Judea and seized the city, they should march out and decide the matter with God's help.
14| Committing the outcome to the Lord of the world, and exhorting those with him to fight nobly even unto death on behalf of the laws, the sanctuary, the city, their country, and their way of life, he encamped his forces near Modein.
15| Giving to his men the watchword 'God's Victory,' with a picked band of the finest young men he fell by night upon the royal pavilion, killed as many as two thousand men in the camp, and struck down the lead elephant together with the man in its howdah.
16| In the end they filled the camp with terror and confusion, and withdrew in triumph.
17| This happened just as day was breaking, thanks to the protection of the Lord who came to his aid.
18| Having now had a taste of the Jews' daring, the king tried the positions by stratagem,
19| and advanced against Beth-zur, a small Jewish fortress; he was driven back, he attacked again, he was defeated, he suffered loss.
20| Judas sent in to those inside what they needed.
21| But Rhodocus, one of the Jewish ranks, disclosed their secrets to the enemy; he was sought out, caught, and imprisoned.
22| The king held another parley with the men in Beth-zur, gave his right hand, received theirs, and departed;
23| he attacked the forces of Judas, and was worsted; then he learned that Philip, who had been left in charge of affairs at Antioch, had rebelled; he was thrown into confusion, appealed to the Jews, submitted, and swore to all just terms; he came to an agreement and offered sacrifice, honored the temple and the holy place, and dealt generously with the people,
24| and welcomed the Maccabee, and left Hegemonides as governor from Ptolemais to the region of the Gerrenians,
25| and went to Ptolemais. The people of Ptolemais were displeased with the terms, for they were exceedingly indignant, and wished to annul the agreements.
26| Lysias came forward to the platform, defended the terms as well as he could, persuaded and calmed them, won them over, and returned to Antioch. Thus went the king's expedition and withdrawal.
1| After a period of three years, word reached Judas and his men that Demetrius son of Seleucus had sailed into the harbor at Tripolis with a strong force and a fleet,
2| and had taken control of the country, having done away with Antiochus and his guardian Lysias.
3| Now a certain Alcimus, who had formerly been high priest but had willingly defiled himself in the time of the mingling with the gentiles, realized that there was no safety for him by any means, nor any longer access to the holy altar,
4| and came to King Demetrius in about the year one hundred and fifty-one, bringing him a golden crown and a palm branch, and besides these the customary olive-branches from the temple; and that day he kept quiet.
5| But finding an opportunity that served his own folly, when he was summoned before the council by Demetrius and asked in what disposition and policy the Jews stood, he answered as follows.
6| Those of the Jews called the Hasideans, whom Judas Maccabeus leads, keep war alive and stir up rebellion, not allowing the kingdom to attain stability.
7| For this reason, having been stripped of my ancestral honor — I mean the high priesthood — I have now come here a second time,
8| first, being genuinely mindful of the interests of the king, and second, having regard also for my own fellow citizens; for through the folly of the aforementioned men our whole nation suffers no small misfortune.
9| Now that you, O king, have learned each of these matters, take thought both for the country and for our beleaguered nation, in keeping with the ready kindness you show to all.
10| For as long as Judas survives, it is impossible for affairs to attain peace.
11| When such things had been said by this man, the rest of the king's friends, already ill-disposed toward Judas, quickly inflamed Demetrius further.
12| At once he put Nicanor forward, the one who had commanded the elephant corps, and having appointed him general over Judea, sent him out,
13| giving him written orders to do away with Judas himself, to scatter those who were with him, and to establish Alcimus as high priest of the greatest temple.
14| And the gentiles who had fled Judea before Judas joined themselves to Nicanor in droves, thinking that the misfortunes and calamities of the Jews would mean their own good fortune.
15| But when they heard of Nicanor's approach and the assault of the gentiles, they sprinkled earth upon themselves and made supplication to him who established his own people forever, and who always comes to the aid of his own portion with a manifest sign.
16| At the command of their leader, they set out at once from that place and joined battle with them near the village of Lessau.
17| Simon, the brother of Judas, had already engaged Nicanor, but had suffered a setback, being for the moment thrown into confusion by the sudden appearance of the enemy.
18| Nevertheless Nicanor, hearing of the valor that Judas and his men possessed and the courage they showed in the struggles for their homeland, was reluctant to bring the matter to a decision by bloodshed.
19| For this reason he sent Posidonius, Theodotus, and Mattathias to exchange pledges of good faith.
20| After lengthy deliberation over these matters, and the leader having communicated them to the multitude, and a unanimous vote of approval having appeared, they agreed to the terms.
21| They set a day on which they would meet privately at the same place; and from each side a chair came forward, and they set out the chairs.
22| Judas stationed armed men ready at strategic points, lest some treachery should suddenly arise from the enemy; they conducted the conference as was fitting.
23| Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem and did nothing improper, and he dismissed the crowds of people who had gathered.
24| He kept Judas always before him; he had grown attached to the man in his heart.
25| He urged him to marry and have children; Judas married, settled down, and shared in the common life.
26| But Alcimus, observing the goodwill between them and having obtained a copy of the agreements made, came to Demetrius and said that Nicanor held views hostile to the state's interests; for he had appointed Judas, the plotter against his kingdom, as his own successor.
27| The king, becoming enraged and provoked by the slanders of this utterly wicked man, wrote to Nicanor saying that he took the terms of the agreement badly, and commanding him to send the Maccabeus in chains to Antioch without delay.
28| When this news reached Nicanor, he was thrown into confusion and bore it with difficulty, that he should set aside what had been agreed when the man had done nothing wrong.
29| But since it was not possible to oppose the king, he watched for a suitable occasion to carry out the order by some stratagem.
30| The Maccabeus, however, noticing that Nicanor was dealing with him more harshly, and that he had grown more uncivil in the customary manner of his greetings, understood that this harshness did not come from good intentions, and so, gathering together not a few of his men, he went into hiding from Nicanor.
31| When the other man realized that he had been outmaneuvered nobly by Judas, he went to the great and holy temple, while the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to hand the man over.
32| When they declared under oath that they did not know where the man being sought was,
33| he reached out with his right arm toward the sanctuary and swore this oath: If you do not hand Judas over to me in chains right now, I will flatten this house of God down to the ground, tear down the altar, and put up here in its place a splendid temple to Dionysus.
34| Having said this, he departed; but the priests, stretching out their hands toward heaven, called upon him who is forever the champion of our nation, saying these words,
35| You, Lord, who stand in need of nothing among all things, were pleased that a house of your dwelling should exist among us.
36| And now, holy Lord above all holiness, guard this house, so recently made pure, from ever being defiled again.
37| Now a certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor — a man who loved his fellow citizens and was very well spoken of, and who because of his goodwill was called a father of the Jews.
38| For in the earlier times of the mingling with the gentiles he had been brought before the court on a charge of Judaism, and had risked body and soul for the sake of Judaism with all earnestness.
39| Wishing to make plain the hostility he bore toward the Jews, Nicanor sent more than five hundred soldiers to seize him.
40| For he thought that by seizing him he would inflict a blow upon them.
41| When the crowds of soldiers were about to seize the tower and were forcing the courtyard door, and were calling for fire to be brought and the doors to be set alight, Razis, finding himself surrounded, drove his sword into himself,
42| choosing to die nobly rather than fall into the hands of the wicked and be subjected to abuse unworthy of his noble birth.
43| But since the blow, in the haste of the struggle, did not strike true, and the crowds were now bursting in through the doorways, he ran nobly up onto the wall and threw himself down bravely among the crowds.
44| As they quickly drew back, leaving a space, he fell in the middle of the open ground.
45| Still breathing and burning with passion, he rose up, though his blood was pouring out in streams and his wounds were severe, and running through the crowds, he stood upon a steep rock,
46| and now completely drained of blood, he pulled out his entrails, took hold of them with both hands, and hurled them at the crowds; and appealing to the Lord who holds life and breath itself to give them back to him again, he passed from life in this manner.
1| Nicanor, learning that Judas and his men were in the region of Samaria, resolved to attack them with full safety on the day of rest.
2| But the Jews who were following him under compulsion said, "Do not destroy them so savagely and barbarously, but give honor to the day that has been set apart with holiness by the One who watches over all things."
3| But the thrice-cursed man asked whether there was a Sovereign in heaven who had commanded that the sabbath day be kept.
4| And when they declared, "The Lord lives, he himself is the Sovereign in heaven, who commanded the seventh day to be observed,"
5| the other said, "And I am a sovereign on earth, who commands that arms be taken up and the king's business be carried out." Nevertheless he was not able to accomplish his brutal design.
6| So Nicanor, holding his neck high with full confidence, had determined to set up a public monument over Judas and his men.
7| But the Maccabee remained unceasingly confident, with every hope of obtaining help from the Lord.
8| And he urged those with him not to fear the assault of the nations, but keeping in mind the help that had come to them from heaven in times past, to expect also now the victory that would be given them by the Almighty.
9| And encouraging them from the law and the prophets, and reminding them besides of the struggles they had already brought to completion, he made them more eager still.
10| And having stirred their spirits, he gave his orders, at the same time pointing out the faithlessness of the nations and their violation of oaths.
11| And he armed each of them, not so much with the safety of shields and spears as with the encouragement of good words, and he cheered them all beyond measure by relating a dream worthy of belief.
12| The vision was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a good and noble man, modest in bearing, gentle in manner, fitting in speech, and practiced from childhood in every point of virtue, was seen stretching out his hands and praying for the whole body of the Jews.
13| Then in the same way there appeared a man distinguished by gray hair and glory, of a marvelous and most majestic dignity.
14| And Onias answered and said, "This is the man who loves his brothers, who prays much for the people and the holy city — Jeremiah, the prophet of God."
15| And Jeremiah, stretching out his right hand, gave to Judas a golden sword, and in giving it he spoke as follows:
16| "Receive this consecrated blade, given to you by God, and with it strike down your foes."
17| Encouraged by the words of Judas, which were altogether noble and able to stir them to virtue and to make the souls of the young men brave, they resolved not merely to make camp but to engage bravely, and having grappled with the enemy with all manliness to decide the matter, since the city and the holy things and the temple were in danger.
18| For their concern over wives and children, and over brothers and kinsfolk, weighed with them less; but the greatest and first fear was for the temple that had been consecrated.
19| And for those shut up in the city it was no small agony either, being troubled about the assault in the open field.
20| And now, with everyone already awaiting the coming decision, and the enemy already drawing near and the army drawn up, and the elephants stationed at the opportune point, and the cavalry arranged on the wings,
21| the Maccabee, observing the presence of the crowds and the varied array of weapons and the fierceness of the elephants stationed at the opportune point, raised his arms toward the sky and cried out to the Lord who performs wonders, knowing that victory does not come by arms, but that he grants it to the worthy in whatever way seems best to him.
22| And calling upon him he spoke in this manner: "You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judea, and he destroyed a hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camp of Sennacherib.
23| And now, Sovereign of the heavens, send a good angel before us, for fear and trembling.
24| By the greatness of your arm let those who come with blasphemy against your holy people be struck with terror." And with these words he finished.
25| Then Nicanor's men advanced with trumpets and battle songs;
26| but Judas and his men engaged the enemy with invocation and prayers.
27| And fighting with their hands while praying to God in their hearts, they struck down no fewer than thirty-five thousand, greatly rejoicing in God's manifest care.
28| And when they had finished the business and were withdrawing joyfully, they recognized that Nicanor had fallen, still in his armor.
29| And amid shouting and uproar, they blessed the Sovereign in their ancestral tongue.
30| And he who in body and soul was in every way the foremost champion for his fellow citizens, who had kept the goodwill of his youth toward his countrymen, ordered them to cut off Nicanor's head, and his hand together with the shoulder, and carry them to Jerusalem.
31| And when he arrived there, and had called together his countrymen and placed the priests in front of the altar, he sent word for those in the citadel to come forward.
32| And displaying the head of the vile Nicanor and the hand of the blasphemer, which he had stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty and boasted over,
33| and having cut out the tongue of the impious Nicanor, he said it should be given piece by piece to the birds, and that the reward of his folly should be hung up opposite the temple.
34| And they all blessed the Lord who had appeared, saying, "Blessed is he who has kept his own place undefiled."
35| And he hung Nicanor's head from the citadel, plain for all to see and a clear sign of the Lord's help.
36| And they all decreed by a common vote never to let this day pass unmarked, but to keep the thirteenth day of the twelfth month distinguished — called Adar in the native tongue — the day before the day of Mordecai.
37| Since, then, matters concerning Nicanor turned out in this way, and from those times the city has been held by the Hebrews, I too will bring my account to a close here.
38| And if it is well and fittingly composed, that is what I myself wished; but if it is poor and mediocre, that was the best I was able to do.
39| For just as it is unpleasant to drink wine alone, or again water by itself, while wine mixed with water is pleasant and gives delight, so also the skillful arrangement of the narrative delights the ears of those who take up the account. And here shall be the end.
1| Many great things have been given to us through the Law and the Prophets and
2| the others who followed after them, for which it is right
3| to praise Israel for instruction and wisdom; and since not only
4| the readers themselves ought to become knowledgeable, but also those outside should be able —
5| those devoted to learning — to be useful both in speaking and in writing:
6| my grandfather Jesus, having devoted himself over a long span of years to studying the Law and the
7| Prophets and the other ancestral books, and having gained in these a sufficient
8| proficiency, was himself also led to write something belonging to instruction and
9| wisdom, so that those devoted to learning, becoming versed in these as well,
10| might make much greater progress through living according to the law. You are urged, then, with goodwill
11| and attention to undertake the reading, and to have forgiveness for whatever
12| we may seem, despite our diligent labor over the interpretation, to fall short in rendering some of the words;
13| for things spoken in Hebrew do not carry the same force in themselves when
14| turned into another language; and it is not merely these portions, but the Law itself
15| and the Prophecies and the rest of the books show no small difference
16| when rendered in their native tongue. Now in the thirty-eighth year, under
17| King Euergetes, having come to Egypt and spent some time there, I found no
18| small store of learning. I therefore considered it most necessary to bring
19| some diligence and effort of my own to translating this book; for much
20| wakeful care and skill I brought to bear, over that stretch of time,
21| to bring the book at last to completion and have it published, for those living abroad
22| who wished to gain learning, preparing their characters beforehand to live by the law.
1| ALL wisdom is from the Lord, and it is with him forever.
2| The sand of the seas, the drops of rain, the days of eternity — who can count them?
3| The height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, the abyss, and wisdom — who can fathom them?
4| Wisdom was created before all things, and understanding of prudence from eternity.
5|
6| To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? And who has known her subtleties?
7|
8| There is one who is wise, greatly to be feared, seated upon his throne — the Lord.
9| He is the one who brought her into being, took note of her, measured her out, and lavished her upon everything he made,
10| bestowing her on every living creature as his gift, granting her generously to those who love him.
11| The fear of the Lord is glory and boasting, and gladness and a crown of exultation.
12| The fear of the Lord will delight the heart, and will give gladness and joy and length of days.
13| For the one who fears the Lord, it will be well in the end, and on the day of his death he will find favor.
14| The beginning of wisdom is to fear God, and she was created together with the faithful in the womb.
15| Among men she has nested a foundation of eternity, and with their offspring she will be entrusted.
16| To hold wisdom in full measure is to stand in awe of the Lord, and she saturates those who hold her with her fruits.
17| She will fill their whole house with desirable things, and their storehouses with her produce.
18| The crown of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, making peace and healthful well-being flourish.
19| He took note of her and measured her, showering down knowledge and clear insight, and raising high the honor of those who cling fast to her.
20| Wisdom is rooted in standing in awe of the Lord, and her branches stretch out into length of days.
21|
22| Unjust anger cannot be justified, for the surge of his anger is his own downfall.
23| The patient man will hold out until the right moment, and afterward gladness will spring up for him.
24| Until the right moment he will hide his words, and the lips of many will tell of his understanding.
25| In the treasuries of wisdom is the parable of knowledge, but piety is an abomination to the sinner.
26| If wisdom is what you long for, keep the commandments, and the Lord will grant her to you freely.
27| For wisdom and instruction are the fear of the Lord, and his good pleasure is faithfulness and gentleness.
28| Do not disobey the fear of the Lord, and do not approach him with a divided heart.
29| Do not play the hypocrite in the mouths of men, and pay attention to your lips.
30| Do not exalt yourself, lest you fall and bring dishonor upon your soul, and the Lord uncover your hidden things, and cast you down in the midst of the assembly, because you did not approach in the fear of the Lord, and your heart was full of deceit.
1| My child, if you are coming forward to serve the Lord God, prepare your soul for testing.
2| Set your heart straight and endure, and do not be hasty in a time of calamity.
3| Cling to him and do not fall away, so that you may be increased in your latter days.
4| Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in the changes of your humiliation be patient.
5| For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable people in the furnace of humiliation.
6| Trust him, and he will take your part; make your ways straight, and hope in him.
7| You who revere the Lord, keep waiting on his compassion, and do not turn aside, or you will stumble.
8| You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail.
9| You who fear the Lord, hope for good things, and for everlasting gladness and mercy.
10| Consider the ages past, and observe: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who remained steadfast in fear of him and was forsaken? Or who called upon him and was overlooked?
11| For the Lord is compassionate and merciful, and he forgives sins and saves in a time of affliction.
12| Woe to fainthearted souls and slack hands, and to the sinner who walks two paths at once.
13| Woe to the faint heart, for it does not trust; therefore it will not be sheltered.
14| Woe to you who have lost your endurance; what will you do when the Lord comes to call you to account?
15| Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways.
16| Those who fear the Lord will seek his good pleasure, and those who love him will be filled with the law.
17| Those who revere the Lord will make their hearts ready, and before him will humble their souls.
18| Let us throw ourselves upon the Lord's mercy rather than fall under human power; for as great as he is, so great also is his compassion.
1| Listen to me, your father, children, and act accordingly, so that you may be kept safe.
2| For the Lord has given a father glory over his children, and has confirmed a mother's authority over her sons.
3| Whoever honors his father atones for his sins,
4| and whoever glorifies his mother is like one storing up treasure.
5| Whoever honors his father will find joy in his own children, and like one storing up treasure is he who glorifies his mother; and on the day of his prayer he will be heard.
6| Whoever glorifies his father will live a long life, and whoever listens to the Lord will bring rest to his mother,
7| and will serve his parents as he would serve masters.
8| In deed and in word honor your father, so that a blessing from him may come upon you;
9| for a father's blessing establishes the houses of children, but a mother's curse uproots their foundations.
10| Do not glorify yourself by dishonoring your father, for his dishonor is no glory to you;
11| for a man's glory comes from the honor of his father, and a mother in disgrace is a reproach to her children.
12| Child, support your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives;
13| and even if his mind fails, be forbearing, and do not despise him while you are in your full strength.
14| For kindness shown to a father will not be forgotten, and will be credited against your sins to build you up;
15| in the day of your affliction it will be remembered on your behalf; as fair weather melts frost, so will your sins be dissolved.
16| Whoever abandons his father is like a blasphemer, and whoever provokes his mother is accursed by the Lord.
17| Child, carry on your affairs with gentleness, and you will be loved by those who are acceptable to God.
18| The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself, and you will find favor before the Lord;
19|
20| for great is the power of the Lord, and he is glorified by the humble.
21| Do not seek out what is too difficult for you, and do not investigate what is beyond your strength.
22| Reflect on what you have been commanded, for you have no need of hidden things.
23| Do not busy yourself with matters too great for you, for more than human understanding has already been shown to you.
24| For their own presumption has led many astray, and evil suspicion has made their minds slip.
25|
26| And whoever loves danger will fall into it; a stubborn heart will fare badly in the end, a stubborn heart will be weighed down in the end.
27| A stubborn heart will be weighed down with troubles, and the sinner will add sin upon sin.
28| For the affliction of the proud there is no healing, for a plant of wickedness has taken root in him.
29| The heart of the discerning will ponder a parable, and the ear that listens is the desire of the wise.
30| Water will quench a blazing fire, and almsgiving will atone for sins.
31| Whoever repays kindness remembers it in time to come, and at the moment of his falling he will find support.
1| Child, do not deprive the poor of their living, and do not keep needy eyes waiting.
2| Do not grieve a hungry soul, and do not provoke a man in his distress.
3| Do not further trouble a heart already provoked, and do not delay a gift to one in need.
4| Do not refuse a suppliant in his affliction, and do not turn your face away from the poor.
5| Do not turn your eye away from one in need, and give no man occasion to curse you;
6| for if he curses you in the bitterness of his soul, the One who made him will listen to his plea.
7| Make yourself beloved in the assembly, and bow your head to a great man.
8| Incline your ear to the poor, and answer him peaceably in gentleness.
9| Rescue the wronged from the hand of the wrongdoer, and do not be fainthearted in giving judgment.
10| Become a father to orphans, and be like a husband to their mother; then you will be like a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than your own mother does.
11| Wisdom exalts her sons, and takes hold of those who seek her.
12| Whoever loves her loves life, and those who rise early to seek her will be filled with joy.
13| Whoever holds fast to her will inherit glory, and wherever he goes, the Lord will bless him.
14| Those who serve her minister to the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her.
15| Whoever obeys her will judge nations, and whoever gives himself to her will dwell secure.
16| If he trusts himself to her, he will inherit her, and his descendants will hold her in possession.
17| For at first she walks with him by crooked paths, bringing fear and cowardice upon him, and she puts him to the proof with her discipline, waiting until she can rely on his character, and she tries him with her ordinances;
18| then she comes back to him by a straight way and gladdens him, and reveals to him her secrets.
19| But if he goes astray, she will abandon him, and hand him over to his own downfall.
20| Watch for the right moment and guard yourself from evil, and do not be ashamed concerning your soul;
21| for there is a shame that leads to sin, and there is a shame that is glory and grace.
22| Do not show partiality against your own soul, and do not be overawed to your own downfall.
23| Do not hold back a word when it is time to speak up for safety;
24| for wisdom is made known by speech, and instruction by the word of the tongue.
25| Do not speak against the truth, and be ashamed of your own ignorance;
26| do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not force yourself against the current of a river.
27| Do not lay yourself down before a foolish man, and do not show favor to a man of power.
28| Strive for the truth even to death, and the Lord God will fight on your behalf.
29| Do not be rash with your tongue, and slack and slothful in your deeds.
30| Do not be like a lion in your household, and playing the tyrant among your servants.
31| Do not let your hand be stretched out to receive, and clenched shut when it is time to give back.
1| Do not rely on your wealth, and do not say, "I have enough."
2| Do not follow after your own soul and your own strength, walking in the desires of your heart.
3| And do not say, "Who will have power over me?" For the Lord will surely take vengeance on you.
4| Do not say, "I sinned, and what happened to me?" For the Lord is slow to anger.
5| Do not be unafraid about atonement, adding sin upon sins,
6| and do not say, "His compassion runs deep, he will wipe away my countless offenses." For both pity and fury issue from him alike, and his rage will come to rest on wrongdoers.
7| Do not delay turning back to the Lord, and do not put it off day after day; for the Lord's wrath will come out suddenly, and in the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
8| Do not rely on unjust wealth, for it will do you no good on the day of calamity.
9| Do not winnow with every wind, and do not walk on every path — this is what the sinner with two tongues does.
10| Be steadfast in your understanding, and let your word be one.
11| Be quick to listen, and give your answer with patience.
12| If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, let your hand be over your mouth.
13| Glory and dishonor come through speech, and a man's tongue is his downfall.
14| Do not be called a whisperer, and do not lie in wait with your tongue; for shame lies upon the thief, and harsh judgment upon the one with two tongues.
15| In a great matter or a small one, do not act in ignorance,
1| And do not become an enemy in place of a friend; for a wicked name inherits shame and reproach: so it is with the sinner of the double tongue.
2| Do not exalt yourself in the counsel of your own soul, lest your soul be torn apart like a bull.
3| You will devour your own leaves and destroy your own fruits, and you will leave yourself like a dried-up tree.
4| A wicked soul will destroy the one who owns it, and will make him the laughingstock of his enemies.
5| A sweet throat multiplies its friends, and a well-speaking tongue multiplies kind greetings.
6| Let those who are at peace with you be many, but your counselors be one in a thousand.
7| If you would gain a friend, gain him through testing, and do not trust him too quickly.
8| For there is a friend who is a friend only for his own season, and he will not remain with you in the day of your affliction.
9| And there is a friend who turns into an enemy, and he will uncover a quarrel to your disgrace.
10| And there is a friend who is a companion at table, and he will not remain with you in the day of your affliction.
11| In your good times he will be as you are, and he will speak boldly against your servants.
12| But if you are brought low, he will turn against you, and will hide himself from your face.
13| Separate yourself from your enemies, and be on guard concerning your friends.
14| A faithful friend is a strong shelter; and whoever has found one has found a treasure.
15| There is no price for a faithful friend, and there is no weight to measure his worth.
16| A faithful friend is a medicine of life, and those who fear the Lord will find him.
17| The one who fears the Lord keeps his friendship on a straight course, for as he himself is, so too is his neighbor.
18| Child, from your youth choose instruction, and until your grey hairs you will find wisdom.
19| Approach her like one who plows and one who sows, and wait for her good fruits; for in working her you will labor only a little, and soon you will eat of her produce.
20| How very harsh she is to the undisciplined, and the senseless man will not remain steady in her.
21| She will lie upon him like a heavy testing-stone, and he will not delay to throw her off.
22| For wisdom is true to her name, and she is not plain to see for many.
23| Hear, child, and accept my judgment, and do not refuse my counsel.
24| Put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar.
25| Put your shoulder under her and carry her, and do not be irritated by her bonds.
26| Come to her with your whole soul, and keep her ways with all your strength.
27| Track her out and seek her, and she will be made known to you; and once you have taken hold of her, do not let her go.
28| For at the last you will find her rest, and she will turn for you into gladness.
29| And her fetters will become for you a shelter of strength, and her chains a robe of glory.
30| For she wears a golden adornment, and her restraints are woven of purple cord.
31| You will put her on as a robe of glory, and set upon yourself a crown of rejoicing.
32| If you are willing, child, you will be instructed, and if you give your soul to it, you will become shrewd.
33| If you love to listen, you will receive understanding, and if you incline your ear, you will become wise.
34| Stand in the assembly of the elders; and whoever is wise, cling to him.
35| Be willing to hear every discourse of God, and do not let sayings of understanding escape you.
36| If you see a man of understanding, rise early to visit him, and let your foot wear down the steps of his doors.
37| Ponder on the commandments of the Lord, and meditate at all times on his precepts; he himself will steady your heart, and the desire of wisdom will be given to you.
1| Do no evil, and evil will never overtake you.
2| Stay away from wrongdoing, and it will turn away from you.
3| Son, do not sow in the furrows of injustice, or you will reap it sevenfold.
4| Do not seek leadership from the Lord, nor a seat of honor from a king.
5| Do not justify yourself before the Lord, and do not play the wise man before a king.
6| Do not seek to become a judge, unless you have the strength to root out injustice — lest you cower before a powerful man and put a stumbling block in the way of your own integrity.
7| Do not sin against the multitude of the city, and do not throw yourself down before the crowd.
8| Do not tie a sin twice around yourself, for even for one you will not go unpunished.
9| Do not say, "He will look upon the abundance of my gifts, and when I offer to God Most High he will accept me."
10| Do not lose heart in your prayer, and do not neglect to give alms.
11| Do not mock a man while his soul is bitter within him, for someone exists who brings low and who lifts up.
12| Do not plow a lie against your brother, nor do the same against a friend.
13| Do not be willing to tell any lie at all, for persisting in it never leads to good.
14| Do not babble on among a crowd of elders, and do not repeat yourself in your prayer.
15| Do not despise hard labor and farming, for they were created by the Most High.
16| Do not count yourself among the multitude of sinners; remember that wrath will not delay.
17| Humble your soul deeply, for the vengeance awaiting the ungodly is fire and worm.
18| Do not exchange a friend for money, nor a true brother for the gold of Ophir.
19| Do not throw away a wise and good wife, for her grace is worth more than gold.
20| Do not mistreat a household servant who works faithfully, nor a hired laborer who gives his whole life to it.
21| Let your soul love a good servant; do not withhold freedom from him.
22| Do you have livestock? Look after them, and if they are useful to you, let them remain.
23| Do you have children? Discipline them, and bend their necks from their youth.
24| Do you have daughters? Watch over their bodies, and do not show them too cheerful a face.
25| Give your daughter in marriage, and you will have finished a great task; give her to a man of understanding.
26| Do you have a wife after your own heart? Do not cast her out.
27| Honor your father with your whole heart, and do not forget the birth pains of your mother.
28| Remember that it was through them you came to be, and what can you repay them that equals what they gave you?
29| With your whole soul stand in awe of the Lord, and hold his priests in reverence.
30| With all your strength love the one who made you, and do not abandon his ministers.
31| Stand in fear of the Lord, and hold his priest in honor, giving him what belongs to him just as you were ordered long ago: the guilt offering, the portion of shoulders, the sanctifying sacrifice, and the earliest yield of the harvest.
32| And stretch out your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be made complete.
33| Let your gift bring grace before every living person, and do not withhold this grace even from the dead.
34| Do not fail those who weep, and mourn together with those who mourn.
35| Do not be slow to visit the sick, for by such acts you will be loved.
36| In all your words remember your last end, and you will never sin.
1| Do not quarrel with a powerful man, lest you fall into his hands.
2| Do not dispute with a rich man, lest he outweigh you with his wealth; for gold has destroyed many, and it has turned aside the hearts of kings.
3| Do not quarrel with a man who talks too much, and do not pile wood on his fire.
4| Do not joke with an uneducated man, lest your ancestors be dishonored.
5| Do not reproach a man who is turning away from sin; remember that we are all under judgment.
6| Do not dishonor a man in his old age, for some of us also grow old.
7| Do not rejoice over a dead man; remember that we all die.
8| Do not disregard the discourse of the wise, but occupy yourself with their proverbs; for from them you will pick up wisdom, and gain skill in attending great men.
9| Do not miss the discourse of old men, for they themselves learned it from their fathers; for from them you will learn understanding, and how to give an answer in time of need.
10| Do not kindle the coals of a sinner, lest you be burned in the fire of his flame.
11| Do not rise up before an insolent man, lest he lie in wait like an ambush for your mouth.
12| Do not lend to a man stronger than yourself, and if you lend, count it as lost.
13| Do not give surety beyond your means, and if you do give surety, take care as one who must pay.
14| Do not go to law against a judge, for they will judge in his favor, according to his standing.
15| Do not travel the road with a reckless man, lest he become a burden to you; for he will do as he pleases, and you will perish together with his folly.
16| Do not pick a fight with a hot-tempered man, and do not travel through the wilderness with him; for blood is nothing in his eyes, and with no one there to stop him he will strike you down.
17| Do not take counsel with a fool, for he will not be able to keep a matter to himself.
18| Do not do anything secret in the presence of a stranger, for you do not know what it will bring forth.
19| Do not lay open your heart to every man, and do not let him repay you with a kindness.
1| Do not be jealous of the wife of your own embrace, and do not teach her a wicked lesson against yourself.
2| Do not give your soul to a woman, that she should rise up over your strength.
3| Do not go to meet a woman who plays the harlot, lest you fall into her snares.
4| Do not linger long with a singing-girl, lest you be caught by her devices.
5| Do not gaze intently at a virgin, lest you be trapped by penalties on her account.
6| Do not give your soul to prostitutes, lest you lose your inheritance.
7| Do not look about in the streets of a city, and do not wander in its deserted places.
8| Turn your eye away from a shapely woman, and do not gaze intently at beauty that belongs to another; many have been led astray by a woman's beauty, and from this desire is kindled like a fire.
9| Never sit down at all with a married woman, and do not carouse with her over wine, lest your soul incline toward her, and by your own spirit you slip into destruction.
10| Do not abandon an old friend, for the new one is not his equal; a new friend is like new wine — when it has aged, you will drink it with delight.
11| Do not envy the glory of a sinner, for you do not know what his downfall will be.
12| Do not take pleasure in the pleasure of the ungodly; remember that they will by no means be acquitted, even down to Hades.
13| Keep far away from a man who has power to kill, and you will have no cause to fear death; but if you do approach him, make no mistake, lest he take your life away; know that you are walking among snares, and treading upon the battlements of a city.
14| As best you can, take the measure of your neighbors, and take counsel with the wise.
15| Let your conversation be with people of understanding, and let all your discourse be about the law of the Most High.
16| Let righteous men be your dinner companions, and let your boasting be in the fear of the Lord.
17| A work is praised by the hand of skilled craftsmen, and a leader of a people is wise in his speech.
18| A man of much talk is feared in his city, and the one who is reckless in speech will be hated.
1| A wise judge will train his people, and the rule of an understanding man will be well ordered.
2| As the judge of a people is, so are his officers, and as the ruler of a city is, so are all its inhabitants.
3| An untrained king will destroy his people, but a city will be built up by the good sense of its rulers.
4| The authority over the earth is in the Lord's hand, and he raises up the useful man for the time over it.
5| In the Lord's hand is a man's success, and it is he who confers honor on the scribe.
6| For every wrong done to you do not bear a grudge against your neighbor, and do nothing at all in acts of arrogance.
7| Arrogance is hateful before the Lord and before men, and from both sides it will commit injustices.
8| A kingdom is transferred from one nation to another because of injustice and acts of arrogance and money.
9| Why is earth and ashes proud? Because even in life I have cast out my own inward parts.
10| A long illness — the physician jokes about it; and a king today, and tomorrow he will die.
11| For when a man dies he will inherit creeping things and wild beasts, and worms.
12| The beginning of a man's pride is that he stands apart from the Lord, and his heart has withdrawn from the one who made him.
13| For the beginning of pride is sin, and the one who holds fast to it will pour forth abomination. For this reason the Lord has made their calamities extraordinary, and has utterly overthrown them;
14| the Lord has thrown down the thrones of rulers, and seated the gentle in their place;
15| the Lord has torn up the roots of nations, and planted the humble in their place;
16| the Lord has overturned the lands of nations, and razed them down to their very foundations;
17| he dried some of them up and destroyed them, and made their memory cease from the earth.
18| Pride was not created for human beings, nor fierce anger for those born of women.
19| What kind of seed is honored? The seed of man. What kind of seed is honored? Those who fear the Lord. What kind of seed is dishonored? The seed of man. What kind of seed is dishonored? Those who transgress the commandments.
20| Among brothers, their leader is honored, and those who fear the Lord are honored in his eyes.
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22| The rich man and the honored man and the poor man — their boast is the fear of the Lord.
23| It is not right to dishonor a poor man of understanding, nor is it fitting to honor a sinful man.
24| The great man and the judge and the ruler will be honored, but none of them is greater than the one who fears the Lord.
25| Free men will serve a wise servant, and a man of understanding will not grumble.
26| Do not be clever in doing your work, and do not glorify yourself in a time of hardship.
27| Better is the man who works and abounds in all things than one who goes about boasting yet lacks bread.
28| My child, in gentleness glorify your own soul, and give it honor according to its worth.
29| Who will justify the one who sins against his own soul? And who will honor the one who dishonors his own life?
30| A poor man is honored for his understanding, and a rich man is honored for his wealth.
31| But the one who is honored in poverty — how much more in wealth! And the one who is dishonored in wealth — how much more in poverty!
1| Wisdom lifts up the head of the lowly, and seats him among the great.
2| Do not praise a man for his good looks, and do not despise a man for his appearance.
3| Small among winged things is the bee, yet her fruit is the best of sweet things.
4| Do not boast of the clothes you wear, and do not exalt yourself on a day of glory; for what the Lord accomplishes is astonishing, and his doings stay concealed from mankind.
5| Many tyrants have sat upon the ground, but one no one expected has worn the crown.
6| Many rulers have been utterly disgraced, and the honored have been handed over into the hands of others.
7| Before you examine, do not find fault; consider first, and only then reproach.
8| Before you have listened, do not answer, and do not break in on a conversation.
9| Do not dispute about a matter that is no concern of yours, and do not sit in judgment with sinners.
10| Child, do not let your undertakings be many; if you multiply them you will not go unpunished, and if you chase after them you will never overtake them, and by fleeing you will never escape.
11| There is a man who toils and labors and hurries, and all the more he falls behind.
12| There is a man who is sluggish and needs help, lacking in strength and abounding in poverty; yet the Lord's eyes turned toward him with favor, and raised him up out of his low estate,
13| and lifted up his head, so that many were astonished at him.
14| Good things and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth, come from the Lord.
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17| The gift of the Lord remains with the godly, and his favor prospers forever.
18| There is a man who grows rich through his watchfulness and his stinginess, and this is the reward he gets for it:
19| when he says, I have found rest, and now I will feast on my goods — he does not know how much time will pass before he leaves them to others and dies.
20| Stand by your covenant and hold fast to it, and grow old at your work.
21| Do not marvel at the deeds of a sinner; trust in the Lord and persevere in your labor, for it is easy in the eyes of the Lord to enrich a poor man suddenly, in an instant.
22| The blessing of the Lord is the reward of the godly, and in a swift hour he makes his blessing flourish.
23| Do not say, What need have I, and what good things will now be mine?
24| Do not say, I have enough, and what harm can come to me now?
25| In the day of good things there is forgetfulness of troubles, and in the day of troubles a man no longer remembers good things;
26| for it costs the Lord nothing, when a man dies, to pay him back according to how he lived.
27| A time of trouble makes one forget past delight, and at a man's end his deeds are laid bare.
28| Before death, call no one blessed, for by his children a man is known.
29| Do not bring every man into your house, for many are the schemes of the treacherous man.
30| Like a decoy partridge shut inside a cage, that is what the proud man's heart is like, and like a spy he watches for your downfall.
31| For he lies in wait, turning good into evil, and he will fasten blame even on what you choose.
32| From a single spark a great pile of embers catches fire, and a man given to sin lies in wait for blood.
33| Beware of a villain, for he is forging mischief, lest he bring lasting disgrace upon you.
34| Take a stranger into your house, and he will overturn you with turmoil and estrange you from your own household.
1| If you do good, know to whom you do it, and there will be gratitude for your kindnesses.
2| Do good to the godly, and you will find a reward — if not from him, then from the Most High.
3| No good comes to the one who persists in evil, nor to the one who withholds mercy.
4| Give to the godly, and do not help the sinner.
5| Do good to the humble, but do not give to the ungodly; hold back his bread and do not give it to him, lest by it he gain power over you; for you will find double the evil in return for all the good you do him.
6| For the Most High also hates sinners, and he will repay the ungodly with vengeance.
7| Give to the good man, and do not help the sinner.
8| A friend is not proven in good times, and an enemy is not hidden in bad times.
9| In a man's good times his enemies are grieved, but in his bad times even his friend will part from him.
10| Never trust your enemy, for like bronze rusting, so is his wickedness.
11| And even if he humbles himself and goes about bent low, set your soul on guard and be wary of him, and be to him like one who has wiped a mirror clean, and you will know that it has not rusted through.
12| Do not stand him beside yourself, lest he overturn you and stand in your place; do not seat him at your right hand, lest he seek your seat, and at the last you recognize the truth of my words, and over my sayings you be stung with regret.
13| Who will pity a snake-charmer bitten by the serpent, or any who go near wild beasts?
14| So it is with the one who keeps company with a sinful man and gets mixed up in his sins.
15| For an hour he will stay with you, but if you waver, he will not hold firm.
16| And with his lips the enemy will speak sweetly, but in his heart he schemes to throw you into a pit; with his eyes the enemy will weep, but if he finds the occasion, he will not be satisfied with blood.
17| Should evil come upon you, you will find him there ahead of you, and, as though helping, he will trip up your heel.
18| He will nod his head, strike his palms together, murmur on and on under his breath, and his expression will shift.
1| Whoever touches pitch will be smeared by it, and whoever keeps company with a proud man will become like him.
2| Do not lift a weight beyond your strength, and do not associate with someone stronger and richer than you. What partnership can a clay pot have with an iron kettle? This one will strike, and that one will be smashed.
3| A rich man does wrong, and on top of it he blusters; a poor man is wronged, and on top of it he must beg pardon.
4| If you are useful to him, he will make use of you; but if you fall short, he will abandon you.
5| If you have something, he will live alongside you and drain you dry, and he himself will feel no pain.
6| If he has need of you, he will lead you astray, and he will smile at you and give you hope; he will speak kindly to you and say, "What do you need?"
7| And he will shame you with his banquets, until he has drained you two or three times over, and in the end he will mock you. After that he will see you and abandon you, and he will shake his head at you.
8| Take care not to be led astray, and do not be brought low in the midst of your gladness.
9| When a powerful man calls you, hold yourself back, and all the more will he call for you.
10| Do not press forward, or you will be pushed away; and do not keep too far off, or you will be forgotten.
11| Do not presume to speak with him as an equal, and do not trust his many words; for by much talk he will test you, and while smiling he will be examining you.
12| Merciless is the man who does not keep confidences, and he will not spare you injury and bonds.
13| Keep watch and be exceedingly on your guard, for you walk about alongside your own downfall.
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15| Every animal loves its own kind, and every man loves his neighbor.
16| All flesh gathers according to its kind, and a man clings to his own kind.
17| What partnership can a wolf have with a lamb? So it is with a sinner toward a godly man.
18| What peace can a hyena have with a dog? And what peace can a rich man have with a poor man?
19| Wild asses in the wilderness are prey for lions; so likewise the poor are pasture for the rich.
20| Lowliness is an abomination to the proud man; so likewise the poor man is an abomination to the rich.
21| When a rich man totters he is propped up by friends, but when a lowly man falls he is pushed further down by friends.
22| When a rich man slips, there are many to catch him; he speaks improper things, and they justify him. When a lowly man slips, they rebuke him besides; he utters good sense, and no room is given him.
23| A rich man speaks, and all fall silent, and they exalt his word to the clouds; a poor man speaks, and they say, "Who is this?" and if he stumbles, they will push him over entirely.
24| Wealth is good when there is no sin attached to it, and poverty is spoken of as an evil even in the mouth of a godly man.
25| A man's heart changes his face, whether for good or for evil.
26| A trace of a heart at ease is a cheerful face, but the finding of proverbs is the fruit of laborious reflection.
1| Blessed is the man who has not slipped with his mouth, and has not been pierced by the pain of sin.
2| Blessed is he whose soul has not condemned him, and who has not fallen from his hope.
3| Wealth is not fitting for a stingy man, and what use is money to a grudging man?
4| The one who hoards at the expense of his own soul hoards for others, and others will revel in his goods.
5| Someone unkind to himself cannot possibly be kind to anyone else; he will never enjoy his own wealth.
6| There is no one more evil than the one who grudges himself, and this is the payback of his own wickedness.
7| Even if he does good, he does it forgetfully, and in the end he reveals his wickedness.
8| Evil is the man with the grudging eye, turning away his face and despising the souls of others.
9| The eye of the greedy man is never satisfied with his portion, and evil injustice dries up the soul.
10| An evil eye begrudges bread, and there is want at his own table.
11| Child, treat yourself well according to what you have, and bring offerings to the Lord as is fitting.
12| Remember that death will not delay, and the covenant of Hades has not been shown to you.
13| Before you die, do good to a friend, and reach out and give to him according to your strength.
14| Do not deprive yourself of a good day, and do not let a portion of good desire pass you by.
15| Will you not leave your labors to another, and your toils to be divided by lot?
16| Give, and take, and indulge your soul, for there is no seeking of luxury in Hades.
17| All flesh grows old like a garment, for the covenant from of old is: 'You shall die the death.'
18| Like leaves flourishing on a densely branched tree, some falling away while others sprout, that is how mortal humanity comes and goes: one perishes while another is brought into being.
19| Every work that rots decays, and the one who made it goes with it.
20| Blessed is the man who will meditate on wisdom, and who will reason with his own understanding,
21| who ponders her ways in his heart, and considers her hidden things,
22| go out after her like a tracker, and lie in wait at her entrances,
23| the one who peers through her windows, and listens at her doorways,
24| who lodges close to her house, and fastens his tent-peg into her walls,
25| he will pitch his tent beside her hands, and will lodge in a lodging-place of good things,
26| he will set his children in her shelter, and will dwell beneath her branches,
27| he will be sheltered by her from the heat, and will lodge in her glory.
1| The one who fears the Lord will do this, and the one who holds fast to the law will lay hold of her;
2| and she will meet him like a mother, and receive him like a wife of his youth;
3| she will feed him with the bread of understanding, and pour out for him wisdom's own water to drink;
4| he will lean upon her and not be shaken, and he will rely on her and not be put to shame;
5| she will exalt him above his neighbors, and open his mouth in the midst of the assembly;
6| gladness and a crown of rejoicing and an everlasting name he will inherit.
7| Foolish men will never lay hold of her, and sinful men will never see her;
8| she is far from arrogance, and lying men will never remember her.
9| Praise does not belong on a sinner's lips, since it was never sent to him by the Lord;
10| for praise will be spoken in wisdom, and the Lord will make it prosper.
11| Do not say, "It was because of the Lord that I fell away"; for what he hates, you must not do.
12| Do not say, "It was he who led me astray"; for he has no need of a sinful man.
13| Every abomination the Lord hates, and it is not loved by those who fear him.
14| It was he who formed humanity at the outset, and placed each person under the control of his own choice.
15| If you choose, you will keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of good will.
16| He has set before you fire and water; stretch out your hand to whichever you wish.
17| Before man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.
18| For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees all things;
19| and his eyes are on those who fear him, and he himself knows every deed of man;
20| he has not commanded anyone to be ungodly, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
1| Do not long for a crowd of worthless children, nor delight in godless sons.
2| Though they multiply, do not delight in them, unless the fear of the Lord is with them.
3| Do not trust in their life, and do not rely on their numbers; for one is better than a thousand, and to die childless is better than to have godless children.
4| For through one man of understanding a city will be settled, but a tribe of lawless men will be laid waste.
5| Many such things have I seen with my eyes, and stronger things than these has my ear heard.
6| In the assembly of sinners a fire is kindled, and against a disobedient nation wrath blazed up.
7| He did not forgive the ancient giants, who revolted in their strength.
8| He did not spare the place where Lot sojourned, whom he loathed for their pride.
9| He showed no mercy to the nation doomed to destruction, those who were puffed up in their sins.
10| And so with six hundred thousand foot soldiers, assembled together in their stubborn, unyielding hearts.
11| Even if there be but one stiff-necked man, it would be a wonder if he went unpunished; for mercy and wrath are both from him, a master of atonement, yet one who pours out wrath.
12| As great as his mercy, so great also is his reproof; he judges a man according to his deeds.
13| The sinner will not escape with his plunder, and the patience of the godly will not be left unrewarded.
14| For every act of mercy he will make room; each will find as his deeds deserve.
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17| Do not say, "I will hide from the Lord; who from on high will remember me? Among so great a people I will not be remembered, for what is my soul among the countless creation?"
18| Look: the sky, and even the highest heavens above it, the deep and the earth, all tremble when he draws near.
19| Together the mountains and the foundations of the earth tremble and quake when he looks upon them.
20| And over these no heart will reflect; yet who can ponder his ways?
21| And there is a storm which no man will see, and the greater part of his works are hidden.
22| The works of his righteousness, who will declare them? Or who will wait for them? For the covenant is far off.
23| A man lacking in heart thinks such things, and a foolish, wandering man thinks folly.
24| Listen to me, my child, and learn knowledge, and give heed with your heart to my words.
25| I will set forth instruction by measure, and with precision I will declare knowledge.
26| By the Lord's judgment his works have existed from the beginning, and from their making he marked out their portions.
27| He ordered his works for all time, and their beginnings for their generations; they neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not cease from their works.
28| No one of them presses upon his neighbor, and to the age they will never disobey his word.
29| Afterward the Lord surveyed the world and stocked it abundantly with his blessings.
30| With the soul of every living thing he covered its face, and to it their return is made.
1| The Lord created man out of earth, and turned him back into it again;
2| he gave them a number of days and a season, and gave them authority over the things upon it.
3| He clothed them with strength like his own, and made them according to his image;
4| and he put the fear of him upon all flesh, and gave them dominion over beasts and birds.
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6| Counsel and tongue and eyes, ears and a heart he gave them for thinking;
7| he saturated their minds with insight, and revealed good and evil to them;
8| he set his eye upon their hearts, to show them the greatness of his works;
9| that they might tell of the greatness of his works.
10| And they shall praise his holy name,
11| he added to them knowledge, and allotted to them the law of life;
12| he established with them an everlasting covenant, and showed them his judgments;
13| their eyes saw the greatness of his glory, and their ear heard the glory of his voice;
14| and he said to them, Beware of all wrongdoing, and he commanded each of them concerning his neighbor.
15| Their ways are before him continually, they will not be hidden from his eyes.
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17| Over every nation he appointed a ruler, but Israel is the Lord's own portion.
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19| Every deed of theirs shines like sunlight in his sight, and his gaze never leaves their paths.
20| Their wrongdoings were not hidden from him, and all their sins are before the Lord.
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22| A man's almsgiving is like a signet ring with him, and he will guard a person's kindness like the pupil of an eye.
23| Afterward he will rise up and repay them, and he will render their reward upon their own heads;
24| yet to those who repent he grants return, and he encourages those who are losing hope to endure.
25| Turn back to the Lord and abandon your sins, pray before his face and lessen your offense;
26| come back to the Most High, forsake iniquity, and despise what is detestable with your whole strength.
27| Who will praise the Most High in Hades, in place of the living who give thanks?
28| From the dead, as from one who no longer exists, thanksgiving perishes; the living and the healthy praise the Lord.
29| How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his atonement for those who turn back to him!
30| For not everything can belong to human beings, since the son of man is not immortal.
31| What is brighter than the sun? Yet even it fails, and flesh and blood will devise evil.
32| He himself surveys the host of the height of heaven, while all mankind are earth and ash.
1| He who lives forever created all things together;
2| the Lord alone will be shown righteous.
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4| To no one has he granted power to declare his works; and who can trace out his mighty deeds?
5| Who can number the might of his greatness? And who can go on to recount his mercies?
6| There is nothing to take away and nothing to add, and no one can trace out the wonders of the Lord.
7| When a man has finished, then he is only beginning, and when he stops, then he is at a loss.
8| What is a person, and of what worth? What good lies in him, or what harm?
9| At the very most, a human lifespan counts a hundred years.
10| Like a drop of water from the sea, or a grain of sand, so are a few years in the day of eternity.
11| For this reason the Lord is patient with them, and pours out his mercy upon them.
12| He saw and recognized that their end is grievous, and therefore he multiplied his forgiveness.
13| A man's mercy is for his neighbor, but the Lord's mercy is for all flesh; he reproves and disciplines and teaches, and turns back, as a shepherd his flock.
14| He has mercy on those who accept discipline, and on those who are diligent for his judgments.
15| My child, do not mix a reproach into good deeds, nor grief of words into any gift.
16| Does not dew give relief from scorching heat? So a word is better than a gift.
17| See, is not a word worth more than a good gift? Both are found together in a gracious man.
18| A fool reproaches ungraciously, and the gift of a grudging man makes the eyes waste away.
19| Learn before you speak, and take care of yourself before you fall ill.
20| Before judgment, examine yourself, and in the hour of visitation you will find forgiveness.
21| Humble yourself before you fall ill, and in the time of sins show that you have turned back.
22| Let nothing hinder you from paying a vow in its season, and do not wait until death to be justified.
23| Before you make a vow, prepare yourself, and do not be like a man who tests the Lord.
24| Remember wrath in the days of your final reckoning, and the season of retribution when his face turns away.
25| Remember a time of famine in a time of plenty, poverty and want in the days of wealth.
26| From morning to evening the season changes, and all things are swift before the Lord.
27| A wise man will be cautious in everything, and in the days of sins he will guard against wrongdoing.
28| Every man of understanding knows wisdom, and to the one who finds her he gives thanks.
29| Those skilled in words became wise themselves, and poured out precise proverbs.
30| Self-control of the soul. Do not go after your desires, and hold yourself back from your appetites.
31| If you give your soul the delight of desire, it will make you the laughingstock of your enemies.
32| Do not delight in much luxury, and do not be bound to its expense.
33| Do not become a beggar by feasting on borrowed money, when you have nothing at all in your purse.
1| A drunken laborer will not grow rich; whoever despises small things will fall little by little.
2| Wine and women lead the discerning astray, and whoever clings to prostitutes becomes reckless.
3| Rot and worms will inherit him, and the reckless soul will be swept away.
4| Whoever is quick to trust is light-minded, and whoever sins wrongs his own soul.
5| Whoever delights in his heart's desires will be condemned,
6| but whoever hates gossip lessens his own wickedness.
7| Never repeat a report, and nothing will be lost to you at all.
8| Tell it neither to friend nor to enemy, and unless it is a sin for you, do not reveal it;
9| for he has heard you and taken note of you, and in due time he will hate you.
10| Have you heard a word? Let it die with you. Take courage—it will not burst you.
11| A fool is in labor over a report, like a woman giving birth to a child.
12| Like an arrow lodged in the flesh of the thigh, so is a report in the belly of a fool.
13| Question a friend—perhaps he did not do it; and if he did do it, so that he may not do it again.
14| Question a friend—perhaps he did not say it; and if he has said it, so that he may not say it again.
15| Question a friend, for often it is slander, and do not believe every report.
16| There is one who slips and not from the soul, and who has not sinned with his tongue?
17| Question your neighbor before you threaten him, and make room for the law of the Most High.
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20| All wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and in all wisdom is the doing of the law.
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22| And the knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, and where the counsel of sinners is, there is no prudence.
23| There is a wickedness that is an abomination, and there is a fool who is lacking in wisdom.
24| Better is one who lacks understanding but fears, than one who abounds in prudence but transgresses the law.
25| There is a cleverness that is exact, and it is unjust, and there is one who twists things in order to bring out a judgment.
26| There is one who does evil while bowed down in gloom, and his inward parts are full of deceit;
27| bowing his face and feigning deafness, he will get ahead of you where he is not known;
28| and if for lack of strength he is kept from sinning, should he find the occasion, he will do harm.
29| A man will be recognized by his appearance, and a sensible man will be recognized when you meet him face to face;
30| a man's attire and the laughter of his teeth and his gait proclaim what he is.
1| There is a reproof that is not becoming, and there is a man who keeps silent, and he too is wise.
2| How much better to reprove than to fume with anger, and the one who admits his fault will be spared humiliation.
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4| Like a eunuch's desire to deflower a young girl, so is the man who does justice by violence.
5| There is a man who keeps silent and is found wise, and there is a man hated for much talking.
6| There is a man who keeps silent because he has no answer, and there is a man who keeps silent, knowing the right time.
7| A wise man will keep silence until the right time, but the reckless boaster and the fool overstep the right time.
8| The one who multiplies words will be loathed, and the one who arrogates authority to himself will be hated.
9| There is a good turn of fortune for a man in misfortunes, and there is a gain that turns into loss.
10| There is a gift that will bring you no profit, and there is a gift whose return is double.
11| There is a demotion for the sake of glory, and there is a man who has lifted up his head from a lowly state.
12| There is a man who buys much for little and pays for it sevenfold.
13| The wise man in his words will make himself beloved, but the graces of fools are poured out in vain.
14| A gift from a fool will bring you no profit, for his eyes look for many in return for one;
15| little he will give, and much he will reproach for, and he will open his mouth like a town crier; today he will lend, and tomorrow he will demand it back — such a man is hateful.
16| The fool will say, "I have no friend, and there is no thanks for my good deeds"; those who eat my bread are base of tongue.
17| How often, and how many, will laugh him to scorn!
18| A slip on the pavement is better than a slip of the tongue; ruin overtakes the wicked man just as quickly.
19| A graceless man is a story told out of season; it will be forever on the lips of the undisciplined.
20| A proverb from the mouth of a fool will be rejected, for he will never speak it at its proper time.
21| There is a man kept back from sinning by poverty, and in his rest he will feel no sting of conscience.
22| There is a man who destroys his own life out of shame, and by a foolish regard for appearances he destroys it.
23| There is a man who out of shame makes promises to a friend, and gains him as an enemy for nothing.
24| A lie is an evil blemish in a man; it will be forever on the lips of the undisciplined.
25| A thief is preferable to a habitual liar, but both will inherit ruin.
26| The character of a lying man is dishonor, and his shame is with him continually. Words of proverbs.
27| The wise man in his words will advance himself, and a sensible man will please the great;
28| the one who works the land will raise up his own heap of grain, and the one who pleases the great will make atonement for injustice.
29| Gifts and presents blind the eyes of the wise, and like a muzzle on the mouth turn away reproofs.
30| Hidden wisdom and buried treasure — what profit is there in either?
31| Better is the man who hides his folly than the man who hides his wisdom.
1| Child, have you sinned? Do it no more, and pray about your past sins.
2| Run from wrongdoing as you would shy away when a snake appears, for if you draw near it, it will bite you; its fangs are a lion's fangs, destroying the souls of men.
3| All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword; for its wound there is no healing.
4| Terror and insolence will lay waste wealth; so too the house of the arrogant will be laid waste.
5| The prayer of the poor goes from his mouth to God's ears, and judgment on his behalf comes quickly.
6| Whoever hates rebuke walks in the sinner's track, but whoever fears the Lord turns back in his heart.
7| The one mighty in speech is known from afar, but the sensible man knows when he stumbles.
8| He who builds his house with other people's money is like one gathering stones for his own winter grave.
9| A gathering of the lawless is like tow bundled together, and their end is a flame of fire.
10| The way of sinners is paved smooth with stones, but at its end lies the pit of Hades.
11| Whoever keeps the law masters his own understanding, and reverence for the Lord, brought to completion, is wisdom.
12| He who is not shrewd will not be instructed; there is a shrewdness that multiplies bitterness.
13| The knowledge of the wise will rise up as waters swell in a flood, and his counsel resembles a spring of life.
14| What fills a fool inside resembles a shattered jar, and he will hold no knowledge at all.
15| If a discerning man hears a wise saying, he will praise it and add to it; the self-indulgent man hears it, and it displeases him, and he casts it behind his back.
16| The telling of a fool is like a burden on the road, but on the lips of the understanding man grace will be found.
17| The speech of the prudent is sought after in the assembly, and his words are pondered in the heart.
18| Wisdom stands to a fool as a ruined house stands empty, and whatever the senseless man knows is only talk that will not bear scrutiny.
19| Discipline is fetters on the feet of the foolish, and like handcuffs upon the right hand.
20| The fool raises his voice in laughter, but the shrewd man will scarcely smile quietly.
21| To the prudent man discipline is a golden ornament, comparable to a bracelet worn on the right arm.
22| The foot of the fool rushes into a house, but the man of much experience will be abashed before its face.
23| A senseless man peers in at the house from the doorway, but a man of discipline will stand outside.
24| It is a want of discipline for a man to listen at the door, but the prudent man will be burdened by the disgrace of it.
25| The lips of strangers will be burdened with such talk, but the words of the prudent will be weighed on a scale.
26| Fools carry their heart on their tongue, but the wise keep their tongue within the heart.
27| When the ungodly man curses his adversary, he curses his own soul.
28| The whisperer defiles his own soul, and will be hated wherever he dwells.
1| A lazy man is like a stone smeared with filth, and everyone hisses at his disgrace.
2| A lazy man is like a lump of dung, and whoever picks him up shakes out his hand.
3| An undisciplined son is a father's shame, but a daughter is born to his loss.
4| A sensible daughter will win herself a husband, but one who brings shame becomes a grief to the man who fathered her.
5| A brazen daughter shames both father and husband, and by both she will be held in dishonor.
6| A story told out of season is like music at a funeral; but blows and discipline are always in season for wisdom.
7| Whoever teaches a fool is like a man gluing broken pottery together, or one waking a sleeper from a deep sleep.
8| Whoever tells a story to a drowsy man tells it to a fool, and at the end he will say, 'What was that?'
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11| Weep for the dead, for his light has failed; and weep for the fool, for his understanding has failed. Weep more gently for the dead, for he has found rest, but for the fool life is worse than death.
12| Mourning for the dead lasts seven days, but for the fool and the godless it lasts all the days of his life.
13| Do not spend many words with a senseless man, and do not go about with a fool; guard yourself against him, so that you have no trouble and are not soiled when he shakes himself off; turn away from him and you will find rest, and you will not be worn down by his folly.
14| What weighs more than lead? Its only name is 'fool.'
15| Carrying sand, salt, or a chunk of metal is less burdensome than putting up with a senseless man.
16| A wooden framework bound into a building will not come apart in an earthquake; so a heart braced by well-considered counsel will not waver in a time of crisis.
17| A heart settled on thoughtful understanding is like a stucco ornament on a polished wall.
18| Fences set up on a height, facing the wind, cannot stand firm; so a cowardly heart, resting on a fool's reasoning, cannot stand firm against any fear.
19| Whoever pokes an eye brings forth tears, and whoever pokes a heart brings out feeling.
20| Whoever throws a stone at birds drives them away, and whoever insults a friend will dissolve the friendship.
21| If you draw a sword against a friend, do not despair, for there is a way back;
22| if you open your mouth against a friend, do not be afraid, for there can be reconciliation — except in the case of insult, arrogance, betrayal of a secret, or a treacherous blow; in these, any friend will flee.
23| Win trust with your neighbor while you are poor, so that you may share alike when he prospers; stand by him in a time of trouble, so that you may share in his inheritance.
24| Before the fire come the vapor and smoke of the furnace; so before bloodshed come cursing words.
25| I will not be ashamed to shelter a friend, and I will not hide from him;
26| and if some harm should come to me because of him, whoever hears of it will be on guard against that man.
27| Who will set a guard over my mouth, and a seal of good sense upon my lips, so that I do not fall because of it, and my tongue does not destroy me?
1| Lord, father and master of my life, do not abandon me to their counsel, do not let me fall by them.
2| Who will place a whip over my reasoning, and over my heart the correction that wisdom brings, so that these will show me no mercy for my failings, and my sins will not go overlooked?
3| lest my failings multiply, and my sins increase, and I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy gloat over me?
4| Lord, father and God of my life, do not give me haughty eyes,
5| and turn desire away from me;
6| let no appetite of the belly and no lust overtake me, and do not hand me over to a shameless soul.
7| Discipline of the mouth. Hear the discipline of the mouth, children, and whoever keeps watch over it will not be caught; by his own lips
8| the sinner and the slanderer and the arrogant man will be exposed; they will be tripped up by them.
9| Do not accustom your mouth to oaths, and do not grow used to naming the Holy One.
10| For just as a household servant under constant scrutiny will not go without bruises, so too the one who swears and invokes the Name continually will never be cleansed from sin.
11| A man given to much swearing will be filled with lawlessness, and the scourge will not depart from his house; if he offends, his sin is on him, and if he disregards it, he has sinned doubly; and if he swore falsely, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with calamities.
12| There is a manner of speech clothed in death; may it never be found in the inheritance of Jacob; for all these things will stay far from the godly, and they will not wallow in sins.
13| Do not accustom your mouth to coarse, undisciplined talk, for it contains sinful speech.
14| Remember your father and mother, for you sit among the great; do not forget yourself before them and, through your own habit, play the fool, wishing you had never been born and cursing the day of your birth.
15| A man accustomed to words of reproach will never be disciplined all his days.
16| Two kinds of people multiply sin, and a third brings down wrath: a soul hot as a burning fire, which will not be quenched until it is consumed; a man given to sexual immorality in the body of his flesh, who will not stop until the fire he has kindled burns out.
17| To the immoral man every bread is sweet; he will not tire until he dies.
18| A man who strays from his own bed, saying to himself, "Who sees me? Darkness surrounds me, and the walls hide me, and no one sees me — why should I be careful? The Most High will keep no record of my wrongdoing."
19| Yet what he fears is only human eyes, and he does not know that the Lord's gaze outshines the sun ten thousand times over, watching every path of mankind and observing even its hidden places.
20| Before all things were created, they were known to him; so it is also after they are completed.
21| This man will face punishment out in the city's open squares, and where he least expects it, he will be seized.
22| So too the woman who abandons her husband and provides an heir by another man;
23| for first she broke the law set by the Most High, and second she wronged her own husband, and third she committed adultery through fornication, bringing forth children by another man.
24| This woman will be brought out before the assembly, and there will be a reckoning upon her children;
25| her children will not take root, and her branches will bear no fruit;
26| she will leave her memory behind for a curse, and her disgrace will never be blotted out;
27| and those left behind will come to know that nothing surpasses the fear of the Lord, and nothing is sweeter than keeping the Lord's commandments.
1| The praise of wisdom. Wisdom will praise her own soul, and in the midst of her people she will boast.
2| In the assembly of the Most High she will open her mouth, and in the presence of his host she will boast:
3| I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and like a mist I covered the earth.
4| I encamped in the heights, and my throne was on a pillar of cloud.
5| Alone I circled the vault of heaven, and I walked in the depths of the abysses.
6| Over the swells of the ocean and across every land, among every nation and people I acquired a holding.
7| Among all these I sought a resting place, and asked, in whose inheritance shall I lodge?
8| Then the creator of all things commanded me, and he who created me made my tent rest, and said: Encamp in Jacob, and receive your inheritance in Israel.
9| Before the age, from the beginning, he created me, and to the age I shall not fail.
10| In the holy tabernacle before him I ministered, and so in Zion I was established.
11| In the beloved city likewise he made me rest, and in Jerusalem is my dominion.
12| And I took root among a glorified people, in the portion of the Lord, his inheritance.
13| Like a cedar I grew tall in Lebanon, and like a cypress on the mountains of Hermon.
14| Like a palm tree I grew tall in Engedi, and like rose plants in Jericho; like a fair olive tree in the plain, I grew tall like a plane tree.
15| Like cinnamon and camel-thorn spice I gave forth fragrance, and like choice myrrh I spread sweet odor, like galbanum, onycha, and stacte, and like the smoke of frankincense in the tent.
16| Like a terebinth I spread out my branches, and my branches are branches of glory and grace.
17| Like a vine I put forth grace in blossom, and my flowers are the fruit of glory and wealth.
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19| Come to me, you who desire me, and be filled with my produce.
20| For my memory is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb.
21| Those who eat me will hunger still, and those who drink me will thirst still.
22| Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame, and those who work in me will not sin.
23| All this is the book of the covenant of God the Most High, the law that Moses commanded us, an inheritance for the assemblies of Jacob.
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25| It is he who fills wisdom to overflowing, like the Pishon, and like the Tigris in the days of new fruits;
26| who fills understanding to the full, like the Euphrates, and like the Jordan in the days of harvest;
27| who makes instruction shine forth like light, like the Gihon in the days of vintage.
28| The first man did not finish knowing her, and likewise the last has not fathomed her;
29| for her thought is more abundant than the sea, and her counsel deeper than the great abyss.
30| And I, like a channel from a river, and like a watercourse, went out into a garden.
31| I said, I will water my garden, and drench my flower bed; and behold, my small channel grew into a stream, and that stream turned into an open sea.
32| I will yet make instruction shine like the dawn, and make it known even to far-off lands.
33| I will yet pour out teaching like prophecy, and leave it to generations of ages to come.
34| See that I have not labored for myself alone, but for all who seek her out.
1| In three things I took delight, and I rose up beautiful before the Lord and before men: harmony among brothers, friendship among neighbors, and a wife and husband who live well together.
2| But three kinds of people my soul hated, and I was greatly disgusted with their lives: a poor man who is proud, a rich man who is a liar, and an old man who is an adulterer, lacking understanding.
3| If you have gathered nothing in your youth, how then will you find anything in your old age?
4| How fitting it is for gray hairs to give judgment, and for elders to know how to counsel!
5| How fitting is wisdom in the aged, and understanding and counsel in men of honor!
6| Rich experience is the crown of the aged, and reverence for the Lord is what makes them glorious.
7| Nine things I have counted blessed in my heart, and a tenth I will speak with my tongue: a man who rejoices in his children, and who lives to see the downfall of his enemies;
8| blessed is he who lives with a sensible wife, and he who has not slipped with his tongue, and he who has not served one unworthy of him;
9| blessed is he who has found prudence, and he who tells it into ears that listen;
10| how great is he who has found wisdom! Yet he is not above the one who fears the Lord;
11| the fear of the Lord surpasses everything; the one who holds fast to it, to what shall he be compared?
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13| Any wound, but not a wound of the heart! Any wickedness, but not the wickedness of a woman!
14| Any assault, but not the assault of those who hate! Any vengeance, but not the vengeance of enemies!
15| No venom surpasses that of a serpent's head, and no hostility surpasses an enemy's hatred.
16| Better to share a den with a lion or a dragon than to live in a house with a wicked woman.
17| The wickedness of a woman changes her appearance, and darkens her face like a sackcloth.
18| In the midst of his companions her husband sinks down, and hearing of it he sighs bitterly.
19| All wickedness is small compared to the wickedness of a woman — may the lot of the sinner fall upon her!
20| A sandy ascent to the feet of an old man — such is a talkative wife to a quiet husband.
21| Do not fall for a woman's beauty, and do not desire a woman for what she has.
22| Wrath and shamelessness and great disgrace come when a wife supports her husband.
23| A humbled heart and a gloomy face and a wounded heart — this is a wicked wife; hands that hang limp and knees that give way — she is one who brings her husband no happiness.
24| From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die.
25| Do not give water an outlet, nor a wicked wife authority;
26| if she will not walk as your hand directs, cut her off from your flesh.
1| Happy is the husband of a good wife, and the number of his days will be doubled.
2| A courageous wife delights her husband, and she will fill out his years in peace.
3| A good wife is a good portion; she is given as a share to those who fear the Lord.
4| Whether a man is rich or poor, if his heart is good, his face is cheerful at every season.
5| Of three things my heart has been afraid, and at a fourth thing I was in dread: slander in the city, the gathering of a mob, and a false charge laid against me — each of these is harder to bear than dying.
6| Grief of heart and mourning is a wife jealous of another wife, and a scourge of the tongue that shares itself with everyone.
7| A wicked wife is like an ox-yoke that shakes loose; the one who takes hold of her is like one grasping a scorpion.
8| A drunken wife is a great wrath, and she will not hide her own shame.
9| A woman's fornication is known by the lifting up of her eyes, and by her eyelids it will be recognized.
10| Keep a strict watch over a headstrong daughter, lest, finding liberty, she make use of it for herself.
11| Be on guard against a shameless eye, and do not be surprised if it sins against you.
12| Like a thirsty traveler she opens her mouth and drinks from any water that is near; she sits down before every stake, and opens her quiver before every arrow.
13| A wife's charm delights her husband, and her skill puts fat on his bones.
14| A wife who keeps silence is a gift granted by the Lord, and nothing can be weighed against a well-trained spirit.
15| A modest wife is favor upon favor, and no weight of scales is worthy of a soul that is self-controlled.
16| Like the sun rising in the Lord's highest heavens, so a good wife's beauty adorns a household kept in order by her husband.
17| Like a lamp shining upon the holy lampstand is the beauty of her face in the years of her maturity.
18| Like golden pillars upon a base of silver are her shapely feet upon steadfast heels.
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28| At two things my heart has grieved, and at a third anger came upon me: a warrior brought to want through poverty, and men of understanding treated as refuse; one who turns back from righteousness to sin — the Lord will make ready such a one for the sword.
29| A merchant can hardly keep himself free from wrongdoing, and a shopkeeper will not be justified from sin.
1| For the sake of trifling gain many have sinned, and whoever seeks to grow rich will avert his eye.
2| Between the fitted stones a peg will lodge, and between buying and selling sin will wedge itself in.
3| If a man does not hold fast to the fear of the Lord with diligence, his house will quickly be overthrown.
4| When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains behind; so too the dregs of a man show up in his reasoning.
5| The furnace tests the potter's vessels, and a man's trial is in his reasoning.
6| The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the word discloses the reasoning of a man's heart.
7| Do not praise a man before he has reasoned things out, for this is the testing-ground of men.
8| If you pursue what is just, you will attain it, and you will wear it like a robe of glory.
9| Birds will roost with their own kind, and truth will return to those who practice it.
10| A lion lies in wait for prey; so do sins for those who work injustice.
11| The conversation of the godly is always wisdom, but the fool changes like the moon.
12| Among the senseless, watch your moment; but among the thoughtful, stay engaged continually.
13| The conversation of fools is offensive, and their laughter runs riot in sin.
14| The talk of the habitual swearer makes the hair stand on end, and their quarreling makes one stop up his ears.
15| The quarrel of the arrogant is a bloodbath, and their mutual abuse is painful to hear.
16| Whoever discloses secrets destroys trust, and will never find a friend after his own heart.
17| Love a friend and keep faith with him; but if you disclose his secrets, do not go chasing after him again.
18| For as a man destroys his enemy, so you have destroyed the friendship of your neighbor.
19| And as you would let a bird go from your hand, so you have let your neighbor go, and you will not catch him again.
20| Do not pursue him, for he has gone far off, and has escaped like a gazelle from a snare.
21| For a wound can be bound up, and there is reconciliation after abuse; but whoever discloses secrets has destroyed all hope.
22| Whoever winks the eye is plotting evil, and no one can turn him from it.
23| In front of your eyes he will make his speech sweet, and he will marvel at your words; but afterward he will twist his speech and make your words into a trap.
24| There are many things I detest, yet none so much as him, and the Lord too will hate him.
25| Whoever throws a stone straight up throws it onto his own head, and a treacherous blow inflicts wounds all around.
26| Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever sets a snare will be caught in it.
27| Whoever does evil, it will roll back upon him, and he will not even recognize where it came from.
28| Mockery and reproach belong to the arrogant, and vengeance will lie in wait for him like a lion.
29| Those who rejoice at the fall of the godly will be caught in a snare, and pain will consume them before they die.
30| Wrath and anger — these too are abominations, and a sinful man will be their master.
1| Whoever seeks vengeance will find vengeance from the Lord, and he keeps a strict account of that person's sins.
2| Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then, when you pray, your own sins will be released.
3| Can a man nurse anger against another man, and then seek healing from the Lord?
4| He has no mercy on a man like himself, and yet he begs pardon for his own sins?
5| He himself, mere flesh, holds fast to his wrath — who will make atonement for his sins?
6| Remember your end, and stop your hostility; remember decay and death, and hold fast to the commandments.
7| Remember the commandments and do not rage against your neighbor; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the offense.
8| Keep away from quarreling, and you will lessen your sins, for a hot-tempered man kindles a quarrel,
9| and a sinful man stirs up friends and throws slander in among those living at peace.
10| As fuel feeds a fire, so a quarrel is kindled in proportion; as a man's strength is, so will his wrath be, and he will raise up his anger according to his wealth, and the quarrel will blaze according to how firmly it is fed.
11| A dispute rushed into kindles fire, and a quarrel rushed into spills blood.
12| If you blow on a spark, it will flare up; if you spit on it, it will go out — and both come out of your mouth.
13| Curse the whisperer and the double-tongued, for they have destroyed many who were at peace.
14| A third tongue has shaken multitudes and scattered them from one people to another; it has torn down fortified cities and overturned the houses of the great.
15| A third tongue has driven out strong women and stripped them of the fruits of their labor.
16| Whoever pays heed to it will never find rest, nor will he dwell in peace.
17| The blow of a whip raises welts, but the blow of a tongue shatters bones.
18| Countless people have died by the sword's blade, but far more have perished because of the tongue.
19| Blessed is the one sheltered from it, who has not passed through its fury, who has not dragged its yoke, and has not been bound in its chains;
20| for its yoke is a yoke of iron, and its chains are chains of bronze.
21| Death by it is a wretched death, and Hades itself is more welcome than it.
22| It will not overpower the godly, and they will not be burned in its flame.
23| Those who abandon the Lord will fall into it, and it will blaze among them and will not be quenched; it will be sent out against them like a lion, and like a leopard it will maul them.
24| See to it: fence in your property with thorns, and bind up your silver and gold.
25| Make a balance and a scale for your words, and make a door and a bolt for your mouth.
26| Take care not to slip because of it, lest you fall before one lying in wait.
1| He who shows mercy lends to his neighbor, and he who strengthens his hand keeps the commandments.
2| Lend to your neighbor in the time of his need, and in turn repay your neighbor at the time set.
3| Make your word firm and be faithful with him, and at every time you will find what you need.
4| Many have regarded a loan as a windfall, and have caused trouble to those who helped them.
5| Until he receives it, he will kiss the man's hand, and will lower his voice about his neighbor's money; but at the time of repayment he will delay the time, and will return words of complaint, and will blame the circumstances.
6| If the lender prevails, he will scarcely get back half, and will count it as a windfall; but if not, the debtor has robbed him of his money, and gained him as an enemy, at no small cost; he will repay him with curses and abuse, and instead of honor he will repay him with disgrace.
7| Many, on account of such wickedness, have turned away from lending, fearing to be robbed for nothing.
8| Nevertheless, be patient with the humble, and do not delay him for charity's sake.
9| For the commandment's sake, help the poor, and according to his need do not send him away empty.
10| Lose your silver for a brother's or a friend's sake, and do not let it rust under a stone to ruin.
11| Store your wealth as the Most High's commandments direct, and it will benefit you more than gold.
12| Store up almsgiving in your storerooms, and it will deliver you from every affliction;
13| better than a mighty shield and better than a stout spear, it will fight for you against the enemy.
14| A good man will give surety for his neighbor, but he who has lost all sense of shame will abandon him.
15| Do not forget the kindness of a guarantor, for he gave his life for you.
16| A sinner overturns the good deeds of a guarantor,
17| and the ungrateful in heart will abandon the one who rescued him.
18| Giving surety has ruined many who were doing well, and has tossed them like a wave of the sea; it has driven mighty men from their homes, and they wandered among foreign nations.
19| A sinner who rushes into giving surety, chasing after profit, will fall into lawsuits.
20| Help your neighbor according to your ability, but take care for yourself not to fall into it.
21| Life's essentials are water, bread, and clothing, plus a dwelling to cover one's shame.
22| A poor man's life under a plank roof is better than lavish meals in someone else's house.
23| Be content with little or much alike.
24| Wandering from house to house as a lodger is a wretched existence, and wherever you stay you dare not speak freely;
25| you will play host and pour drink for the ungrateful, and besides this you will hear bitter words:
26| "Come here, lodger, set the table, and if you have anything in hand, feed me";
27| "Get out, lodger, out of respect for my guest, my brother has come to stay with me, I need the room."
28| These things are hard for a man of good sense to bear: the reproach of a household, and the insult of a moneylender.
1| On children. He who loves his son will keep the rod busy on him, so that he may rejoice over him in the end.
2| He who disciplines his son will profit by him, and will boast of him among his acquaintances.
3| He who teaches his son will make his enemy jealous, and will exult over him in front of friends.
4| His father has died, and it is as though he had not died, for he has left behind one like himself.
5| In his life he saw him and rejoiced, and at his death he was not grieved;
6| he has left behind an avenger against his enemies, and one to repay kindness to his friends.
7| He who pampers his son will bind up his wounds, and at every cry his innermost being will be shaken.
8| A horse left unbroken turns out stubborn, and a son left unchecked turns out headstrong.
9| Coddle a child and he will startle you; play along with him and he will grieve you.
10| Do not laugh with him, lest you suffer with him, and in the end you grind your teeth.
11| Do not give him authority in his youth.
12| Bruise his ribs while he is a boy, lest he grow stubborn and disobey you.
13| Discipline your son and labor over him, so that he does not stumble and disgrace you.
14| Better a poor man who is healthy and strong in body than a rich man scourged in his flesh.
15| Health and soundness of body are better than any gold, and a robust body than boundless wealth.
16| On food. There is no wealth better than health of body, and no gladness above the joy of the heart.
17| To die is preferable to an existence of bitterness, or to sickness that will not end.
18| Good things poured out on a closed mouth are like offerings of food set beside a tomb.
19| What use is an offering to an idol? For it can neither eat nor smell it; so is he who is pursued by the Lord —
20| he looks with his eyes and groans, like a eunuch embracing a virgin and groaning.
21| Do not hand your soul over to grief, and do not afflict yourself with your own scheming.
22| Gladness of heart is the life of a man, and a man's joy is length of days.
23| Love your own soul and comfort your heart, and put grief far away from you; for grief has killed many people, and there is no profit to be found in it at all.
24| Envy and anger shorten one's days, and anxiety brings on old age before its time. [13] A bright and good heart takes care over its meals.
25| Like a gleaner following behind the grape-gatherers — by the Lord's blessing I arrived early, and filled the winepress like one who treads the grapes.
26| Understand that I did not labor for myself alone, but for all who seek instruction.
27| Hear me, great ones of the people, and you leaders of the assembly, give ear.
28| To son and wife, to brother and friend, do not give power over yourself while you live; and do not hand your wealth over to another, lest you change your mind and have to beg for it back.
29| While you still live and have breath in you, do not exchange yourself for any flesh.
30| For it is better that your children should ask of you than that you should look to the hands of your sons.
31| In all your undertakings keep the upper hand; let no stain come upon your honor.
32| On the day your life's days are completed, and at the time of your death, distribute your inheritance.
33| Fodder and a stick and burdens for a donkey; bread and discipline and work for a servant.
34| Set your servant to work, and you will find rest; leave his hands idle, and he will seek freedom.
35| Yoke and strap will bend the neck, and for a wicked servant there are racks and tortures;
36| put him to work, so that he is not idle,
37| for idleness has taught a great deal of wickedness;
38| assign him to tasks as befits him, and if he does not obey, weigh down his fetters. But do not go to excess with any flesh, and do nothing without judgment.
39| If you have a servant, let him be as yourself, for you acquired him with blood; if you have a servant, treat him as your own soul, for you will need him as your own life;
40| but if you mistreat him and he runs off and flees, on which road will you go looking for him?
1| Empty and false are the hopes of the senseless man, and dreams give wings to fools.
2| Like a man grasping at a shadow and chasing the wind, so is the one who puts his trust in dreams.
3| This vision of dreams is over against that one, the likeness of a face set opposite a face.
4| From what is unclean, what can be made clean? And from what is false, what can prove true?
5| Divinations and omens and dreams are worthless things, and the heart imagines like a woman in labor.
6| Unless it is sent from the Most High as a visitation, do not set your heart on them.
7| Dreams have led many astray, and those who put their hope in them have fallen.
8| Without falsehood the law will be fulfilled, and wisdom is perfection in a trustworthy mouth.
9| A man who is trained knows many things, and the man of much experience will tell out his understanding.
10| One who has not been tested knows little,
11| but the one who has wandered will multiply cunning.
12| Many things have I seen in my wanderings, and my understanding is greater than my words.
13| Many times I was in danger even to death, and I was delivered for the sake of these things.
14| The spirit of those who fear the Lord will live,
15| for their hope is in the one who saves them.
16| The one who fears the Lord will not be timid, and will not play the coward, for the Lord himself is his hope.
17| Blessed is the soul of the one who fears the Lord.
18| On whom does he depend? And who is his support?
19| The eyes of the Lord are on those who love him, a shield of might and a support of strength, a shelter from scorching heat and a shelter from the noonday sun, a guard from stumbling and a help from falling.
20| He lifts up the soul and gives light to the eyes; he grants healing, life, and blessing.
21| The one who sacrifices from what is unjustly gained offers a mockery of an offering,
22| and the mockeries of the lawless do not win favor.
23| The Most High does not delight in the offerings of the impious, nor is he propitiated for sins by a multitude of sacrifices.
24| The one who brings a sacrifice from the possessions of the poor is like one who slaughters a son before his father's eyes.
25| Bread is life to the poor and needy; the one who withholds it is a man of bloodshed.
26| The one who takes away another's livelihood murders his neighbor,
27| and the one who cheats a hired worker of his wages sheds blood.
28| One builds and one tears down — what have they gained but toil?
29| One prays and one curses — whose voice will the Master listen to?
30| The one who washes himself after touching a corpse, and then touches it again — what did his washing profit him?
31| So too a man fasting for his sins, and then going and doing the same things again — who will listen to his prayer? And what did it profit him to humble himself?
1| Whoever keeps the law multiplies offerings,
2| and whoever heeds the commandments is sacrificing a peace offering.
3| The one who returns a kindness offers fine flour,
4| and the one who gives alms is sacrificing a thank offering.
5| It is the Lord's good pleasure to turn away from wickedness, and to turn away from injustice is an atonement.
6| Do not appear before the face of the Lord empty-handed,
7| for all these things are done for the sake of the commandment.
8| The offering of a righteous man enriches the altar, and its fragrance rises before the Most High.
9| The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable, and its memorial will not be forgotten.
10| Glorify the Lord with a generous eye, and do not stint the firstfruits of your hands.
11| With every gift make your face cheerful, and with gladness consecrate your tithe.
12| Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as your hand has found.
13| For the Lord repays, and he will repay you sevenfold.
14| Do not offer a bribe, for he will not accept it,
15| and do not rely on an unjust sacrifice, since the Lord is the judge, and he shows no partiality toward anyone.
16| He will not show partiality against the poor, and he will listen to the plea of the wronged.
17| He will not disregard the supplication of the orphan, nor the widow when she pours out her complaint.
18| Do not the widow's tears run down her cheek,
19| and her outcry rise against the one who caused them to fall?
20| The one who serves God with good will shall be accepted, and his prayer will reach to the clouds.
21| The prayer of the humble pierces through the clouds, and until it draws near he is not consoled, nor will he rest until the Most High takes notice,
22| and judges justly and executes judgment. And the Lord will not delay, nor will he be patient with them, until he crushes the loins of the merciless,
23| and repays vengeance on the nations, until he removes the multitude of the insolent and shatters the scepters of the unjust,
24| until he repays each man according to his deeds, and the works of men according to their designs,
25| until he judges the cause of his people and gladdens them by his mercy.
26| Beautiful is mercy in the time of one's distress, like clouds of rain in a time of drought.
1| Have mercy on us, Master, God of all,
2| and look upon us, and cast your fear upon all the nations.
3| Lift up your hand against foreign nations, and let them see your might.
4| As you were shown holy among us in their sight, so be shown great among them in ours,
5| and let them come to know you, just as we have come to know, that there is no God but you, Lord.
6| Renew signs and repeat wonders,
7| glorify your hand and your right arm.
8| Rouse your fury and pour out your wrath,
9| remove the adversary and crush the enemy.
10| Hasten the time and remember the oath, and let them recount your mighty deeds.
11| Let him who survives be consumed by the fury of fire, and let those who wrong your people meet destruction.
12| Crush the heads of the enemy's rulers, who say, "There is no one but us."
13| Gather all the tribes of Jacob,
1| Sleeplessness over wealth wastes away the flesh, and anxiety over it drives off sleep.
2| Anxious sleeplessness will banish slumber, and a heavy sickness will shake off sleep.
3| The rich man toils to amass money, and in his rest he is filled with his luxuries.
4| The poor man toils in the diminishing of his livelihood, and even in his rest he is left in want.
5| The one who loves gold will not be justified, and the one who chases after corruption will himself be filled with it.
6| Many have been given over to ruin for the sake of gold, and their destruction has come right before their eyes.
7| It is a stumbling-block of wood to those who are devoted to it, and every fool will be caught by it.
8| Blessed is the rich man who is found blameless, and who has not gone chasing after gold.
9| Who is he, that we may call him blessed? For he has done wonders among his people.
10| Who has been tested by it and been found complete? Let it be a cause for boasting. Who could have transgressed and did not transgress, and could have done evil and did not do it?
11| His prosperity will be made secure, and the assembly will recount his acts of mercy.
12| Have you sat down at a great table? Do not open your throat wide over it, and do not say, 'There is certainly a lot on it!'
13| Remember that an evil eye is a bad thing. What has been created more evil than the eye? For that reason it sheds tears at the sight of every face.
14| Wherever it looks, do not stretch out your hand, and do not crowd in on your neighbor at the dish.
15| Judge your neighbor's wants by your own, and think it over in every matter.
16| Eat what is set before you like a human being, and do not chew greedily, lest you be hated.
17| Be the first to stop, out of good manners, and do not be insatiable, lest you give offense.
18| And if you are seated in the midst of many, do not reach out your hand before the rest of them.
19| A little is enough for a well-mannered man, and he does not pant for breath on his bed.
20| Healthy sleep comes with a moderate stomach; he gets up at dawn clear-headed and alert. But the pain of sleeplessness, and nausea, and gripping pain accompany the insatiable man.
21| And if you have been forced into overeating, get up, go apart, and vomit, and you will find relief.
22| Listen to me, child, and do not despise me, and in the end you will find my words true. In all your works be diligent, and no sickness will ever come upon you.
23| Lips will bless the one who is generous with his bread, and the testimony to his fine character is trustworthy.
24| The city will grumble against the one who is stingy with his bread, and the testimony to his meanness is precise and sure.
25| Do not try to prove your manhood over wine, for wine has destroyed many.
26| The furnace tests the temper of steel by dipping it; so does wine test hearts in the quarreling of the proud.
27| Wine is life to a man, if he drinks it in its proper measure. What is life to a man deprived of wine? It was created from the beginning for the joy of mankind.
28| Wine drunk in season and in moderation is gladness of heart and joy of soul.
29| Wine drunk to excess is bitterness of soul, in provocation and stumbling.
30| Drunkenness increases the fury of a fool until he stumbles, diminishing his strength and multiplying his wounds.
31| At a wine party do not reprove your neighbor, and do not treat him with contempt in his merriment. Do not speak a word of reproach to him, and do not press him hard by demanding repayment.
1| Have they made you the head of the table? Do not be lifted up; be among them as one of them, look after them, and only then take your seat.
2| When you have seen to all your duties, recline, so that you may be cheered on their account, and so that you may win a crown for your good order.
3| Speak, elder, for it is fitting for you, but with exact knowledge, and do not hinder the music.
4| Where there is a performance, do not pour out talk, and do not show off your wisdom out of season.
5| A seal of ruby set in gold ornament — that is a concert of musicians at a banquet of wine.
6| A seal of emerald in a golden setting — that is a melody of musicians over sweet wine.
7| Speak, young man, if you must, but scarcely twice, and only if you are asked.
8| Sum up your speech, much in few words; be like one who knows, and yet keeps silent at the same time.
9| In the company of the great do not make yourself their equal, and when another is speaking do not chatter on.
10| Lightning runs ahead of thunder, and favor will go before a modest man.
11| Rise up in good time and do not linger last of all; hurry off home and do not be careless.
12| There amuse yourself and follow your own thoughts, but do not sin by a proud word.
13| And for all this, bless the one who made you and fills you to gladness from his good things.
14| The one who fears the Lord will accept discipline, and those who rise early will find favor.
15| The one who seeks the law will be filled with it, but the one who plays the hypocrite will stumble over it.
16| Those who fear the Lord will find justice, and they will kindle righteous deeds like a light.
17| A sinful man will turn away from reproof, and he will find a judgment to suit his own wish.
18| A man of counsel will not overlook a thought; a stranger and a proud man will not cower in fear, even after acting on his own without counsel.
19| Do nothing without counsel, and once you have acted, do not regret it.
20| Do not walk on a path set with pitfalls, and do not stumble over stony places.
21| Do not trust a way that seems free of stumbling,
22| and be on your guard even with your own children.
23| In every undertaking trust your own soul, for this too is a keeping of the commandments.
24| The one who trusts the law holds fast to the commandments, and the one who relies on the Lord will not be brought low.
1| No evil will meet the one who fears the Lord, but in trial he will be rescued again.
2| A wise man will not hate the law, but the one who is a hypocrite toward it is like a boat in a storm.
3| A sensible man will trust the law, and the law is faithful to him like an oracle from the Urim.
4| Prepare your speech and so you will be heard; bind up your instruction and give your answer.
5| The gut of a fool is like a cart's wheel, and his reasoning turns like an axle.
6| A stallion in heat is like a mocking friend — it neighs under whoever sits on it.
7| Why does one day surpass another, when all the daylight of the year comes from the sun?
8| By the Lord's knowledge they were distinguished, and he made the seasons and feasts different from one another;
9| some of them he exalted and made holy, and some of them he set among ordinary days.
10| And every human being comes from soil, since Adam was formed out of dust;
11| but in the fullness of his understanding the Lord distinguished them, and made their ways different.
12| Some among them he favored and lifted up, sanctifying them and drawing them close to himself; others he condemned and humbled, casting them down from their place.
13| Like clay in a potter's hand, all its ways according to his good pleasure, so men are in the hand of him who made them, to repay them according to his judgment.
14| Opposite evil stands good, and opposite death, life; so opposite the godly man stands the sinner.
15| And in just this way look at all the works of the Most High: two by two, one set against the other.
16| And I, coming last, have kept watch, like one who gleans after the grape-gatherers.
17| Have mercy on your people, Lord, called by your name, and on Israel, whom you have made like a firstborn son.
18| Have compassion on the city of your sanctuary, Jerusalem, the city of your resting place.
19| Fill Zion with the telling of your mighty deeds, and your people with your glory.
20| Give testimony to those who were your creatures from the beginning, and raise up the prophecies spoken in your name.
21| Give a reward to those who wait for you, and let your prophets be found trustworthy.
22| Hear, Lord, the prayer of your suppliants, according to the blessing of Aaron over your people, and let all who are on the earth know that you are the Lord, the God of the ages.
23| The stomach will eat any food, yet there is food that is better than other food.
24| The palate tastes the meats of the hunt; so a discerning heart tastes false words.
25| A crooked heart will bring grief, but a man of much experience will pay it back.
26| A woman will take any man, but one daughter is better than another daughter.
27| A woman's beauty makes the face bright, and surpasses every desire of man.
28| If there is on her tongue kindness and gentleness, her husband is beyond the common lot of men.
29| He who acquires a wife acquires the best of possessions, a helper fit for him and a pillar of support.
30| Where there is no fence, property will be plundered; and where there is no wife, a man wanders about and groans.
31| For who will trust a nimble robber that slips from city to city? So it is with a man who has no nest, who lodges wherever night finds him.
1| Every friend will say, "I too have made friends with him"; but there is a friend who is a friend in name only.
2| Is it not a grief that reaches to death, when a companion and friend turns into an enemy?
3| O wicked inclination, from where were you rolled in to cover the dry land with deceit?
4| A companion of a friend rejoices in his good times, but in a time of trouble he will stand against him.
5| A companion labors with his friend for the sake of his belly, but in the face of war he will pick up the shield.
6| Do not forget a friend in your soul, and do not fail to remember him among your possessions.
7| Every counselor holds out advice, but there is one who advises for his own benefit.
8| Guard your soul against a counselor, and know beforehand what his interest is; for he too is weighing what serves him, in case he throws the dice against you,
9| and say to you, "Your way is good," while he stands off to see what will happen to you.
10| Do not take counsel with one who looks at you with suspicion, and hide your plan from those who envy you.
11| Nor with a woman about her rival, nor with a coward about war, nor with a merchant about a trade, nor with a buyer about a sale, nor with a grudging man about gratitude, nor with a merciless man about kindness, nor with a lazy man about any work, nor with a hired laborer, done for the season, about finishing a task, nor with an idle servant about a heavy workload — do not rely on people like these for any counsel at all.
12| Instead, keep close to a godly man, one you know to be a keeper of the commandments, whose soul is like your own, and who will grieve with you if you stumble.
13| And set up the counsel of your own heart, for you have no one more faithful than it.
14| For a man's soul is sometimes accustomed to bring him word better than seven watchmen sitting high up on a watchtower.
15| And above all these things beg the Most High that he may guide your way in truth.
16| The beginning of every work is a word, and before every action there is a plan.
17| The heart leaves its trace in a change of countenance.
18| Four kinds of things spring up — good and evil, life and death — and the tongue is what rules over them continually.
19| There is a man clever and a teacher of many, and yet he is useless to his own soul.
20| There is one who is skilled in words yet hateful, and he will be left wanting every good thing;
21| for grace was not given him from the Lord, since he has been deprived of all wisdom.
22| There is one who is wise to his own soul, and the fruits of his understanding are trustworthy on his lips.
23| A wise man will instruct his own people, and the fruits of his understanding are trustworthy.
24| A wise man will be filled with blessing, and all who see him will call him happy.
25| The life of a man is measured in a number of days, but the days of Israel are without number.
26| The wise man will inherit trust among his people, and his name will live on forever.
27| Child, test your soul during your life, and see what is bad for it, and do not give that to it.
28| For not everything is good for everyone, nor does every soul delight in every thing.
29| Do not be greedy for every delicacy, and do not pour yourself out upon rich food;
30| for in much food there will be sickness, and gluttony will bring one right up to illness.
31| Many have died through gluttony, but the one who is careful will add to his life.
1| Honor the physician with the honor due him, for his services, for the Lord created him too.
2| For healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king.
3| The physician's skill lifts up his head, and he is admired in the presence of great men.
4| The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them.
5| Was not water made sweet by a piece of wood, so that his power might be known?
6| And he gave men skill, that he might be glorified in his wonders;
7| by them he heals, and takes away pain,
8| and the pharmacist makes a compound from these. His works will never be finished, and from him well-being extends over the face of the earth.
9| My child, when you are sick do not neglect yourself, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10| Put away wrongdoing and make your hands upright, and cleanse your heart from every sin.
11| Offer a sweet-smelling memorial offering of fine flour, and make the offering rich, as much as you can afford.
12| And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him too, and do not let him leave you, for you need him as well.
13| There is a time when success is in their hands,
14| for they too will beseech the Lord, that he may grant them success in giving relief and healing, for the sake of life.
15| Whoever offends the One who formed him should end up needing the doctor's care.
16| My child, let your tears fall over the dead, and begin the lament as one suffering terribly; wrap his body according to what is due him, and do not neglect his burial.
17| Weep bitterly and beat your breast in mourning, and observe the mourning he deserves, a day or two, to avoid gossip, and then be comforted, for grief's sake.
18| For from grief comes death, and grief of heart saps one's strength.
19| In continued sorrow grief goes too far, and the life of the poor weighs on the heart.
20| Do not give your heart over to grief; put it away, remembering the end that comes to all.
21| Do not forget him, for there is no coming back; you will do him no good, and you will harm yourself.
22| Remember that his judgment is as yours will be: mine yesterday, and yours today.
23| Once the departed one has found peace, let his memory settle too, and take comfort now that his spirit has gone forth.
24| The wisdom of the scribe comes from having leisure to study, and whoever has little business to attend to becomes wise.
25| How can one become wise who holds the plow, whose pride is in wielding the goad, who drives oxen and is occupied with their work, and whose talk is of bulls?
26| He sets his heart on plowing the furrows straight, and his diligence is spent on fodder for heifers.
27| So it is with every craftsman and master builder who labors by night as by day; those who cut the engravings of seals, whose patience is spent varying the design; he sets his heart on making the likeness true, and his diligence is to finish the work.
28| So it is with the smith sitting by the anvil, intent on the unfinished iron; the breath of the fire scorches his flesh, and he wrestles with the heat of the furnace; the sound of the hammer deafens his ear, and his eyes are fixed on the pattern of the vessel; he sets his heart on finishing his work, and his diligence is to perfect it.
29| So it is with the potter sitting at his work, turning the wheel with his feet, who is constantly anxious over his work, and all his labor is measured by count;
30| with his arm he shapes the clay, and before his feet he bends his strength; he sets his heart on finishing the glazing, and his diligence is to clean the kiln.
31| All these put their trust in their hands, and each becomes skilled in his own work.
32| Without them no city could be inhabited, and men would neither settle nor go about their lives.
33| Yet they are not sought out for the public assembly, nor do they rise to prominence in the popular assembly; they do not sit on the judge's seat, nor do they understand the decisions of the law; they cannot expound instruction or judgment, and they are not found among those who speak in proverbs.
34| But they maintain the fabric of the world, and their prayer is in the practice of their craft.
1| But he who devotes his soul and sets his mind upon the law of the Most High will search after the understanding held by every sage of old, and will occupy himself with prophecies;
2| he will preserve the accounts of men of renown, and will enter into the twists and turns of parables;
3| he will search out the hidden meanings of proverbs, and busy himself with the riddles of parables.
4| He will serve among the great, and will appear before rulers; he will travel through the lands of foreign nations, for he has tested what is good and what is evil among men.
5| He will set his heart to rise early to the Lord who made him, and will make his plea before the Most High; he will open his mouth in prayer, and will plead concerning his sins.
6| If the great Lord is willing, he will be filled with a spirit of understanding; he himself will pour forth words of wisdom, and in prayer will give thanks to the Lord;
7| he himself will direct his own counsel and knowledge, and will meditate upon his hidden things;
8| he himself will bring to light the instruction he has been taught, and will boast in the law of the Lord's covenant.
9| Many will praise his understanding, and it will never be blotted out to the age; his memory will not depart, and his name will live for generations of generations;
10| nations will recount his wisdom, and the assembly will proclaim his praise;
11| if he continues, he will leave behind a name greater than a thousand, and if he goes to his rest, that very rest becomes his gain.
12| Still thinking further, I will tell it out, for I am filled as full as the moon at its height.
13| Listen to me, devout sons, and sprout up like a rose planted by a flowing stream,
14| and give forth fragrance like frankincense, and put out blossom like the lily; spread abroad your scent, and lift up a song of praise. Bless the Lord for all his works,
15| ascribe greatness to his name, and give him thanks with praise, with songs upon your lips and with harps, and thus you shall say in your thanksgiving:
16| The works of the Lord are all very good, and every one of his commands will be fulfilled in its own time;
17| no one may say, 'What is this? Why is this?' for everything will be sought out in its own time. At his word the water stood still like a heap, and at the utterance of his mouth the reservoirs of the waters gathered.
18| In his command lies all his good pleasure, and there is none who can diminish his saving power.
19| Everything that mortal creatures do lies open before him, and it is not possible to hide from his eyes;
20| he has looked out from age to age, and there is nothing marvelous in his sight.
21| No one may say, 'What is this? Why is this?' for everything has been created for its own purpose.
22| His blessing covers over like a river, and like a flood it has drenched the dry land;
23| so also his wrath will be the inheritance of the nations, just as he turned waters into salt marsh.
24| His ways are straight for the devout, and just so they are stumbling-blocks for the lawless;
25| good things were created from the beginning for the good, and just so evil things for sinners.
26| The chief of all things needed for the life of man are water, fire, iron, and salt, wheat flour, honey, and milk, the blood of the grape, oil, and clothing;
27| all these things turn out for good to the godly, and just so they turn out for evil to sinners.
28| There are spirits that were created for vengeance, and in their fury they have made their scourges strong; in the time of the consummation they will pour out their strength, and will appease the wrath of him who made them.
29| Fire and hail, hunger and plague — every one of these came into being to punish;
30| the teeth of wild beasts, and scorpions, and vipers, and the sword taking vengeance to destroy the ungodly,
31| in his command they rejoice, and are kept ready on the earth for their uses, and in their appointed times they will not overstep his word.
32| For this reason I was resolved from the beginning, and gave it thought, and left it in writing:
33| The works of the Lord are all good, and he will supply every need in its hour;
34| and no one may say, 'This is worse than that,' for all things will prove their worth in their season.
35| And now sing praise with your whole heart and voice, and bless the name of the Lord.
1| Great toil has been created for every man, and a heavy yoke rests on Adam's children, from the day they emerge from their mother's womb until the day they are buried in the mother of all.
2| Their reasonings and the fear of their heart, the anxious foreboding of expectation, the day of their end;
3| from the one sitting on a throne in glory to the one humbled in dust and ashes,
4| from the one wearing purple and a crown to the one clothed in sackcloth;
5| wrath and envy and turmoil and unrest and fear of death and a grudge that will not fade, plus quarreling. And during his hours of rest in bed, nighttime sleep changes what he perceives;
6| he rests a little, as though it were nothing, and from then on in his sleep it is as on a day of watching, troubled by the visions of his heart, like one who has fled from the face of battle;
7| at the moment of his safety he awakes, and marvels that there was no fear at all.
8| With all flesh, from man to beast, and upon sinners sevenfold beyond these,
9| are death and blood and strife and the sword,
10| calamities and famine and affliction and plague — all these were created for the lawless, and because of them the flood came.
11| All that is from the earth returns to the earth, and what is from the waters returns to the sea.
12| Every bribe and injustice will be blotted out, but faithfulness will stand forever.
13| The wealth of the unjust will dry up like a river, and like a great peal of thunder in a rainstorm it will resound.
14| As he opens his hands he will rejoice; so those who transgress will fail utterly in the end.
15| The offspring of the ungodly will not put out many branches, and their unclean roots are on a bare rock.
16| Reeds by any water and on the river's edge are plucked up before any other grass.
17| Kindness is like a garden of blessings, and mercy endures forever.
18| The life of a self-sufficient worker is sweet, but better than both is the one who finds a treasure.
19| Children and the founding of a city establish a name, but better than both is a blameless wife.
20| Wine and music gladden the heart, but better than both is the love of wisdom.
21| The flute and the harp make sweet melody, but better than both is a pleasant tongue.
22| Your eye will desire grace and beauty, but better than both is the green shoot of the sown field.
23| A friend and a companion meet in season, but better than both is a wife with her husband.
24| Brothers and helpers are for a time of trouble, but better than both mercy delivers.
25| Gold and silver will make a foot stand firm, but better than both is being well regarded for one's wife.
26| Wealth and strength lift up the heart, but better than both is the fear of the Lord; in the fear of the Lord there is no lack, and with it there is no need to seek help.
27| The fear of the Lord is like a garden of blessing, and it has covered over all other glory.
28| Child, do not live the life of a beggar; better to die than to beg.
29| A man who looks to another's table — his life is not to be reckoned as life; he defiles his soul with another's food; but a man of understanding and discipline will guard himself.
30| In the mouth of the shameless begging tastes sweet, but in his belly a fire will burn.
1| Death, how harsh is your memory to a man living peacefully amid his possessions, to a man untroubled and prospering in everything, and still strong enough to enjoy his food.
2| O death, good is your sentence to a man in need and failing in strength, worn out with age and anxious about everything, one who resists and has lost all patience.
3| Do not fear death's sentence; remember those who came before you and those who will come after.
4| This is the sentence from the Lord upon all flesh, so why do you refuse the good pleasure of the Most High? Whether it is ten years or a hundred or a thousand, in Hades there is no reproach for a shortened life.
5| Children who are abominable become the children of sinners, and they keep company with the households of the ungodly.
6| The inheritance of sinful children will perish, and disgrace will endure along with their offspring.
7| Children will blame an ungodly father, because on his account they will be reproached.
8| Woe to you, ungodly men, who have abandoned the law of God the Most High.
9| And if you are born, you will be born for a curse, and if you die, a curse will be your portion.
10| Everything that comes from the earth will return to the earth; so the ungodly go from a curse to destruction.
11| Men's mourning is over their bodies, but the good name of sinners will be blotted out.
12| Take care about your name, for it will remain with you longer than a thousand great treasures of gold.
13| A good life has its number of days, but a good name remains forever.
14| Keep instruction in peace, my children; but wisdom hidden away and treasure unseen — what use is there in either?
15| Better is a man who hides his folly than a man who hides his wisdom.
16| So take this teaching to heart: it is not right to keep every kind of shame, and not everything wins approval from all in good faith.
17| Be ashamed before father and mother concerning sexual immorality, and before a ruler and a man of power concerning falsehood,
18| before a judge and a magistrate concerning wrongdoing, before the assembly and the people concerning lawlessness, before a partner and a friend concerning injustice,
19| and before the place where you dwell concerning theft, and before God's truth and his covenant, concerning leaning your elbow on the bread, concerning rude behavior in giving and receiving,
20| and before those who greet you, concerning silence, before the sight of a prostitute,
21| and before turning away the face of a kinsman, concerning taking away a portion and a gift, and before gazing upon a married woman,
22| concerning meddling with his maidservant — and do not approach her bed; before friends concerning words of reproach, and after giving, do not reproach.
1| about repeating a matter or a report you have heard, and about revealing hidden words; then you will truly be a man of tact, and one who finds favor before everyone. But do not be ashamed over these things, and do not show partiality so as to sin—
2| about the law of the Most High and the covenant, and about giving judgment to justify the ungodly,
3| about accounting with a partner or with fellow travelers, about the division of an inheritance among companions,
4| about exactness in scales and weights, about acquiring much or little,
5| about impartial dealing in trade and with merchants, and about disciplining children thoroughly, and about drawing blood from a wicked servant's side—
6| over a wicked wife a seal is good, and where there are many hands, keep things locked up.
7| whatever you hand over, let it be counted and weighed, and put every giving and receiving in writing.
8| do not be ashamed to correct the senseless and the foolish, or the very old man who is being judged by the young; then you will truly be a man of instruction, and approved before every living person.
9| a daughter is a secret cause of sleeplessness to her father, and worry over her drives away sleep: while she is young, for fear she may pass her prime unmarried, and once she is married, for fear she may come to be hated;
10| while a virgin, for fear she may be defiled and become pregnant in her father's house; once she has a husband, for fear she may go astray, and once she is married, for fear she may prove barren.
11| over a headstrong daughter keep a strict watch, or else she may make you a laughingstock to your enemies, gossip fodder for the townsfolk and a disgrace among the community, and shame you before the whole assembly.
12| do not gaze upon anyone for their beauty, and do not sit in the company of women.
13| for from clothing comes forth the moth, and from a woman comes a woman's wickedness.
14| better is a man's wickedness than a woman's kindness, for a woman who brings shame is a disgrace.
15| now I will call to mind the works of the Lord, and I will describe what I have seen; by the words of the Lord his works came to be.
16| the sun, shining, has looked out over everything, and his work is full of his glory.
17| the Lord has not enabled even his holy ones to recount all his wonders, which the Lord Almighty has established, that the universe might stand firm in his glory.
18| he has searched out the deep and the heart, and he has understood their crafty schemes; for the Lord knows all knowledge, and he has looked into the sign of the age,
19| declaring what has passed and what is to come, and uncovering the traces of hidden things.
20| no thought escapes him, and not a single word is hidden from him.
21| he has adorned the great works of his wisdom; and he exists before the age and unto the age, he has neither been increased nor diminished, and he has needed the counsel of no one.
22| how desirable are all his works, and how like a spark it is to behold them!
23| all these things live and endure forever, each for its own use, and all obey him.
24| all things come in pairs, one corresponding to the other, and he has made nothing incomplete;
25| each strengthens the good of the other, and who could ever have enough of gazing at his glory?
1| The pride of the height, the clear vault above, the sky's very shape in a vision of glory.
2| The sun, when it appears announcing the day at its rising, is a marvelous vessel, the work of the Most High.
3| At its noon it parches the land, and before its scorching heat who can stand?
4| It tends a furnace in works of burning heat, the sun blazing on the mountains threefold; breathing out fiery vapors, and flashing forth its beams, it dims the eyes.
5| Great is the Lord who made it, and by his words it hastens on its course.
6| And the moon too, always on time for its season, marking off the seasons and a sign for the age.
7| From the moon comes the sign for the feast, a light that wanes to its full end.
8| The month is named for her, growing wonderfully as she changes — a vessel of the array on high, shining in the vault of heaven.
9| The beauty of the sky, the glory of the stars, an ornament shining in the heights, belonging to the Lord.
10| At the holy words they stand at their post, and they never grow slack in their watches.
11| Look at the rainbow, and bless the one who made it; it is very beautiful in its brightness.
12| It rings the sky in a circle of glory; the hands of the Most High have stretched it out.
13| By his command he sends the snow, and he speeds the lightnings of his judgment.
14| For this the storehouses are opened, and the clouds fly out like birds.
15| By his mighty power he made the clouds strong, and the stones of hail were broken small.
16| At the sight of him the mountains are shaken; at his will the south wind blows.
17| The voice of his thunder rebukes the earth, and the storm from the north, and the whirling wind. Like birds swooping down he scatters the snow, and its descent is like the settling of locusts.
18| The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the heart is astonished at its falling.
19| And frost like salt he pours upon the earth, and when it freezes it forms sharp points like thorns.
20| The cold north wind blows, and ice freezes from the water; it settles on every gathering of water, and the water puts it on like a breastplate.
21| It devours the mountains and burns up the wilderness, and quenches the green growth like fire.
22| The healing of all things comes swiftly as mist; the dew, arriving after the scorching heat, brings refreshment.
23| By his own reasoning he calmed the deep, and he planted islands in it.
24| Those who sail the sea tell of its danger, and we marvel when we hear it with our ears.
25| And there are its astonishing and marvelous works, the variety of every living thing, the creation of sea monsters.
26| Through him its outcome comes to a sweet end, and by his word all things hold together.
27| We could say much and still not reach the end; the sum of all our words is this — he is everything.
28| Where shall we find strength to glorify him? For he himself is greater than all his works.
29| The Lord is to be feared, and he is very great, and his power is a marvel.
30| When you praise the Lord, lift him up as high as your strength allows; for he will still surpass it. And when you lift him up in this way, use all your might; do not grow weary, for you will never reach the end.
31| Who has seen him, that he could describe him? And who can magnify him as he truly is?
32| Many hidden things are greater than these, for we have seen only a few of his works.
33| For the Lord has made all things, and to the godly he has given wisdom.
1| A hymn of the fathers. Come, let us sing the praises of renowned men, our ancestors through the ages.
2| The Lord created abundant glory, his greatness from of old.
3| Some ruled in their kingdoms, and were men renowned for power; they gave counsel by their understanding, and spoke out as prophets;
4| leaders of the people by their deliberations and by their understanding of the people's writing, wise in their teaching were their words;
5| others sought out musical melodies, and set out verses in writing;
6| rich men endowed with strength, living in peace in their dwellings—
7| all these were glorified in their generations, and were a boast in their days.
8| There are some of them who left a name, so that their praises are told;
9| and there are some who have no memorial, who perished as though they had not existed, and became as though they had never been born, they and their children after them.
10| But these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;
11| with their descendants a good inheritance remains, their children's children. In the covenants
12| their offspring have stood firm, and their children for their sake;
13| their offspring will remain forever, and their glory will not be blotted out;
14| their bodies were buried in peace, and their name lives on for generations;
15| peoples will tell of their wisdom, and the assembly proclaims their praise.
16| Enoch pleased the Lord and was taken up, an example of repentance to the generations.
17| Noah proved blameless and upright; during a season of divine anger he served as a replacement; on his account a remnant survived on the earth when the deluge arrived.
18| Everlasting covenants were made with him, that all flesh should not be blotted out by a flood.
19| Abraham was the great father of a multitude of nations, and no one was found like him in glory,
20| who observed the precepts of the Most High, and joined himself to a covenant with him; in his own body he confirmed the covenant, and under testing he proved faithful.
21| Therefore the Lord confirmed to him by an oath that the nations would be blessed in his offspring, that he would multiply him like grains of earthly soil, and lift his offspring high like the stars, and grant them a possession stretching from one sea to another and from the River all the way to the ends of the earth.
22| And in Isaac he established the same, for the sake of Abraham his father, a blessing for all mankind, and a covenant,
23| and he made it rest on the head of Jacob; he acknowledged him with his blessings, and gave him his inheritance; he divided his portions, and apportioned them among twelve tribes; and he brought forth from him a man of mercy, who found favor in the eyes of all flesh.
1| Moses, beloved by God and men, whose memory is held in blessings.
2| He made him equal in glory to the holy ones, and made him great in the fears of his enemies.
3| By his words he stopped signs and wonders; he glorified him before the face of kings. He gave him commands for his people, and showed him something of his own glory.
4| In faith and meekness he made him holy; he chose him out of all flesh.
5| He let Moses listen to his own voice, and led him into the dense cloud-darkness, and handed him the commandments face to face, a law of life and knowledge, to teach Jacob his covenant, and Israel his judgments.
6| He exalted Aaron, a holy man like to Moses, his brother, of the tribe of Levi.
7| He established for him an everlasting covenant, and gave him the priesthood of the people; he blessed him with splendor, and girded him with a robe of glory.
8| He clothed him with the perfection of glory, and strengthened him with garments of authority — the breeches, the long robe, and the ephod.
9| And he encircled him with pomegranates, and with very many golden bells all around, to sound out a note at his steps, to make heard a sound in the temple as a reminder for the sons of his people.
10| With a holy robe of gold and violet and purple, crafted by an embroiderer, together with a breastplate for judgment and the Urim of truth,
11| with twisted scarlet, the work of a craftsman, with precious stones engraved like a seal, set in gold, the work of a jeweler, engraved in writing as a reminder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
12| A golden crown upon the turban, an engraving of a seal of holiness, an honor of dignity, a work of strength, desires of the eyes, richly adorned.
13| Before him nothing like this had ever been made; no stranger ever put it on, but only his sons, and his descendants forever.
14| His sacrifices shall be wholly burned continually, twice each day.
15| Moses filled his hands and anointed him with holy oil; it became for him an everlasting covenant, and for his offspring throughout the days of heaven, to minister to the Lord and serve as priest, and to bless his people in his name.
16| He chose him out of all the living, to bring the offering to the Lord, incense and sweet savor for a memorial, to make atonement for your people.
17| He gave him authority in his commandments, power in the covenants of judgments, to teach Jacob the testimonies, and to instruct Israel in his law.
18| Strangers rose up against him and were jealous of him in the wilderness, the men of Dathan and Abiram, and the company of Korah, in wrath and anger.
19| The Lord saw it and was not pleased, and they were consumed in the wrath of his anger; he worked wonders against them, to devour them in the flame of his fire.
20| And he added glory to Aaron, and gave him an inheritance; he divided to them the firstfruits of the early produce; he prepared bread in abundance for them first.
21| For they were to eat from the offerings made to the Lord, which he granted to Aaron and to his descendants.
22| Yet in the land held by the people he shall have no inheritance, and he holds no share among the people; for the Lord himself makes up his share and inheritance.
23| And Phinehas son of Eleazar is third in glory, for his ardor in reverence toward the Lord, and for standing firm when the people turned aside, in the goodness of the eagerness of his soul; and he made atonement for Israel.
24| Therefore a covenant of peace was established for him, that he should be leader of the holy things and of his people, so that to him and to his descendants should belong the greatness of the priesthood forever.
25| And a covenant was made with David, son of the tribe of Judah, an inheritance of a king, from son to son alone; the inheritance of Aaron belongs also to his descendants.
26| May he grant you wisdom within, so that you may govern his people with righteousness, so that their good things may not vanish, and their glory may endure to their generations.
1| Joshua son of Nun was mighty in wars, and the successor of Moses in prophecies, who became, true to his name, great in the salvation of God's chosen ones, taking vengeance on the enemies that rose up, that he might give Israel its inheritance.
2| How he was glorified when he raised his arms high and thrust his blade forth against cities!
3| Who before him ever stood so firm? For it was the Lord himself who led on his enemies.
4| Did not the sun stand still by his hand, and one day become as two?
5| He called upon the Most High, the Ruler, when foes surrounded him on all flanks, and the mighty Lord answered him with hailstones of great force,
6| and hurled war down upon the nation, and in the descent destroyed those who opposed him, so that the nations might know his full array of arms, that his warfare was before the Lord; for indeed he followed close behind the Ruler.
7| And in the days of Moses he did an act of mercy — he and Caleb son of Jephunneh — standing firm against the enemy, keeping the people back from sin, and silencing the grumbling of wickedness.
8| And these two alone were saved out of six hundred thousand men on foot, to bring the people into their inheritance, into a land flowing with milk and honey.
9| And the Lord gave strength to Caleb, and it remained with him even into old age, so that he ascended the mountain heights of that country, and his offspring held on to the inheritance,
10| so that every child of Israel would recognize how good it is to follow the Lord.
11| And the judges too, each one by his own name, all those whose heart did not turn to wantonness and who did not turn away from the Lord — may their memory be a blessing;
12| may their bones flourish again from where they rest, and may their name live on, exchanged for that of their glorified sons.
13| Beloved by his Lord was Samuel, prophet of the Lord, who established the kingship and anointed rulers over his people;
14| under the Lord's law he governed the assembly, and the Lord kept watch over Jacob.
15| By his faithfulness he was proved a true prophet, and by his faithfulness he was known to be trustworthy in vision.
16| And he called upon the Lord, the Ruler, when his enemies pressed him on every side, offering a suckling lamb.
17| And the Lord sent thunder out of the sky, and with a mighty roar made himself heard,
18| and he crushed the leaders of Tyre and all the rulers of the Philistines.
19| And before the time of his eternal rest, he bore witness before the Lord and his anointed one: "Money, or so much as a pair of sandals, I have not taken from any man"; and no man brought a charge against him.
20| And even after he had fallen asleep he prophesied, and showed the king his end, and lifted his voice out of the ground in prophecy, to wipe away the lawlessness of the people.
1| And after him Nathan rose up to prophesy in the days of David.
2| As the fat set apart from the peace offering, so was David set apart from the sons of Israel.
3| He toyed with lions the way one plays with young goats, and with bears as though they were flock-lambs.
4| Did he not, while still a youth, slay a giant, and lift the disgrace off his nation, when his hand let fly a stone from the sling and cut down the arrogance of Goliath?
5| For he called upon the Lord Most High, and he gave strength to his right hand to remove a man of war, that he might exalt the horn of his people.
6| So the people gave him glory beyond tens of thousands, and spoke well of him amid the Lord's blessings, when a crown of splendor was brought to him.
7| For he crushed his foes on every flank, and reduced the Philistines, his adversaries, to nothing; he broke their horn, and it remains broken to this day.
8| In every deed of his he gave thanks to the Holy Most High with words of glory; with all his heart he sang praise, and loved him who made him.
9| And he set singers before the altar, that from their sound the melodies might be sweet;
10| he gave the feasts their splendor, and adorned the seasons to their completion, so that when they praised his holy name, the sanctuary rang out from the morning.
11| The Lord lifted away his sins, and raised his horn without end, granting him a royal covenant and a splendid throne over Israel.
12| After him rose a son endowed with understanding, and for his sake he dwelt in wide security;
13| Solomon reigned in days of peace, for whom God gave rest on every side, that he might build a house for his name and prepare a sanctuary forever.
14| How wise you were in your youth, and were filled, like a river, with understanding.
15| Your soul covered the earth, and you filled it with dark sayings and parables;
16| your name went out to islands far off, and you were beloved in your peace;
17| in songs and proverbs and parables, and in the interpreting of them, the lands were amazed at you;
18| in the name of the Lord God, who is called the God of Israel, you gathered gold like tin, and multiplied silver like lead.
19| You bent your loins to women, and let yourself be ruled through your body;
20| you gave a stain to your glory, and profaned your offspring, bringing wrath upon your children, and I was pierced with grief over your folly,
21| in that the sovereignty was split in two, and out of Ephraim arose a disobedient kingdom.
22| But the Lord will not leave his mercy, nor let any of his works be destroyed, nor blot out the offspring of his chosen one, nor take away the seed of him who loved him; and to Jacob he gave a remnant, and to David a root out of him.
23| And Solomon rested with his fathers, and left after him from his offspring, for the people, folly and one lacking in understanding, Rehoboam, who turned the people away from his counsel, and Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin and gave Ephraim a way of sin.
24| And their sins multiplied exceedingly, so as to remove them from their land;
25| for they sought after every wickedness, until vengeance came upon them.
1| Then the prophet Elijah rose up like fire, and his word burned like a torch;
2| he brought a famine upon them, and in his zeal he reduced their numbers;
3| through the Lord's own command he closed off the sky above, and in that same way he called fire down three times.
4| How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wonders! And who is like you, to boast as you did?
5| You who raised the dead from death and from Hades by the word of the Most High;
6| who brought down kings to destruction, and men honored from their beds;
7| who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;
8| who anointed kings for retribution, and prophets to succeed after him;
9| who was carried aloft inside a storm of flame, riding a chariot drawn by horses of fire;
10| who is named in the warnings for the appointed times, to calm wrath before it flares into rage, and to bring the father's heart back toward his child, and to bring back the tribes descended from Jacob.
11| Blessed are those who saw you, and those who have been adorned in love, for we also shall live a true life.
12| Elijah, who was covered in the whirlwind — and Elisha was filled with his spirit; in his days he was not shaken by any ruler, and no one brought him into subjection.
13| No word overpowered him, and in his sleep his body prophesied.
14| In his life he did wonders, and in his death his deeds were marvelous.
15| For all this the people did not repent, and they did not turn away from their sins, until they were carried off as plunder from their land and scattered throughout the whole earth; and the people were left very few, with a ruler still for the house of David.
16| Some of them did what was pleasing, but some multiplied sins.
17| Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought the Gog into its midst; he dug through the sheer rock with iron, and built cisterns for water.
18| In his days Sennacherib came up and sent Rabshakeh, and set out; and he raised his hand against Zion, and boasted greatly in his arrogance.
19| Then their hearts and hands were shaken, and they writhed like women in labor;
20| and they cried out to the merciful Lord, stretching their hands out toward him. And the Holy One in heaven heard them at once, and rescued them through Isaiah's hand;
21| he struck the camp of the Assyrians, and his angel wiped them out.
22| For Hezekiah did what pleased the Lord, and held firmly to the paths his father David had walked, as Isaiah the prophet — great and faithful in his vision — commanded him.
23| In his days the sun went backward, and he added life to the king;
24| with a great spirit he saw the last things, and comforted the mourners in Zion;
25| he showed the things to come, even to the end of the age, and the hidden things before they came to pass.
1| The memory of Josiah is like a blended incense, prepared by the perfumer's craft; it is sweet as honey in every mouth, and like music at a banquet of wine.
2| He was set right in the turning of the people, and he removed the abominations of lawlessness;
3| he directed his heart toward the Lord, and in the days of the lawless he made piety strong.
4| Except for David and Hezekiah and Josiah, all of them committed transgression; for the kings of Judah forsook the law of the Most High, they failed.
5| For they gave their horn to others, and their glory to a foreign nation;
6| they burned down the holy city set apart as the sanctuary, and left her streets deserted, by the hand of Jeremiah;
7| for they mistreated him, though he himself had been sanctified as a prophet from the womb, to root out and to afflict and to destroy, and likewise to build and to plant.
8| Ezekiel, who saw the vision of glory that was shown to him upon the chariot of the cherubim;
9| for he also remembered the enemies in the storm, and he did good to those who directed their ways aright.
10| And may the bones of the twelve prophets flourish again from their place. For he encouraged Jacob, and redeemed them by the faith of hope.
11| How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? He himself was like a seal upon the right hand.
12| So too Jeshua son of Josedek; in their days they built the house and raised up a holy people to the Lord, prepared for everlasting glory.
13| And great is the memory that lives on of him who raised our fallen walls, and set up gates and bars, and rebuilt our ruined homes.
14| No one was ever created upon the earth like Enoch, for he was taken up from the earth;
15| and Joseph became a man, a leader of his brothers, a support of the people, and his bones were cared for.
16| Shem and Seth were honored among men, but above every living being in creation stood Adam.
1| Simon son of Onias, the high priest, who in his lifetime repaired the house, and in his days made the temple strong,
2| and by him the double height was founded, the high retaining wall of the temple precinct,
3| in his days the reservoir of waters was dug out, a basin like the sea in circumference,
4| he who took thought for his people against ruin, and strengthened the city against siege.
5| How glorious he was as the people gathered round him, as he came out from the house of the veil,
6| like the morning star among the clouds, like the full moon in the days of feast,
7| like the sun blazing out over the Most High's sanctuary, and like a rainbow arching in clouds of glory,
8| like a rose in bloom in the days of spring, like lilies by a flowing spring, like a shoot of Lebanon in the days of summer,
9| like fire and frankincense upon the censer, like a vessel of gold hammered solid and adorned with every precious stone,
10| like an olive tree flourishing with fruit, and like a cypress towering into the clouds —
11| when he put on his robe of glory and clothed himself in the fullness of splendor, as he climbed toward the sacred altar he brought glory to the vesture of holiness.
12| And when he received the portions from the hands of the priests, he himself standing beside the hearth of the altar, with his brothers crowned around him like a circle of cedar shoots on Lebanon, they surrounded him like trunks of palm trees,
13| and all the sons of Aaron in their splendor, with the Lord's offering in their hands, before the whole assembly of Israel,
14| bringing the ministry at the altars to its completion, to adorn the offering of the Most High, the Almighty,
15| he stretched out his hand over the libation cup, and poured a drink offering from the blood of the grape, emptying it down at the altar's base, a fragrant odor to the Most High, the King of all.
16| Then the sons of Aaron cried aloud, they sounded on beaten trumpets, they made a great voice heard as a memorial before the Most High.
17| Then all the people together made haste, and fell upon their faces to the ground to worship their Lord, the Almighty God, the Most High.
18| And the singers praised him with their voices, in the vast house the melody was made sweet.
19| And the people entreated the Lord Most High in prayer before the Merciful One, until the order of the Lord's worship was completed and they had finished his service.
20| Then he came down and raised his hands over the whole assembly of the sons of Israel, to speak forth the Lord's blessing from his own lips, taking glory in pronouncing his name,
21| and he repeated it a second time, bowing down to display the blessing from the Most High.
22| And now bless God, all of you, who does great things everywhere, who exalts our days from the womb, and deals with us according to his mercy.
23| May he give you gladness of heart, and may there be peace in our days in Israel, as in the days of old,
24| may he entrust his mercy to us, and in his own days may he redeem us.
25| At two nations my soul is disgusted, and the third is not even a nation:
26| those who live on the mountain of Samaria, the Philistines, and the foolish people who dwell in Shechem.
27| Instruction in understanding and knowledge I have inscribed in this book, Jesus son of Sirach, son of Eleazar, the man of Jerusalem, who poured forth wisdom from his heart.
28| Blessed is he who occupies himself with these things, and he who lays them to heart will become wise;
29| for if he does them, he will have strength for everything, because the Lord's own light illumines his path.
1| A prayer of Jesus son of Sirach. I will give you thanks, Lord and King, and I will praise you, God my savior; I give thanks to your name,
2| for you became a shelter and a helper to me, and you rescued this body of mine out of ruin and clear of the trap set by a slandering tongue, from lips that fashion lies, and before those standing by you became a helper,
3| and you ransomed me, according to the abundance of your mercy and of your name, from the gnashing teeth ready to devour, from the hand of those seeking my life, from the many afflictions I had,
4| from the choking of a fire all around, and from the midst of a fire that I did not kindle,
5| from the depth of the belly of Hades, and from an unclean tongue and a lying word.
6| Slander of an unjust tongue reached the king; my soul praised him even unto death, and my life drew near to Hades below.
7| They hemmed me in on every side, with no one there to help; I looked for the support of men, and there was none.
8| Then I remembered your mercy, Lord, and your work from ages past, that you rescue those who wait for you and save them from the hand of the nations.
9| And I raised my supplication up from the earth, and I begged for rescue from death;
10| I cried out to the Lord, Father of my own Lord, not to abandon me in the days of affliction, in a time when the arrogant were helpless against me.
11| I will praise your name continually, and I will sing hymns in thanksgiving; and my plea was heard.
12| For you saved me from destruction, and you rescued me from an evil time; therefore I will give thanks and praise you, and I will bless the name of the Lord.
13| While I was still young, before I went astray, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer;
14| before the temple I asked for her, and to the very end I will seek her out.
15| From her blossom, like a grape coming to ripeness, my heart rejoiced in her; my foot walked in uprightness, from my youth I tracked her steps.
16| I bent my ear a little and received her, and I found for myself much instruction;
17| I made progress through her; to the one who gives me wisdom I will give glory.
18| For I resolved to put her into practice, and I was zealous for the good, and I shall not be put to shame.
19| My soul struggled fiercely for her, and in the practice of her law I was exact; I stretched out my hands to the heights, and I mourned my ignorance of her;
20| I directed my soul toward her, and I gained a pure heart through her from the beginning, and in purity I found her; therefore I shall not be abandoned.
21| And my innermost being was stirred to seek her out; therefore I have gained her as a good possession.
22| The Lord gave me a tongue as my reward, and with it I will praise him.
23| Draw near to me, you who are untaught, and lodge in the house of instruction.
24| Why do you say you lack these things, and why do your souls thirst so greatly?
25| I opened my mouth and spoke: Acquire her for yourselves without money;
26| bend your neck to bear the yoke, and let your soul take in her teaching; she lies near at hand, waiting to be found.
27| See with your own eyes that I labored but little, and I found for myself much rest.
28| Take a share of instruction with a great sum of silver, and gain through her much gold;
29| may your soul rejoice in his mercy, and may you not be ashamed to praise him;
30| do your work before the appointed time, and he will give you your reward in his own time.
1| Love righteousness, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart.
2| For he is found by those who do not put him to the test, and he shows himself to those who do not distrust him.
3| For crooked reasonings separate a person from God, and his power, when tested, exposes the foolish.
4| For wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin.
5| For the holy spirit of instruction will flee deceit, and will withdraw from thoughts without understanding, and will be put to shame when injustice comes upon it.
6| For wisdom is a spirit that loves mankind, yet she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for the words of his lips; for God witnesses his inmost parts, truly surveys the depths of his mind, and listens closely to what his tongue speaks.
7| For the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of every voice.
8| Therefore no one who utters injustice will go unnoticed, nor will justice, when it convicts, pass him by.
9| For inquiry will be made into the schemes of the ungodly, and the report of his words will come to the Lord, to convict him of his lawless deeds.
10| For a jealous ear listens to everything that happens, and no whispered grumbling stays concealed from it.
11| Guard, then, against profitless grumbling, and keep your tongue from slander; for no secret word travels for nothing, and a mouth that lies destroys the soul.
12| Do not court death by the error of your life, nor draw down destruction by the works of your hands.
13| For God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living.
14| For he brought everything into being so that it might exist, and the generative forces of the world bring no harm, and within them lies no destructive venom, nor does the kingdom of Hades hold sway upon the earth.
15| For righteousness is immortal.
16| But the ungodly summoned death by their hands and their words; considering him a friend, they pined for him, and made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong to his portion.
1| For they said among themselves, reasoning wrongly, "Our life is short and full of grief, and there is no cure when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.
2| For we were born by mere chance, and afterward it will be as if we never existed at all; the breath within our nostrils is mere smoke, and thought itself is a spark set ablaze by our heart's pulsing,
3| and when it is quenched, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
4| Our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will remember our deeds; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered like a mist chased by the sun's rays and weighed down by its heat.
5| For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow, and there is no turning back from our end, for it has been sealed, and no one returns.
6| Come, then, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and let us use creation eagerly, as in youth.
7| Let us drink our fill of expensive wine and fragrant oils, and let no springtime blossom slip past us unused;
8| let us wreathe our heads with rosebuds before they fade.
9| Let none of us go without a share in our revelry; everywhere let us leave tokens of our joy, for this is our portion, and this our lot.
10| Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us show no mercy to the widow, nor honor the grey, long-worn hairs of old age.
11| But let our strength be the law of what is right, for weakness is proved useless.
12| Let us set an ambush for the righteous man, because he is a nuisance to us, and stands against our deeds, and reproaches us for sins against the law, and charges us with sins against our upbringing.
13| He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
14| He has become a reproof to our very thoughts; the mere sight of him is a burden to us,
15| for his life is unlike that of others, and his paths are strange.
16| He counts us as counterfeit coin, and holds himself apart from our ways as from uncleanness; he calls the end of the righteous blessed, and boasts that God is his father.
17| Let us see whether his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him in the end.
18| For if the righteous man is God's son, God will take his part, and will rescue him from the hand of his adversaries.
19| Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may learn his gentleness and judge his patient endurance.
20| Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for according to his own words, he will be watched over."
21| These things they reasoned, and they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,
22| and they did not know the mysteries of God, nor did they hope for the reward of holiness, nor did they discern the prize that awaits blameless souls.
23| For God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternal nature;
24| but through the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and those who belong to his portion put it to the test.
1| But every righteous soul rests securely within God's own hand, and no torment shall touch them.
2| In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was reckoned a disaster,
3| and their going from us a ruin; but they are at peace.
4| For even if in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality;
5| and having been disciplined a little, they will be greatly benefited, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself.
6| Like gold in a furnace he tested them, and like a whole burnt offering he accepted them.
7| And when the season of their reckoning comes, they will shine out, and will run about like sparks through stubble;
8| they will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.
9| Those who trust in him will understand the truth, and the faithful will remain with him in love, because grace and mercy are for his chosen ones.
10| But the ungodly will have punishment to match their reasoning, those who neglected the righteous man and turned away from the Lord.
11| For the one who despises wisdom and instruction is wretched, and their hope is empty and their toils unprofitable, and their works useless.
12| Their spouses lack sense, and their sons are wicked; the children they produce are under a curse.
13| For blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not known a bed in transgression; she will have fruit at the visitation of souls.
14| And blessed is the eunuch who has done no lawless deed with his hand, nor devised wicked things against the Lord; for to him will be given a choice grace of faithfulness, and a most delightful portion in the temple of the Lord.
15| For the fruit of good labors is glorious, and the root of understanding does not fail.
16| But the children of adulterers will not come to maturity, and the offspring of an unlawful bed will vanish away.
17| For even if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and in the end their old age will be without honor;
18| and should death take them swiftly, they hold no hope, nor any comfort on the day of judgment.
19| For the ends of an unjust generation are harsh.
1| Better childlessness with virtue, for there is immortality in its memory, since it is known both with God and with mortals.
2| When present, people imitate it, and when it has gone they long for it; and through the ages it walks in procession wearing its crown, victorious in the contest for prizes that are undefiled.
3| But the prolific multitude of the ungodly will be of no use; sprung from bastard shoots, it will not sink a root to any depth, nor will it set a firm foundation.
4| For even if it flourishes for a time in branches, standing insecurely, it will be shaken by the wind, and by the violence of winds it will be uprooted.
5| Its unripe boughs will be broken off, and their fruit will be useless, unripe for eating and fit for nothing.
6| For children born of lawless unions are witnesses of wickedness against their parents, when they are put to the test.
7| But the righteous, even if he comes to the end of his life early, will be at rest.
8| For honored old age is not that of long duration, nor is it measured by number of years.
9| Understanding is gray hair for mortals, and a spotless life is the maturity of old age.
10| Having become pleasing to God, he was loved, and living among sinners he was translated.
11| He was caught up, lest evil should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
12| For the bewitchment of worthlessness obscures what is good, and the whirl of desire undermines a guileless mind.
13| Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years.
14| For his soul was pleasing to the Lord; therefore he hastened out of the midst of wickedness. But the peoples saw and did not understand, nor did they lay to heart a thing like this,
15| that grace and mercy are with his chosen ones, and watchful care is with his holy ones.
16| The righteous man, though dead, will condemn the ungodly who are living, and youth brought swiftly to its end will condemn the many years of an unjust man's old age.
17| For they will see the end of the wise man, and will not understand what the Lord planned for him, and for what purpose he set him in safety.
18| They will see it and hold him in contempt, but the Lord will laugh them to scorn.
19| And after this they will become a dishonored corpse, and an object of outrage among the dead forever; for he will break them speechless and face-down, and will shake them from their foundations, and they will be utterly laid waste, and they will be in anguish, and their memory will perish.
20| They will come, cowardly, at the reckoning of their sins, and their lawless deeds will convict them to their face.
1| Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence before the faces of those who oppressed him and those who made light of his labors.
2| Seeing him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and will be amazed at the unexpectedness of his salvation.
3| Repenting, they will say among themselves, and groaning through anguish of spirit: This is the man we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—
4| we fools! We reckoned his life madness and his death dishonorable.
5| How has he been counted among the sons of God? And how does his lot lie among the holy ones?
6| So then we wandered off the road of truth, and righteousness's light never shone on us, and the sun did not rise for us.
7| We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and journeyed through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we did not know.
8| What good did arrogance do us? And what has wealth together with boasting gained for us?
9| All those things passed away like a shadow, and like a rumor that runs past;
10| like a ship crossing the surging water, of whose passing no trace can be found, nor any path of its keel among the waves;
11| or as when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found, but the light wind, whipped by the stroke of its wings and torn apart by the violence of its rushing, is passed through by the moving of its feathers, and afterward no sign of its passing is found in it;
12| or as an arrow, once loosed toward its target, splits the air, which at once seals itself back together, so that no one can trace its course—
13| so we too, once born, ceased to be, and had no mark of virtue to show, but were consumed away in our wickedness.
14| For what the godless hope for resembles chaff swept off by the wind, and fine frost chased away by a gale, and smoke dispersed by a breeze, and it fades like the memory of a guest who lodged for just one day.
15| But the righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord, and their care rests with the Most High.
16| Therefore they will receive the royal crown of splendor and the diadem of beauty from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will shelter them, and with his arm he will shield them.
17| He will take his zeal as full armor, and will arm creation for vengeance against his enemies;
18| he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and will wear impartial judgment as a helmet;
19| he will take holiness as an invincible shield,
20| and he will sharpen stern wrath into a sword, and the world will join him in battle against the madmen.
21| Well-aimed bolts of lightning will go forth, and as if from a well-bent bow of the clouds they will leap to their mark,
22| and hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult; the water of the sea will rage against them, and rivers will sweep over them relentlessly;
23| a spirit of power will rise up against them, and will winnow them like a storm; lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth, and wrongdoing will overturn the thrones of the mighty.
1| Listen, then, you kings, and understand; learn well, you judges of the ends of the earth.
2| Give ear, you who rule over multitudes and pride yourselves on your throngs of nations.
3| For your sovereignty was given to you by the Lord, and your dominion by the Most High, who will examine your works and search out your plans.
4| Because though you were servants of his kingdom, you did not judge rightly, nor keep the law, nor walk according to the counsel of God.
5| Terribly and swiftly he will confront you, for a harsh judgment falls upon those in high places.
6| For the lowliest is pardoned in mercy, but the mighty will be tested mightily.
7| For the Master of all will not shrink before anyone, nor will he be overawed by greatness; because he himself made both small and great, and he watches over all alike.
8| But upon the powerful a stern inquiry impends.
9| To you, then, O rulers, are my words directed, so that you may learn wisdom and not fall away.
10| For those who have kept holy things in holiness will be made holy, and those who have been taught them will find their defense.
11| Desire my words, then; long for them, and you will be instructed.
12| Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is readily seen by those who love her.
13| She goes ahead to make herself known to those who desire her.
14| Whoever rises early to seek her will not grow weary, for he will find her sitting at his gates.
15| For to set one's mind upon her is the perfection of understanding, and whoever keeps watch for her sake will soon be free of care.
16| Because she herself goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she appears to them graciously in their paths, and meets them in every thought.
17| For the truest beginning of her is the desire for instruction,
18| and care for instruction is affection, and such affection means holding fast to what she ordains, and holding fast to what she ordains secures incorruption,
19| and incorruption brings one near to God.
20| So then, desire for wisdom leads up to a kingdom.
21| If, then, you delight in thrones and scepters, you rulers of peoples, honor wisdom, so that you may reign forever.
22| Now what wisdom is, and how she came to be, I will declare, and I will not hide her mysteries from you; rather, I will trace her out from the beginning of her origin and bring her knowledge into the open, and I will not pass by the truth.
23| Nor will I travel in the company of consuming envy, for envy has no share in wisdom.
24| A multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world, and a prudent king is the stability of a people.
25| So then, be instructed by my words, and you will profit.
1| I too am a mortal like everyone else, a descendant of the first man formed from the earth; and inside my mother, within her womb, I was shaped into flesh
2| in the space of ten months, compacted in blood from the seed of a man and the pleasure that comes with sleep.
3| And I too, once born, breathed in the same shared air, and dropped down onto the ground we all meet the same fate on, crying that first cry that is identical for everyone.
4| I was nursed in swaddling clothes, and with cares.
5| For no king ever had a different beginning of existence;
6| there is one entrance for all into life, and the same way out.
7| For this reason I prayed, and understanding was given to me; I called out, and a spirit of wisdom came to me.
8| I preferred her above scepters and thrones, and reckoned wealth as nothing in comparison with her;
9| nor did I liken any priceless stone to her, because all gold, seen next to her, is a little sand, and silver will be counted as clay before her.
10| I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because the radiance from her never sleeps.
11| All good things came to me together with her, and countless riches were in her hands.
12| And I rejoiced over all of them, because wisdom leads them, though I did not yet know that she was their source.
13| I learned without deceit, and I share without envy; I do not hide away her wealth.
14| For she is an unfailing treasure for human beings; those who acquire it secure friendship with God, commended to him by the gifts that come through instruction.
15| As for me, may God grant that I speak with judgment and think in a manner worthy of what has been given me, since he himself is the guide of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.
16| For within his grasp lie we ourselves as well as our speech, every kind of understanding and craft-skill.
17| For he himself gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the working of the elements,
18| the beginning and end and midpoint of times, the changes of the solstices and the shifting of seasons,
19| the cycles of years and the positions of the stars,
20| the natures of living things and the tempers of wild beasts, the strength of winds and how human minds reason, the differences among plants and the powers of roots.
21| And whatever is hidden or plain, I came to know.
22| For wisdom, the craftswoman of all things, instructed me. Within her dwells a spirit that is intelligent, holy, one of a kind, manifold, subtle, mobile, lucid, unstained, clear, unharmed, loving what is good, keen, unhindered, beneficent,
23| kind to mankind, steadfast, sure, free from care, all-powerful, all-surveying, and pervading all spirits, however intelligent, pure, and subtle they are.
24| For wisdom moves more readily than any motion; she pervades and passes through all things because of her purity.
25| For she is an exhalation of God's power, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled can find its way into her.
26| For she is a reflection of everlasting light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.
27| And though she is one, she is capable of all things; staying constant within herself she makes all things new, and passing from generation to generation into holy souls she makes them friends of God and prophets.
28| For God loves nothing so much as the one who dwells together with wisdom.
29| For she outshines the sun in beauty, and surpasses every arrangement of the stars. Compared with light, she is found to be superior;
30| for night succeeds the day, but wickedness has no power over wisdom.
1| She stretches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and orders all things well.
2| From my earliest years I cherished her and searched her out, longing to win her as my own bride, and I fell in love with her beauty.
3| She glorifies her noble birth by sharing the life of God, and the Master of all loved her;
4| for she is an initiate in the knowledge of God, and the one who chooses his works.
5| And if wealth is a desirable possession in life, what is richer than wisdom, who works all things?
6| And if understanding is at work, who among the things that are is a better craftsman than she?
7| And if a man loves righteousness, her labors are the virtues, for she teaches self-control and understanding, righteousness and courage, than which nothing is more useful to men in life.
8| And if a man longs for wide experience, she knows the things of old and can infer the things to come; she understands the turns of speech and the solutions of riddles; she foreknows signs and wonders, and the outcomes of seasons and times.
9| So I determined to bring her home as my companion, since I knew she would serve as my adviser in prosperity, and offer solace amid worry and sorrow.
10| Because of her I shall have glory among the crowds, and honor among the elders, though I am young;
11| I shall be found keen in judgment, and I shall be admired in the sight of rulers;
12| when I am silent they will wait for me, and when I speak they will pay attention, and if I go on speaking they will lay their hand upon their mouth.
13| Because of her I shall have immortality, and I shall leave behind an eternal memory to those who come after me.
14| I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me;
15| dread tyrants will fear me when they hear of me; among the people I will show myself good, and in war courageous.
16| When I have entered my house I shall find rest with her, for her company has no bitterness, and life with her no pain, but gladness and joy.
17| When I had considered these things within myself, and pondered in my heart that there is immortality in kinship with wisdom,
18| and in her friendship is good delight, and in the labors of her hands is wealth unfailing, and in the exercise of conversing with her is understanding, and renown in sharing her words, I went about seeking how I might take her for my own.
19| Now I was a child of good nature, and a good soul fell to my lot,
20| or rather, being good, I entered a body undefiled.
21| But knowing that I could not otherwise possess her unless God gave her to me—and this too was a mark of understanding, to know whose gift it was—I turned to the Lord and pleaded with him, and said with all my heart:
1| God of the fathers and Lord of your mercy, who made all things by your word,
2| and by your wisdom fashioned man to have dominion over the creatures that came into being through you,
3| and to govern the world in holiness and righteousness, and to render judgment in uprightness of soul —
4| give me the wisdom that sits beside your throne, and do not reject me from among your children.
5| For I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, a man weak and short-lived, and lesser in understanding of judgment and laws.
6| For even if someone should be perfect among the sons of men, yet if the wisdom that comes from you is absent, he will be reckoned as nothing.
7| You chose me before all to be king of your people and judge of your sons and daughters;
8| you commanded that a temple be built on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city of your dwelling, a copy of the holy tabernacle which you prepared beforehand from the beginning.
9| And with you is wisdom, who knows your works, and was present when you made the world, and understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is right according to your commandments.
10| Send her forth from the holy heavens, and dispatch her from the throne of your glory, that being present with me she may labor at my side, and that I may know what is well-pleasing to you.
11| For she knows all things and understands them, and she will guide me wisely in my actions, and will guard me by her glory;
12| and my works will be acceptable, and I will judge your people justly, and I will be worthy of my father's throne.
13| For what man will come to know the counsel of God? Or who will conceive in his mind what the Lord wills?
14| For the reasonings of mortals are timid, and our devisings are unsure;
15| for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens a mind full of cares.
16| And we can barely guess at the things on earth, and what lies in our hands we find only with toil; but the things in the heavens — who has traced them out?
17| And who has come to know your counsel, unless you gave wisdom and sent your holy spirit from the heights above?
18| And thus the paths of those on earth were set straight, and men were taught what is pleasing to you, and were saved by wisdom.
1| She watched over the first-formed father of the world, who was created alone, and rescued him from his own transgression,
2| and gave him strength to master all things.
3| But when an unjust man turned aside from wisdom in his rage, he destroyed himself through his brother-murdering fury.
4| When because of him the earth was flooded, wisdom again brought deliverance, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.
5| She it was who, when the nations were confounded in agreement upon wickedness, found the righteous man, and kept him blameless before God, and preserved him strong even against his tenderness for his child.
6| She rescued a righteous man from among the perishing ungodly, as he fled the fire that came down upon the Five Cities—
7| of whose wickedness a smoking wasteland still stands as witness, with plants bearing fruit that never ripens, and a standing pillar of salt as a monument to a disbelieving soul.
8| For by passing wisdom by, they were harmed not only in failing to know the good, but they also left behind for the living a memorial of their folly, so that in the very things where they stumbled they could not even go unnoticed.
9| But wisdom rescued from hardships those who served her.
10| She guided a righteous man, a fugitive from his brother's wrath, along straight paths; she revealed to him God's realm, granting him understanding of sacred matters; she made him prosper in his labors, and increased the yield of his toil.
11| When men in their greed tried to overpower him, she remained at his side and gave him wealth.
12| She shielded him against his foes, and guarded him against those who lay in ambush, and gave him victory in a fierce struggle, so that he might learn that piety surpasses all other strength.
13| When a righteous man was sold, she did not abandon him, but rescued him from sin;
14| she descended with him into the pit, and did not abandon him in his bonds, until she brought him the ruler's scepter and dominion over those who had tyrannized him; she exposed those who had slandered him as liars, and gave him everlasting glory.
15| She rescued a holy people and a blameless offspring from a nation that oppressed them.
16| She entered into the soul of the Lord's servant, and stood against fearsome kings with wonders and signs.
17| She repaid the holy ones the wages of their labors, guided them along a marvelous way, and became for them a shelter by day and a flame of stars by night.
18| She brought them across the Red Sea, and led them through a great depth of water;
19| but their enemies she drowned, and cast them up again from the depths of the abyss.
20| Therefore the righteous stripped the ungodly of their spoils, and sang hymns, O Lord, to your holy name, and praised with one accord your hand that fought for them;
21| for wisdom opened the mouth of the mute, and made the tongues of infants speak clearly.
1| He made their works prosper by the hand of a holy prophet.
2| They journeyed through an uninhabited wilderness, and pitched their tents in trackless places.
3| They stood against enemies, and fought off foes.
4| They thirsted, and called upon you, and out of the sheer rock they received water, and a remedy for their thirst out of hard stone.
5| For by the very things through which their enemies were punished, they themselves, in their need, were benefited.
6| Instead of the ever-flowing river's fountain, troubled with clotted blood
7| in rebuke of the decree that killed the infants, you gave them abundant water beyond hope,
8| showing by the thirst they suffered then how you punished their adversaries.
9| For when they were tested, though disciplined in mercy, they came to know how the ungodly, judged in wrath, were tormented.
10| These you tested as a father giving warning, but those you examined as a stern king condemning them.
11| And whether far off or near, they were worn out alike;
12| for a double grief and a groaning came upon them, at the memory of things past.
13| For when they heard that through their own punishments the others were being benefited, they perceived the Lord.
14| For the one they had once cast off and exposed, mocking him, they now marveled at, when at the end of events it turned out otherwise; for they suffered a thirst unlike that of the righteous.
15| And in return for their foolish and wicked reasonings, by which, going astray, they worshiped mindless reptiles and worthless beasts, you sent upon them a multitude of mindless creatures for vengeance,
16| that they might learn that a man is punished by the very things by which he sins.
17| For your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, was not without means to send upon them a multitude of bears, or bold lions,
18| or newly-created beasts full of rage, unknown before, breathing out fiery breath, or blowing out billows of smoke, or flashing terrible sparks from their eyes,
19| whose harm alone could have crushed them utterly, and whose very appearance, by its terror, could have destroyed them.
20| And even apart from these, they could have fallen by a single breath, pursued by justice and scattered by the breath of your power; but you arranged all things by measure and number and weight.
21| For to be greatly strong is always in your power, and who can withstand the might of your arm?
22| Because the whole world before you is like a grain that tips the scale, and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the earth.
23| But you show mercy to all, because you can do all things, and you overlook the sins of men, that they may repent.
24| For you love all things that exist, and abhor none of the things you have made; for you would not have fashioned anything you hated.
25| And how could anything have endured, had you not willed it? Or how could what was not called forth by you have been preserved?
26| But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord who loves the living.
1| For your imperishable spirit is in all things.
2| Therefore you correct those who fall away little by little, and by reminding them of the things in which they sin you admonish them, so that once freed from wickedness they may believe in you, Lord.
3| For indeed the ancient inhabitants of your holy land
4| you hated for practicing the most hateful deeds — sorceries and unholy rites —
5| merciless killers of children, devourers of human innards, feasting on flesh and blood, initiates drawn from the very midst of their band,
6| and parents who murdered with their own hands souls without help — these you determined to wipe out through the agency of our ancestors,
7| so that the land most honored by you of all lands might receive a colony of God's children worthy of it.
8| But even these you spared as being human, and you sent hornets as forerunners of your army, to destroy them little by little —
9| not that you were unable to hand over the ungodly to the righteous in battle, or to fearsome beasts, or to wipe them out at a stroke by a stern word;
10| but judging them little by little you gave them room for repentance, though not ignorant that their origin was evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking would never change through the ages;
11| for their seed was accursed from the beginning; nor was it out of fear of anyone that you granted them impunity for their sins.
12| For who will say, 'What have you done?' Or who will stand against your judgment? Who will bring a charge against you for nations destroyed, which you yourself made? Or who will come before you as an avenger on behalf of wrongdoers?
13| For there is no god besides you who cares for all things, that you should need to prove that you did not judge unjustly;
14| nor will any king or ruler be able to look you in the eye concerning those whom you punished.
15| Being righteous, you govern all things righteously, deeming it foreign to your power to condemn one who does not deserve punishment.
16| For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your mastery over all things makes you spare all things;
17| for you show your strength when people doubt the perfection of your power, and among those who know it you expose their insolence;
18| but you, mastering strength, judge with gentleness, and govern us with great forbearance; for the power to act is yours whenever you wish.
19| By such works you taught your people that the righteous must be kind to others, and you gave your children good hope, since you grant repentance for sins.
20| For if you punished the enemies of your children — people liable to death — with such great care and pleading, giving them time and room to be freed from their wickedness,
21| with what great exactness did you judge your own children, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises?
22| So when you discipline us, you scourge our enemies ten thousandfold, so that when passing judgment on others we recall your kindness, and expect compassion when we ourselves stand under judgment.
23| Hence also the unrighteous who lived out their lives in folly you tormented through their own abominations.
24| For indeed they strayed further along the roads of error than the rest, taking for gods even those creatures held in contempt among their enemies, deceived like foolish infants.
25| For this reason, as upon thoughtless children, you sent judgment on them as a mockery;
26| but those who were not disciplined by such mocking correction will experience the judgment of God in earnest.
27| For by the very things through which they were suffering and were indignant — being punished by means of those creatures they had supposed to be gods — they came to recognize as true the God they had long refused to acknowledge; and therefore the full measure of condemnation came upon them.
1| For all people are foolish by nature who are without knowledge of God, and who from the good things that are seen were not able to know him who is, nor by attending to his works did they recognize the craftsman.
2| Instead they took fire, or wind, or the fast-moving air, or the sphere of stars, or the raging waters, or the lamps of the sky, to be divine rulers of the cosmos.
3| If, charmed by the loveliness of these, they took them for divinities, they ought to have realized how far superior their Sovereign is, since it was the source of all beauty who fashioned them.
4| And if they were amazed at their power and working, let them understand from these how much more powerful is he who fashioned them.
5| For from the greatness and beauty of created things their maker is, by analogy, seen.
6| Yet for these there is but little blame, for perhaps even they go astray while seeking God and wishing to find him.
7| For as they move about among his works they search diligently, and they are persuaded by appearance, because the things seen are beautiful.
8| And yet again, not even they are to be excused.
9| For if they had power to know so much that they could take the measure of the world, how did they not more quickly find the Lord of these things?
10| But wretched, and their hopes set on dead things, are those who called gods the works of human hands, gold and silver, the product of skilled craft, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
11| And if some woodcutter, a carpenter, saws down a tree easy to move, and skillfully strips off all its bark, and shapes it with fair workmanship into a vessel useful for the service of life,
12| and having used up the offcuts of his labor to prepare his food, he is filled;
13| then, taking what is left over from these, useful for nothing, a crooked piece of wood full of knots, he carves it with the diligence of his idle hours, and shapes it with the skill of his leisure, he makes it resemble the image of a man,
14| or likens it to some worthless animal, smearing it with red ochre and coloring its surface red with paint, and smearing over every blemish that is in it.
15| And having made for it a shrine worthy of it, he sets it in the wall, securing it with iron.
16| So then he takes care beforehand that it should not fall down, knowing that it is unable to help itself, for indeed it is an image and has need of help.
17| Yet praying about his possessions and his marriage and his children, he feels no shame addressing a lifeless object; and for health he calls upon the thing that is weak,
18| and for life he begs from the thing that is dead, and for aid he entreats the thing that is utterly without experience, and for a journey he asks the thing that cannot even use its own feet,
19| and for gain and business and success of his hands he asks strength for his hands from the thing that is most without strength of all.
1| A man setting out on a voyage once more, about to cross the wild waves, calls out to a piece of wood more fragile than the ship that carries him.
2| For that ship was the invention of a desire for profit, and skilled wisdom built it;
3| but it is your providence, Father, that steers it through, since you gave a road even in the sea and a safe path even among the waves,
4| showing that you can save from anything, so that even without skill a man may go aboard.
5| You do not want the works of your wisdom to be idle; that is why men entrust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft they come safely through.
6| And indeed, at the beginning too, when the arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world fled to a raft and, steered by your hand, left behind for the age a seed for a new generation.
7| For blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes about;
8| but the idol made by hands is accursed, and so is the one who made it — he because he did the work, and it because, though perishable, it was called a god.
9| For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness;
10| for the deed will be punished together with the one who did it.
11| Therefore there will be a reckoning even against the idols of the nations, because, though part of God's creation, they became an abomination, and a stumbling block to men's souls, and a snare for the feet of the foolish.
12| For dreaming up idols was where sexual immorality began, and devising them brought about life's ruin.
13| For they did not exist from the beginning, nor will they exist forever;
14| they entered the world through human vanity, and for that reason a swift end has been devised for them.
15| For a father, worn down by untimely grief, made an image of the child so quickly taken from him, and now honored as a god the one who was then a dead man, and handed down to his household mysteries and rites;
16| then in time the ungodly custom, grown strong, was kept as law, and by the commands of tyrants carved images were worshiped;
17| and men, unable to honor these rulers face to face because they lived far away, fashioned a likeness from afar and made a visible image of the king they honored, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
18| And to spur worship still further, even among those who did not know the ruler, the ambition of the craftsman drove it on.
19| For he, wishing perhaps to please the one in power, labored by his art to force the likeness toward greater beauty;
20| and the crowd, drawn in by the charm of the workmanship, now regarded as an object of reverence the man who shortly before had merely been honored.
21| And this became a trap for human life, that men enslaved either to calamity or to tyranny bestowed the name that belongs to none but God upon stones and pieces of wood.
22| Then it was not enough to go astray in the knowledge of God, but living in the great war of ignorance they even call such great evils by the name of peace.
23| For whether performing rites that kill children, or secret mysteries, or frenzied revels with strange customs,
24| they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure, but one destroys another by ambush, or wounds him by adultery.
25| And everywhere alike there is blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury, harassment of good people,
26| forgetfulness of favors received, defilement of souls, exchange of one's birth-role, disorder in marriages, adultery and debauchery.
27| For revering idols that bear no name is where every wrong starts, why it happens, and where it finally leads;
28| for either they rejoice and go mad, or they prophesy falsehoods, or they live unjustly, or they swear falsely without a second thought;
29| for trusting in lifeless idols, when they have sworn wickedly they do not expect to be harmed for it.
30| But both things will pursue them in justice: that they thought wrongly about God by giving heed to idols, and that they swore falsely in deceit, showing contempt for holiness.
31| For it is not the power of the ones sworn by, but the penalty owed by sinners, that always follows after the transgression of the unjust.
1| But you, our God, are kind and true, patient, and governing all things in mercy.
2| For even if we sin, we belong to you, aware of your might; yet we will hold back from wrongdoing, since we understand that you count us among your own.
3| For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality.
4| Neither did the malicious invention of men lead us astray, nor the fruitless labor of painters, a form smeared with varied colors,
5| whose sight comes to fools as an incitement to lust, so that they desire the lifeless form of a dead image.
6| Lovers of evil, and worthy of such hopes, are they — both those who make them, and those who desire them, and those who worship them.
7| For a potter, kneading soft earth, laboriously molds each vessel for our service; but from the same clay he fashions both the vessels meant for clean uses and the opposite ones, all alike; and as to what the use of each of these different ones is, the clay-worker himself is the judge.
8| And with wasted labor he molds a worthless god out of the same clay, he who but a little before was made from earth and after a short while goes back to that from which he was taken, when the debt of his life is demanded back.
9| But his concern is not that he is going to wear out, nor that his life is short-lived, but he vies with workers in gold and silver, and imitates those who cast in bronze, and counts it glory that he molds counterfeit things.
10| His heart is ashes, his hope is cheaper than earth, and his life is of less worth than clay,
11| because he failed to know the one who shaped him and breathed into him an active soul and blew into him a living spirit.
12| Rather, he reckoned our life to be a plaything, and existence a money-making festival, for he says one must get profit from anywhere, even from evil.
13| For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins, when he fashions out of earthy matter fragile vessels and carved images.
14| But all the enemies of your people who have oppressed them are utterly foolish, and more pitiable than an infant's soul.
15| For they reckoned as gods all the idols of the nations, which have no use of eyes for seeing, nor nostrils to draw in air, nor ears to hear, nor fingers on their hands to feel with, and their feet are useless for walking.
16| For a man made them, and one who has borrowed his own breath shaped them; for no man has the strength to shape a god like himself.
17| Being mortal, he fashions a dead thing with lawless hands; for he is better than the things he worships, since he at least once lived, but they never did.
18| And they even worship the most hateful of animals; for compared in mindlessness, such creatures are worse than the rest.
19| Nor, so far as one might desire it, do they turn out beautiful even as animals go to look at — no, they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.
1| For this reason they were justly punished by means of things like themselves, and tormented by a multitude of vermin.
2| Instead of that punishment, doing good to your people, you prepared for their desire's craving a strange food, quails, to satisfy their appetite;
3| so that those others, though desiring food, because of the loathsome look of the creatures sent among them, would turn away even from the necessary appetite, while your own people, after being in want a short while, might partake of a strange delicacy.
4| For it was fitting that inescapable want should come upon those tyrants, while to your people it need only be shown how their enemies were being tormented.
5| For indeed when the terrible fury of wild beasts came upon them, and they were being destroyed by the bites of writhing serpents, your wrath did not continue to the end;
6| but they were troubled for a short time as a warning, having a token of salvation to remind them of the command of your law;
7| for the one who turned toward it was saved not by the thing he beheld, but by you, the savior of all.
8| And in this too you persuaded our enemies that you are the one who rescues from every evil;
9| for those others were killed by the bites of locusts and flies, and no cure was found for their life, because they deserved to be punished by such creatures;
10| but your sons were not overcome even by the teeth of venomous serpents, for your mercy came to their side and healed them.
11| For they were stung as a reminder of your oracles, and were swiftly saved, so that, falling into deep forgetfulness, they might not become cut off from your beneficence.
12| For indeed neither herb nor poultice healed them, but your word, Lord, which heals all things.
13| For you have authority over life and death, and you bring down to the gates of Hades and bring back up.
14| A man, on the other hand, kills by his malice, but when the spirit has gone out it does not return, nor does he release the soul once it has been taken back.
15| But to flee your hand is impossible.
16| For the ungodly, refusing to know you, were scourged by the strength of your arm, pursued by strange rains and hailstorms and relentless downpours, and consumed by fire.
17| For, most strange of all, in the water that quenches everything the fire worked all the more powerfully, for the world fights on behalf of the righteous.
18| For at one time the flame was tamed, so that it would not burn up the creatures sent against the ungodly, but so that they themselves, seeing this, might know that they were being driven by the judgment of God;
19| and at another time, even in the midst of water, it burned beyond the very power of fire, so that it might destroy the produce of an unjust land.
20| Instead of these things you fed your people with the food of angels, and sent them ready bread from heaven without their toiling, bread having every pleasure in it and suited to every taste.
21| For your substance revealed your sweetness toward your children, and, serving the desire of the one partaking, it was transformed into whatever each one wished.
22| Yet snow and ice withstood fire and did not melt, so that they might know that fire, blazing in the hail and flashing in the rains, was destroying the fruits of the enemies;
23| but this same fire, again, so that the righteous might be fed, forgot its own power.
24| For creation, serving you who made it, strains itself for punishment against the unjust, and relaxes into kindness on behalf of those who trust in you.
25| For this reason, even then, transforming itself into all things, it served your all-nourishing gift, according to the desire of those in need;
26| so that your sons, whom you loved, Lord, might learn that it is not the varieties of crops that nourish a man, but that your word preserves those who trust in you.
27| For that which was not destroyed by fire simply melted when warmed by a brief ray of the sun,
28| so that it might be known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks, and meet you at the dawning of the light.
29| For the hope of the ungrateful will melt like wintry frost, and flow away like useless water.
1| Great are your judgments, Lord, and hard to put into words; that is why undisciplined souls went astray.
2| Lawless men who imagined they could tyrannize a holy nation lay instead as fugitives from eternal providence, prisoners of darkness, shackled by a long night, shut in beneath their own roofs.
3| Thinking to escape notice in their secret sins beneath a dark veil of forgetfulness, they were scattered abroad, terrified beyond measure and shaken by apparitions.
4| For not even the hidden recess that held them kept them free of fear; sounds crashed around them and terrified them, and grim phantoms appeared with unsmiling faces.
5| No force of fire had power to give light, nor could the bright flames of the stars bear to illumine that hateful night.
6| Only a self-kindled fire, full of dread, flickered before them, and, terrified by that sight they could not clearly see, they judged what lay before them worse than what they beheld.
7| The mockeries of the magician's art lay powerless, and the boast of their vaunted wisdom stood shamefully refuted.
8| For those who promised to drive off the terrors and disturbances of a sick soul were themselves sick with a laughable cowardice.
9| For even when nothing frightening alarmed them, startled by the passing of vermin and the hissing of serpents,
10| they perished in trembling, refusing even to look upon the air, from which there was no escape anywhere.
11| For wickedness, condemned by its own testimony, is a cowardly thing, and, hard-pressed by conscience, always adds to itself grim expectations.
12| For fear is nothing other than the surrender of the help that reason offers;
13| and the less this inner expectation, the more it reckons the ignorance of the cause that brings the torment.
14| And they, sleeping that same sleep through that truly powerless night which came upon them from the powerless recesses of Hades,
15| were now driven by monstrous phantoms, now unstrung in soul by their own surrender; for sudden and unexpected fear came upon them.
16| And so, whoever among them happened to fall there was kept confined, shut up in that prison without iron bars.
17| For whether he was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a laborer toiling in the wilderness, once overtaken he endured the inescapable constraint;
18| for all were bound with a single chain of darkness. Whether it was a whistling wind, or the tuneful sound of birds among spreading branches, or the rushing rhythm of water flowing violently,
19| or the harsh crash of falling rocks, or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the voice of roaring, fiercest beasts, or an echo reverberating from the hollows of the mountains — it unstrung them, striking them with terror.
20| For the whole world was lit with brilliant light and carried on its labors unhindered,
21| but over those men alone stretched a heavy night, an image of the darkness destined to receive them afterward; yet to themselves they were heavier still than the darkness.
1| But for your holy ones there was very great light. Hearing their voice but not seeing their form, the Egyptians counted them blessed, because they too had suffered as they had;
2| and because, though wronged before, they did not injure them in return, they gave thanks, and begged pardon for their former quarrel.
3| In return you gave your people a fire-blazing pillar, a guide for their unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their proud sojourning.
4| For those others deserved to be robbed of light and shut away in darkness, since they had kept locked up your sons, through whom the law's undying light was about to be given to the world.
5| When they had plotted to kill the infants of the holy ones, and one child had been exposed and saved, you took away in punishment the multitude of their own children, and destroyed them all together in the raging water.
6| That night was made known beforehand to our fathers, so that knowing with certainty the oaths they had trusted, they might take courage.
7| Your people awaited the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies.
8| For with the very means by which you punished our adversaries, you glorified us, calling us to yourself.
9| For in secret the holy children of good men were offering sacrifice, and with one accord bound themselves to the covenant of the divine law, that the saints would share alike in the same blessings and the same dangers, the fathers already leading the hymns of praise.
10| But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and the pitiable sound of children being mourned spread abroad.
11| With the same sentence the slave was punished together with his master, and the commoner suffered the same as the king;
12| and all alike, under one name of death, had countless dead. For the living were not even sufficient to bury them, since in a single moment their most valued offspring had been destroyed.
13| For though they had disbelieved everything because of their sorceries, at the destruction of the firstborn they confessed that this people was a son of God.
14| For while peaceful silence enveloped all things, and night in its own swiftness was at its midpoint,
15| your all-powerful word leapt from heaven, from the royal throne, a stern warrior into the midst of the doomed land,
16| bearing your unfeigned command like a sharp sword, and standing it filled all things with death; it touched heaven, yet stood upon the earth.
17| Then suddenly visions of dreadful dreams troubled them greatly, and unforeseen fears fell upon them,
18| and one flung down here, another there, half-dead, made known the reason for which he was dying;
19| for the dreams that had troubled them foretold this, so that they should not perish without knowing why they were suffering these evils.
20| The trial of death touched the righteous also, and a plague fell upon the crowd in the wilderness; yet the wrath did not last long.
21| For a blameless man hastened to fight on their behalf, bringing the weapon of his own ministry, prayer and the atonement of incense; he withstood the wrath and put an end to the disaster, showing that he was your servant.
22| He overcame the destroyer not by strength of body, nor by the force of arms, but by word he subdued the one who punished, reminding him of the oaths and covenants made to the fathers.
23| For when the dead had already fallen in heaps upon one another, he stood in the midst and checked the wrath, and cut off its path to the living.
24| For upon his full-length robe was the whole world, and the glories of the fathers were engraved upon the four rows of stone, and your majesty was upon the diadem of his head.
25| To these the destroyer yielded, these he feared; for the mere trial of the wrath was enough.
1| But on the ungodly, to the very end, a merciless wrath fell; for God knew beforehand even their future deeds,
2| that though they themselves had agreed to let the people go and had eagerly sent them off, they would then change their minds and pursue them.
3| For while they still had mourning in their hands and were weeping at the tombs of their dead, they seized upon another foolish reasoning, and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged, with pleading, to leave.
4| For a deserved necessity was dragging them on to this end, and it cast over them forgetfulness of what had happened, so that they might fill up the punishment still lacking to their torments,
5| and that your people might experience an extraordinary journey, while those others found a strange death.
6| For the whole of creation, in its own kind, was fashioned anew again from the beginning, serving your commands alone, so that your children might be kept unharmed.
7| The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp, and where water had stood before, dry land emerging, an unobstructed road out of the Red Sea, and a grassy plain out of the violent surge.
8| Through it the whole nation passed, those sheltered by your hand, watching marvelous wonders.
9| For they ranged like horses at pasture, and leapt like lambs, praising you, Lord, who rescued them.
10| For they still remembered the things of their sojourn there, how instead of the bearing of living creatures the land brought forth gnats, and instead of water creatures the river vomited up a multitude of frogs.
11| And afterward they saw also a new origin of birds, when, led on by desire, they asked for delicacies of luxury;
12| for as a comfort to them there came up from the sea the quail.
13| And retribution overtook the sinners, preceded by clear signs given beforehand amid the fury of the lightning strikes; for they were justly suffering for their own wickedness, since indeed they had practiced a harsher hatred of strangers.
14| For the others had refused to receive strangers who came to them not knowing them, but these were enslaving guests who were their benefactors.
15| And not only so, but there will be some reckoning upon them, since those others received foreigners with hostility;
16| while these, having welcomed with festivities men who already shared the same rights as themselves, afflicted them with dreadful hardships.
17| And they too were struck with blindness, just as those others had been outside the entrance of the righteous man's house, when, wrapped in yawning darkness, each groped to find the way through his own doorway.
18| For the elements, changing places among themselves, just as on a harp the notes change the character of the rhythm while ever remaining the same sound, may be conjectured precisely from the sight of what had happened.
19| For creatures of the land were changed into creatures of the water, and swimming creatures crossed over onto the land;
20| fire kept its own power strong even in water, and water forgot its power to quench;
21| flames, on the contrary, did not wither the flesh of perishable creatures walking about within them, nor melt that easily-melting, crystal-like kind of ambrosial food.
22| For in every way, Lord, you magnified your people and glorified them, and you did not overlook them, standing by them in every time and place.