Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
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.