But the barbarian, struck by the unusual thing, little by little soothed by feminine blandishment, was at last brought to the queen's banquet, and together with him that Haman, dear to the king and hostile to the Jewish nation. (7) Therefore, when after the feast the banquet had begun to grow warm with many cups, Esther threw herself at the king's knees and pleaded against the destruction of her nation. The king indeed promised that he would deny her nothing she asked, if she should ask anything further. (8) Then Esther, seizing the moment, demanded the death of Haman in vengeance for the nation which he had desired to destroy. But the king, mindful of his friend, hesitating a little, withdrew briefly for the sake of deliberation. Then, returning, when he saw Haman clasping the queen's knees, kindled with anger and crying out that the queen was being assailed, he ordered him to be put to death.
(9) And then it was discovered by the king that a punishment of the cross had been prepared by Haman for Mordecai. Thus Haman is fastened to the very same cross, and all his goods are given to Mordecai, and the Jews are set free. Artaxerxes reigned sixty-two years, and Ochus succeeded him. 14 (1) To this order of events I shall rightly join the deeds of Judith; for she is reported to have lived after the captivity, but which king reigned over the Persians at that time the divine history has not set forth; yet it names the king under whom these things were done as Nebuchadnezzar—not indeed the one who captured Jerusalem. (2) But I find that no one of this name reigned among the Persians after the captivity, unless perhaps, on account of his violence and like attempts, whoever that king was, he was called Nebuchadnezzar by the Jews.
(3) Yet most think it was Cambyses, son of king Cyrus, on the ground that as victor he penetrated into Egypt and Ethiopia. But the same sacred history opposes this opinion; (4) for Judith is marked as having lived in the twelfth year of that king. Yet Cambyses held power no more than eight years. Hence, if one may form an opinion in history, I would believe these things were done under king Ochus, who came after Artaxerxes the Second; and I conjecture this even from the fact that this same Ochus, as I have read in the secular writers, is reported to have been by nature harsh and eager for wars. For he both bore arms against his neighbors and recovered Egypt, which many years before had revolted, by war. (5) At which time he is also reported to have mocked their sacred rites and Apis, who had been received as a god;
which afterward Bagoas, his eunuch, an Egyptian by nation, taking it ill, avenged the insult to his nation by the death of the king. Now the divine history makes mention of this Bagoas; (6) for when Holofernes led an army against the Jews at the king's command, it records that Bagoas was in those same camps. Hence not without reason might I adduce this in support of our opinion, that the king named Nebuchadnezzar was that Ochus under whom secular historians have reported that Bagoas existed. (7) But that ought to be a wonder to no one, that the writers of secular literature have touched nothing of those things which are written in the sacred volumes;
the Spirit of God prevailing, so that, untainted by a corrupt mouth or by one mingling false things with true, the history might be contained within its own mysteries alone—a history which, set apart from the affairs of the world and to be brought forth by sacred utterances only, ought not to be mingled with others as though by an equal lot; (8) for it was most unworthy that, among men doing other things or seeking other things, these too should be mixed with the rest. But I shall pass on to the rest, and concerning the deeds of Judith I shall, as I can, dispatch them in few words. 15 (1) Therefore, when the Jews had returned, as we mentioned above, to their native soil, while the state of affairs or of the city was not yet settled, the king of the Persians made war upon the Medes and, against their king named Arphaxad, joined battle with a favorable outcome; the king being slain, he annexed the nation to his empire.
(2) He does the same to the remaining nations, having sent ahead Holofernes, whom he had appointed chief of the army, with one hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve thousand cavalry. He, having laid waste Cilicia and Arabia by war, either takes many cities by force or compels them into surrender by fear. (3) And now the army, brought up to Damascus, had struck the Jews with great terror. (4) But unequal to resisting, and with their minds not consenting to surrender—having indeed before this experienced the evils of captivity—they ran together in crowds to the temple. There with common groaning and mingled wailing they implore divine aid; saying that they had given God penalties enough for their sins or crimes; let Him at least spare the remnant lately rescued from servitude.
(5) Meanwhile Holofernes, having received the Moabites into surrender and taken them into alliance for the war against the Jews, when he inquired of their leaders by what forces the Hebrews relied so as not to have given their minds to surrender, (6) a certain Achior, from what he had learned, set forth that the Jews, worshipers of God, instituted by their fathers in a pious rite, had long ago endured servitude in Egypt; that thence, led out by a divine gift and crossing the dried sea on foot, they had at last, with all nations conquered, recovered the lands inhabited by their forefathers.
(7) Thereafter, in the varying state of affairs, they flourished or fell, and again emerged from evils, having experienced God angered or appeased by turns according to their merits, since when sinning they are restrained by the incursions of enemies or by captivities, but with the divine power favorable they are always unconquered. For the rest, if at the present time they were without sin, they could in no way be overcome; but if it were otherwise with them, they would be easily vanquished. (8) At these words Holofernes, fierce with many victories, thinking nothing unconquerable by himself, kindled with anger that his victory should be thought to depend chiefly upon the sin of the Jews, ordered Achior to be thrust into the camp of the Hebrews, so that he might perish with those whom he had affirmed could not be conquered. (9) And then the Jews had made for the mountains;
so those to whom this task was given approached the foot of the mountains and there left Achior bound. When the Jews observed this, they took him out of his bonds and led him up onto the hill. To those asking the causes of the matter he set forth what had been done, and being received into peace he awaited the outcome. He, after the victory, having been circumcised, became a Jew. (10) Therefore Holofernes, having learned of the difficulty of the terrain, since the heights could not be approached, surrounded the mountains with soldiers and with the utmost care kept the Hebrews from watering; and therefore they felt the siege the sooner. So, conquered by scarcity of water, they ran together to Ozias their leader, all inclined to surrender. But he, answering that they must wait a little and look for divine aid, at last on the fifth day set a time for surrender.
16 (1) When Judith learned this—she who was a widow from her husband, exceedingly rich in wealth, distinguished in appearance, but more illustrious in character than in countenance, and was then in the camp—judging that, in the desperate state of her people's affairs, even with certain destruction for herself something must be dared and attempted, she adorned her head, polished her appearance, and with her maidservant as companion entered the enemy's camp. (2) And being at once brought to Holofernes, she recounted the ruined state of her people, saying that she had consulted for her life by desertion. Then she asked of the general freedom to go out beyond the camp at night for the sake of praying. This was commanded to the watchmen and the keepers of the gates. (3) But when over three days she had given the barbarians confidence in her custom of going out and returning, a desire seized Holofernes to abuse the body of the suppliant;
for indeed she had easily moved the Persian by her excellent beauty. So she is led to the general's tent through Bagoas the eunuch, and, the banquet begun, the barbarian overwhelmed himself with much wine. (4) Then, the attendants having been removed, before he could offer violence to the woman, he was seized by sleep. Judith, seizing the moment, cut off the enemy's head and carried it away with her. And when, according to her custom, she was believed to be going out of the camp, she returned unharmed. (5) On the next day the Hebrews, displaying Holofernes' head from the heights, having made a sally, advanced upon the enemy's camp. Then indeed the barbarians, demanding the signal for battle, stood thronging about the general's tent. When the headless body was found, in foul terror they turned to flight and offered their backs to the enemy.
(6) The Jews, pursuing the fleeing, slew many thousands and gained possession of the camp and the spoil. Judith, celebrated with the highest praises, is reported to have lived one hundred and five years. (7) If these things were done under king Ochus, as we suppose, in the twelfth year of his reign, then from the time of the restored Jerusalem until that war there were twenty-two years. For the rest, Ochus reigned twenty-three years. (8) He was, moreover, bloody beyond all and of a mind more than barbarian. Bagoas the eunuch carried him off with poisons while he was sick. After him Arses, his son, held the empire for three years, and Darius for four years. 17 (1) Against this man Alexander of Macedon clashed in battle. He being conquered, the empire was taken from the Persians, which had stood from the beginning of Cyrus for two hundred and fifty years.
(2) Alexander, victor over nearly all nations, is said to have visited the temple of Jerusalem and to have brought in gifts, and he decreed throughout the whole empire which he had made subject to his own authority that the Jews dwelling there should be free to return to their homeland. Having completed the twelfth year of his reign, in the seventh year after he had conquered Darius, he died at Babylon. (3) His friends, who together with him had waged those greatest wars, divided the kingdom. These for some time administered the portions they had received without assuming the royal title, while a certain Arridaeus Philippus, Alexander's brother, reigned—to whom the empire seemed given in name on account of his great feebleness, while in reality it lay with those who had distributed the army and the provinces among themselves.
(4) But indeed this state of affairs did not last long, and they all preferred to be called kings. The first king in Syria after Alexander was Seleucus, with Persia and Babylon subjected to him. (5) At that time the Jews paid the king an annual tribute of three hundred talents of silver, yet they were governed not by foreign magistrates but by their own priests. And they lived by their ancestral rite, until many of them, corrupted again by long peace, began to confound everything with seditions and to throw it into turmoil, aspiring to the high priesthood out of lust, avarice, and the desire to rule. 18 (1) For first, under king Seleucus, son of Antiochus the Great, a certain Simon had been unable to shake out the priest Onias, a holy and upright man, whom he had falsely accused before the king.
(2) Then, after an interval of time, Jason, brother of Onias, approached king Antiochus, who had succeeded his brother Seleucus, promising an increase of tribute if the high priesthood were handed over to him. (3) And although it was unusual and had never before been permitted to perform the priesthood in perpetuity, nevertheless the king's anxious mind, sick with avarice, was easily overcome. (4) So, Onias being expelled, the priesthood was entrusted to Jason. He most foully tore at his fellow-citizens and his homeland. Then, when through a certain Menelaus, brother of that Simon, he had sent the king the promised money, the way to ambition once laid open, by the same arts by which Jason before, Menelaus had obtained the priesthood. (5) And not long after, when he had not rendered the promised sum of silver, he is driven from his place;
Lysimachus is substituted. Thence arose foul contests between Jason and Menelaus, until Jason, a fugitive, departed from his homeland. (6) From these beginnings, with morals corrupted, matters had so far advanced that most of the populace begged of Antiochus that it be permitted them to live after the manner of the Gentiles. When the king had granted this to the petitioners, each worst man vied to build shrines, to supplicate idols, to profane the law. (7) Meanwhile Antiochus, returning from Alexandria—for he had then made war upon the king of Egypt, which by command of the senate and people of Rome he laid down, in the consulship of Paulus and Crassus—came to Jerusalem.
When he had found the people at variance over the superstitions they had taken up, destroying the law of God and favoring those who pursued impious things, he stripped off all the ornaments of the temple and laid it waste with much slaughter. (8) This was done in the one hundred and fifty-first year from the death of Alexander, in the consulship, as we have said, of Paulus and Crassus, about five years after Antiochus had begun to reign. 19 (1) But that the order of times may be connected and may appear more clearly, who this Antiochus was, we shall enumerate the names and the times of the kings who had been in Syria after Alexander. (2) Upon the death, as we related above, of king Alexander, by his friends the whole kingdom was divided and for some time administered under the royal title.
Seleucus, after nine years, was called king in Syria, and reigned thirty-two years. After him Antiochus, his son, reigned nineteen years. Then Antiochus, son of Antiochus, who was also surnamed Theus, reigned fifteen years. After him Seleucus, his son, surnamed Callinicus, reigned twenty-one years. (4) Likewise Seleucus, son of Callinicus, reigned three years. When he had died, Antiochus, brother of Callinicus, held Asia and Syria for thirty-seven years. This is the Antiochus against whom Lucius Scipio Asiaticus made war; in which war he was conquered and was fined of a part of his empire. He had two sons, Seleucus and Antiochus, whom he had given as a hostage to the Romans.
(5) So, Antiochus the Great being dead, Seleucus his elder-born son obtained the kingdom, under whom we said the priest Onias was accused by Simon. Then Antiochus, released by the Romans, and Demetrius given as a hostage in his place—son of Seleucus, the king who was reigning at that time. Seleucus being dead in the twelfth year of his reign, his brother Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome, seized the kingdom. (6) He, five years after he had begun to reign, as we taught above, laid Jerusalem waste. For, paying the Romans a heavy tribute, and himself almost necessarily compelled by immense expenses, he was forced to seek money by plunder and to omit no occasion of pillaging.
(7) Then, after two years, the Jews being again afflicted with like calamity, lest perhaps, compelled by frequent evils, they should take up war, he imposed a garrison on the citadel. Thence, undertaking to overthrow the sacred law, he sent out an edict that all, having abandoned the traditions of their forefathers, should live by the rite of the Gentiles. (8) Nor were there lacking those who willingly obeyed the profane command. Then indeed there was a foul spectacle: throughout all the cities openly in the streets sacrifices were offered, and even the sacred volumes of the law and the prophets were burned with fire. 20 (1) At that time Mattathias, son of John, was a priest. He, when he was being compelled by the royal officers to obey the edict, with remarkable steadfastness despising profane things, cut the throat of a Hebrew profaning publicly before the face of all. (2) Then at last, a leader having been found, a withdrawal was made.
Mattathias, having gone out of the town, with many flocking to him, had formed the appearance of a regular army; to all of whom it was resolved to defend themselves by arms against the profane rule, and to fall in war rather than to practice impious ceremonies. (3) Meanwhile Antiochus, throughout the Greek cities too which were under his rule, compelled the Jews found there to sacrifice, and afflicted with unheard-of tortures those who resisted. (4) At that time occurred that illustrious passion of the seven brothers and their mother; who all, when they were being compelled by tortures to violate the law of God and the institutions of their forefathers, chose rather to die. At the last the mother accompanied their punishments and deaths. 21 (1) Meanwhile Mattathias dies;
As a replacement leader for the army he had prepared, he appointed in his stead Judas, his son. Under his command many battles were fought successfully against the king's forces. For first he destroyed, together with his whole army, Apollonius, the enemy's commander, who had come down to the conflict with great forces. When a certain Seron, who then governed Syria, learned of this, he multiplied his legions and attacked Judas, fierce because he was superior in numbers; but when he had come down onto level ground, he was routed and put to flight, and, having lost about eight hundred men, withdrew into Syria. When this became known to Antiochus, he was inflamed with anger and grief, for he was tormented that his commanders had been defeated along with great armies. He gathered reinforcements throughout his whole kingdom, and, his treasuries being utterly drained, lavished a donative upon his soldiers.
For at that time especially he was severely afflicted by a shortage of money. For the Jews had revolted from him, who had previously paid him more than three hundred talents of silver each year; moreover the Greek cities and many regions were thrown into turmoil by the evil of his persecution. He had not even spared the heathen, whom he had tried to compel to abandon their inveterate superstitions and to be led to a single rite; and these indeed, where there was nothing sacred, readily gave them up; yet since all were stricken with fear and disaster, the tax revenues had ceased.
Seething at these matters—for he himself, once richer than all kings, now felt poverty through his own wickedness—he divided his forces with Lysias, and entrusted to him Syria and the war against the Jews, while he himself set out against the Persians to collect tribute. So Lysias appointed as commanders of the war Ptolemy, Gorgias, Doron, and Nicanor; to these were given forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse. And at the first onset they struck great terror into the Jews. Then Judas, when all were despairing, exhorted his men to go down into battle with stout heart; that for those who trusted in God nothing would be unconquerable; that often before fewer had fought well against more. A fast having been proclaimed and a sacrifice celebrated, they went down into the battle line;
the enemy's forces were routed; Judas took possession of the camp, and much gold and Tyrian wealth was found there. For traders from Syria, in no doubt about the victory, had followed the royal army in hope of buying captives, and now became the spoil. When this was learned by Lysias from reports, he prepared his forces with greater care and a year later attacked the Jews with an immense army; defeated, he withdrew to Antioch. Judas, having driven off the enemy, returned to Jerusalem and set his mind to purify the temple and to restore it, since, overthrown by Antiochus and profaned by the heathen, it presented a foul appearance of itself. But since the Syrians held the citadel, which was joined to the temple and by the nature of the site was higher and impregnable, the parts below could not be approached, for they were prevented by frequent sallies.
Against these Judas set his strongest battle line. Thus the work of the sacred house was attended to and the temple surrounded with a wall, and armed men were appointed to keep up a perpetual garrison. But Lysias, having multiplied his army, returned into Judaea and was again defeated, with great slaughter of his army and of the auxiliaries which had been sent to him by the cities and had joined together in the war. Meanwhile Antiochus, who as we mentioned above had set out into Persia, attempted to plunder the town of Elymais, the richest of that region, and a shrine situated there filled with much gold; but a multitude flocking together from all sides to defend the place put him to flight. Moreover he received a message that affairs had been managed unsuccessfully by Lysias.
Thus, from grief of mind, he fell ill of a bodily disease. And as he was tormented by internal pains, recalling the evils with which he had harassed the people of God, he confessed that those things had justly befallen him. Then after a few days he died, having reigned eleven years. He left the kingdom to his son Antiochus, whose name was Eupator. At that time Judas was besieging the Syrians stationed in the citadel. When they were afflicted by hunger and want, they sent messengers to the king and implored a relieving force. So Eupator came to their aid with a hundred thousand men and twenty thousand horse, the battle line being led by elephants that caused immense terror. Then Judas, slackening the siege, marched out to meet the king, and in the first battle routed the Syrians. The king sued for peace;
and because he had ill-used his treacherous nature, vengeance followed his perfidy. For Demetrius, son of Seleucus, whom (as we mentioned above) had been given to the Romans as a hostage, when he heard that Antiochus had died, asked that they send him back into the kingdom. When this was refused him, he secretly fled from Rome, came into Syria, and seized the kingdom, having killed the son of Antiochus, who had reigned one year and six months. Under his reign the Jews first sought friendship and a treaty from the Roman people; the embassy was graciously received, and by a decree of the senate they were called allies and friends. Meanwhile Demetrius waged war against Judas through his commanders. And first an army was led by a certain Bacchides and by Alcimus the Jew; afterwards Nicanor, put in charge of the war, fell in battle.
Then Bacchides and Alcimus, with their strength renewed and their forces increased, joined battle against Judas. In that fight the Syrians were victors, and used their victory most bloodily. The Hebrews chose Jonathan, his brother, in Judas's place. Meanwhile Alcimus, after he had foully laid waste Jerusalem, died; Bacchides, deprived of his ally, returned to the king. Then after two years Bacchides again made war upon the Jews; defeated, he sought peace, which was granted on stated conditions: if he would return the deserters and captives and all that had been seized in the war. While these things were being done within Judaea, a certain young man brought up at Rhodes, named Alexander, claiming to be the son of Antiochus—which was false—aided by the resources of Ptolemy, king of Alexandria, came into Syria with an army;
he killed Demetrius, defeated in war, after he had reigned twelve years. This Alexander, before he engaged against Demetrius, had made a treaty with Jonathan and had presented him with a purple garment and royal insignia. On account of this Jonathan had assisted him with auxiliaries, and when Demetrius was defeated had been the first of all to hasten to congratulate him. Nor afterwards did Alexander break the pledge he had given. Thus during the five years in which he held power, the affairs of the Jews were tranquil. Then Demetrius, son of Demetrius, who after his father's death had fled to Crete, urged on by Lasthenes the Cretan leader, sought his father's kingdom by war; unequal in strength, he implored Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, Alexander's father-in-law and already by then hostile to his son-in-law, to be of aid to him.
He indeed, enticed not so much by the suppliant's prayers as by the hope of seizing Syria, joined his forces with him, and gave to Demetrius the daughter who had been married to Alexander. Against these Alexander joined battle in the field. In that battle Ptolemy fell, and Alexander was defeated; a little later he was killed, having reigned five years—or, as I have found in most authors, nine. Demetrius, having obtained the kingdom, treated Jonathan kindly, made a treaty with him, and restored the Jews to their own laws. Meanwhile Tryphon, who had belonged to Alexander's party, as governor of Syria... in order to debar him from the kingdom by war. Against this Jonathan went down to battle, formidable with an army of forty thousand.
Tryphon, when he perceived himself unequal, feigned peace, and having received Jonathan into friendship and invited him to Ptolemais, killed him. After Jonathan the supreme command passed to his brother Simon. He arranged his brother's funeral magnificently and built those seven pyramids of most noble workmanship, in which he laid the bones both of his brothers and of his father. Then Demetrius, having renewed the treaty with the Jews, in consideration of the disaster brought on by Tryphon—for after Jonathan's slaying he had laid waste their cities and fields by war—remitted to them the annual tribute in perpetuity; for up to that time they had paid tribute to the kings of Syria, except when they resisted with arms.
This was done in the second year of king Demetrius, which we have therefore noted because up to this year we have run through the times by the reigns of the kings of Asia, so that an orderly reckoning of the dates might be clear. But now we shall set forth the order of events by the times of those who were either high priests or kings of the Jews, down to the nativity of Christ. So, after Jonathan, his brother Simon, as has been said above, ruled the Hebrews by right of the priesthood; for this honour was then conferred upon him both by his own people and by the Roman people. He, when he had begun to govern the citizens in the second year of king Demetrius, after eight years fell, ensnared by the treachery of Ptolemy. To him succeeded his son John.
He, having fought excellently against the Hyrcani, a most powerful nation, received the surname Hyrcanus. He died after holding power twenty-six years. After him Aristobulus was appointed high priest, and was the first of all after the captivity to assume the royal name and to place a diadem upon his head. With the year completed, he met his end. Then Alexander, his son, was both king and high priest, and reigned twenty-seven years; in his deeds I have found nothing worthy of memory except cruelty. He, having left Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, his young sons, his wife Salina—or Alexandra—held the kingdom for nine years. After her death there were foul contests between the brothers over the kingdom. And first Hyrcanus held the power;
soon, driven out by his brother Aristobulus, he fled for refuge to Pompey, who, having then finished the Mithridatic war and pacified Armenia and Pontus, was victor over all the nations he had approached, and, desiring to push further inward and to annex to the Roman empire whatever neighbouring lands there were, was seeking causes for war and material for conquering. So he gladly received Hyrcanus, and under his guidance attacked the Jews; the city being captured and razed, he spared the temple. He sent Aristobulus in chains to Rome, restored to Hyrcanus the right of the high priesthood, and, having imposed tribute on the Jews, set over them as procurator a certain Antipater of Ascalon. Hyrcanus, after holding power thirty-four years, while waging war against the Parthians, was taken captive.
Then Herod, a foreigner, son of Antipater of Ascalon, sought and received the kingdom of Judaea from the senate and people of Rome. The Jews first began to have him as a foreign king. For now, with Christ already drawing near, it was necessary, according to the prophecies of the prophets, that they be deprived of leaders of their own, lest they should expect anything beyond Christ. Under this Herod, in the thirty-third year of his reign, Christ was born, in the consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January. But these matters, which are contained in the Gospels and thereafter in the Acts of the Apostles, I have not dared to touch upon, lest by the form of an abridged work I should diminish the dignity of those events; so I shall pursue the remainder. Herod, after the nativity of the Lord, reigned four years;
for the whole time of his reign was thirty-seven years. After him came Archelaus the tetrarch for nine years, then Herod for twenty-four years. While he reigned, in the eighteenth year of his reign, the Lord was crucified, in the consulship of Fufius Geminus and Rubellius Geminus; from which time down to the consulship of Stilicho there are three hundred and seventy-two years. The Acts of the Apostles Luke published up to the time when Paul was brought to Rome under Nero as emperor; who—I will not say of kings, but of all men and even of monstrous beasts—showed himself the most foul, worthy to be the first to begin persecution; whether he was also the last to complete it I do not know, since it has been received in the opinion of many that he himself will come before Antichrist.