Chapter Ten

The cleansing of the temple and the celebration of its dedication (2 Macc 10:1-9). The accession of Antiochus Eupator (2 Macc 10:10-15). The Maccabees’ victories over the Idumeans, the capture of their strongholds, and the punishment of traitors (2 Macc 10:16-23). The brilliant victory over Timothy, the capture of the fortress of Gazara, and the killing of Timothy (2 Macc 10:24-38).

2 Maccabees 10:1. Now Maccabeus and his companions, under the Lord’s guidance, recaptured the temple and the city, On the cleansing of the temple, cf. 1 Macc 4:31-54. According to 2 Macc 8:31 and 33 — the Maccabees took the city of Jerusalem after the victory over Nicanor and Timothy. — About this time (IX: 1), Antiochus fell ill while returning from Persia. According to the more precise account in 1 Macc 4:7, the king’s very illness was brought on by the unpleasant news of these events. The cleansing of the temple took place — according to 1 Macc 4:52 — in year 143 of the Seleucid era, and the death of Antiochus — according to 1 Macc 6:16 — in year 149 of the Seleucid era. — Yet 2 Macc 10:1-8 places the cleansing of the temple as if it came after the death of Antiochus (cf. IX: 29 and X: 9). This is explained by the author’s intention to balance the conclusions of both halves of his work, each of which ends with the establishment of a special festival — the first after the death of Antiochus, the second after the death of Nicanor (“the day of Nicanor”, and as a counterpart to it, so to speak, “the day of Antiochus”). In the interest of chronological accuracy, this section — X: 1–8 — is better read after v. 36 of chapter VIII; after v. 29 of chapter IX one may read directly and conveniently v. 9 of chapter X and following.

2 Maccabees 10:2. and they demolished the altars that had been built in the public square by foreigners and the pagan shrines as well. On the construction of pagan shrines and altars, see 1 Macc 1:54 and following.

2 Maccabees 10:3. Having cleansed the temple, they built another altar, and by striking stones and kindling fire from them, they offered sacrifice after a gap of two years, burned incense, lit lamps, and set out the bread of the Presence. “By striking stones and kindling fire from them...” — by rubbing or striking stones against one another, a special fire was obtained for the sacrifice, so as to sever all connection between the new fire and the former one that had been defiled through its use for pagan offerings. — “After a gap of two years...” — μετὰ διετῆ χρόνον — according to 1 Macc 4:52 (cf. 1 Mac. IV: 54), this gap should be reckoned as three years.

2 Maccabees 10:4–5. Having arranged all this, they fell prostrate and implored the Lord not to let them suffer such calamities again; if they should sin at any time, that he would discipline them with forbearance and not hand them over to blasphemous and barbarous nations. On the same day on which the temple had been defiled by foreigners, the cleansing of the temple took place, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month of Kislev. In agreement with 1 Macc 6:52 and 54.

2 Maccabees 10:6–7. They celebrated it for eight days with gladness like the festival of booths, remembering how not long before they had spent the festival of booths wandering like wild animals in the mountains and caves. Therefore, bearing ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also palms, they offered hymns of praise to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. “With ivy-wreathed wands...” — θύρσους ... ἔχοντες, Slavonic: “having thyrsi...” These “thyrsi wreathed with ivy” were used among the Greeks specifically in celebrations and dances in honor of Bacchus, and it is unlikely that Jews would have borrowed them from the pagans in the same form in which the pagans used them. Most probably the Jewish “thyrsi,” as in Judith XV: 12, were branches of date palms, grapevines, myrtles, and citrus trees (cf. Josephus — XIII, 13, 4: θύρσου ἐκ φοινίκων καὶ κιτρίων). The use of these “wands” at Jewish festivals could be justified by the special prescription in Lev 23:40; the Gospel “palm branches” are nothing other than these same Jewish “thyrsi.”

2 Maccabees 10:8–11. By a public decree and vote, they ordained that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year. Such was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes. And now we will tell what happened under Antiochus Eupator, the son of that ungodly man, limiting ourselves to the calamities of the wars. Upon receiving the kingdom, he entrusted its administration to a certain Lysias, the chief commander of Coelesyria and Phoenicia. “Upon receiving the kingdom, he entrusted...” Eupator was nine years old at that time. If, however, he is credited with such important independent acts as appointing a governor, or — 1 Macc 6:22 and 33 — receiving delegations and waging wars against the Jews, all of this was either done without his real independence, or represented the realization and continuation of an order of affairs shaped or outlined in part during the preceding reign. Thus the appointment of Lysias as regent and guardian of the prince had been made already by the latter’s father before setting out on the campaign that ended in his death (1 Macc 3:32-33). This Lysias was a kinsman of the king (XI: 1 and 35). As chief commander of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, he appointed Gorgias as military commander of these provinces, in place of Ptolemy Macron (VIII: 8) — evidently the same one mentioned earlier in VI: 8 and IV: 45.

2 Maccabees 10:12–13. For Ptolemy, who was called Macron, choosing to deal justly with the Jews because of the wrong that had been done to them, tried to maintain peaceful relations with them. As a result he was accused before Eupator by the king’s friends, and on every occasion he heard himself called a traitor for having abandoned the Cyprus that Philometor had entrusted to him and then having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes; and since he could not command respect by any honorable means, he took poison and ended his life. “On every occasion...” — παρ’ ἕκαστα — “at every opportunity.”

2 Maccabees 10:14–15. Gorgias, having been made military commander of those regions, hired foreign troops and used them to maintain continuous war against the Jews. Along with him the Idumeans, who held convenient strongholds, kept harassing the Jews and, receiving those who had been expelled from Jerusalem, undertook to wage war. “Who held convenient strongholds...” — for example, Hebron (1 Macc 5:65).

2 Maccabees 10:16–18. The men of Maccabeus, having made supplication and begged God to be their ally in the fight, rushed against the strongholds of the Idumeans. Attacking them with great force, they captured these positions, beat back all who fought on the walls, slaughtered those who came their way, and killed no fewer than twenty thousand. When no fewer than nine thousand had fled into two particularly strong towers well supplied for withstanding a siege, 2 Maccabees 10:19. Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph and also Zacchaeus with an adequate number of men to besiege them, and he himself went off to places where he was needed more urgently. On Zacchaeus, nothing more is known. On Simon and Joseph — the brothers of Judas — see note on VIII: 22.

2 Maccabees 10:20. But the men with Simon, being greedy for money, allowed themselves to be bribed by some of those who were in the towers; upon receiving seventy thousand drachmas, they let some of them escape. “The men with Simon...” — οἱ περὶ τὸν Σίμωνα — here the reference is to his associates or commanders of individual units (v. 21). — 70,000 drachmas = 15.5 talents.

2 Maccabees 10:21–23. When what had happened was reported to Maccabeus, he gathered the leaders of the people and accused them of having sold their kinsmen for silver by releasing the enemies. He put these men who had turned traitor to death, and then immediately captured the two towers. In all the military action, which was in his hands, he was successful, and in these two strongholds he destroyed more than twenty thousand. “Successful in the military action that was in his hands...” — τοῖς δὲ ὅπλοις τὰ πάντα ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν εὐοδούμενος ..., Slavonic more precisely: “with weapons succeeding well in all things in his hands...” The Russian translation incorrectly relates ἐν ταῖς χερσίν to τοῖς ὅπλοις; it is far more natural to connect it with εὐοδούμενος and τὰ πάντα, in which case the meaning is quite definite: “with weapons keeping everything successfully in his hands” — that is, “succeeding in all his undertakings,” and so forth. The use of “strongholds” (ὀχυρώμασι) instead of “towers” (πύργοις, v. 18) shows that these could hold even 20,000 men, since evidently the towers were only the central defensive points (loopholes), referred to in v. 18 in place of the whole fortification. It is also possible, however, that the number of those who shut themselves in these tower-fortresses and were killed by Judas (20,000) was greatly exaggerated by popular report. Perhaps it was even fewer than 9,000, as is implied in v. 20.

2 Maccabees 10:24. Timothy, who had been previously defeated by the Jews, gathered a very great force of foreign troops and assembled not a few of the cavalry from Asia, and came to Judea intending to conquer it. “Previously defeated by the Jews...” — see VIII: 30 ff. — “Asia” is used here not in the diplomatic Roman sense after 133 B.C. (the province of Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, since those provinces no longer belonged to the Seleucid kingdom at that time), but probably in the sense of Greater Asia, within which Mysia was particularly renowned for its cavalry and had a great and powerful horse as its emblem.

2 Maccabees 10:25–26. At his approach, the men of Maccabeus turned to prayer, sprinkling dust on their heads and girding their loins with sackcloth. Falling down at the base of the altar, they implored him to be merciful to them and to be the enemy of their enemies and the adversary of their adversaries, as the law declares. “As the law declares...” — καθὼς ὁ νόμος διασαφεῖ ... (See Exod 23:22).

2 Maccabees 10:27–31. When they had finished their prayer, they took up their weapons and advanced a considerable distance from the city; and as they drew near to the enemy, they halted. At the break of dawn the two sides joined battle — the one side having, besides their own valor, trust in the Lord as the pledge of their success and victory, the other making fury their leader in battle. When the fighting became fierce, there appeared to the adversaries from heaven five magnificent men on horses with golden bridles, and two of them led the Jews — they took Maccabeus into their midst and, protecting him with their own armor, kept him unharmed, while against the adversaries they hurled arrows and thunderbolts, so that the enemy, confused by blindness and filled with fear, struck down one another. Twenty thousand five hundred infantry and six hundred cavalry were killed. 2 Maccabees 10:32. Timothy himself fled into a stronghold called Gazara, very well fortified and commanded by Chaereas. The location of Gazara (Gaza) requires no comment (1 Macc 9:52; cf. 1 Macc 13:43 ff.). — Chaereas, who commanded Gazara, was, according to v. 37, the brother of Timothy.

2 Maccabees 10:33. The men of Maccabeus cheerfully besieged the stronghold for four days. “Cheerfully...” — ἀσμένως — joyfully, confident of victory, in contrast to the besieged, who were confident in the inaccessibility of the place (ἐν τῇ κρημνότητι τοῦ τόπου πεποιθότες, v. 34).

2 Maccabees 10:34–35. Those in the stronghold, confident in the strength of the position, blasphemed greatly and uttered impious words. At dawn of the fifth day, twenty young men from the army of Maccabeus, fired with anger because of the blasphemies, rushed bravely against the wall and with fierce fury cut down everyone they encountered. The siege of the stronghold according to some manuscripts lasted 24 days instead of 4, and according to the Alexandrian codex even 40 days. — “With fierce fury...” — in another sense: “with the fury of lions,” with the fury of lions.

2 Maccabees 10:36–37. Others also during the confusion rushed at those inside, set fire to the towers, and burned the blasphemers alive; still others smashed the gates and let in the rest of the army, and captured the city. Timothy, who had hidden himself in a cistern, was killed, along with his brother Chaereas and Apollophanes. “Apollophanes” — nothing more is known of him. Since Timothy is mentioned again later (see note on XII: 2), the mention of his being killed is explained by the fact that popular tradition here probably conflates circumstances from two different battles.

2 Maccabees 10:38. When this had been done, they gave thanks with hymns and songs of praise to the Lord, who shows great kindness to Israel and gives them victory. Subscribe to our Telegram channel