Chapter Two
Professor Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin Explanatory Bible Commentary on the Third Book of Maccabees ◄ Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 ► Chapter II The Prayer of the High Priest Simon (1–16). The striking of the king, his return to Egypt and the persecution of the Jews there (16–24).
1. But Simon the high priest, kneeling before the sanctuary and reverently spreading out his hands, offered a prayer:
1. The Simon mentioned here, by his time, must be Simon II, son of Onias II, identical with the one mentioned in Sirach (L: 1). — Righteous, he was held in the highest esteem by the people for his exemplary life (219–199 B.C.).
2. “Lord, Lord, King of heaven and Master of all creation, Holy of holies, Sole Sovereign, Almighty! Look upon us, who are oppressed by a godless and wicked man, arrogant in his boldness and power.
2. “Holy of holies” — a descriptive expression for the highest holiness, surpassing all holiness — angelic and any possible human.
3. For You, who created all things and govern all things, are a righteous Master: You judge those who act with arrogance and presumption.
4. You once destroyed those who were doing lawlessness, among whom were giants who trusted in their strength and boldness, and You brought upon them an immeasurable flood of water.
4. “Giants...” (Gen. VI: 4) — they are often cited as examples of brute force and arrogance.
5. You burned with fire and sulfur the Sodomites who were acting arrogantly, committing evil openly, and set them as an example for those who came after.
5. “Set them as an example (παραδειγμα) for those who came after...” — that is, not only in historical tradition, but also in the monuments or traces of their punishment; in this case, an allusion to the well-known properties and peculiarities of the Dead Sea.
6. You visited the arrogant pharaoh who had enslaved Your holy people Israel with various and many plagues, manifested Your authority, and displayed Your great power.
7. And when he pursued them, You drowned him with his chariots and his great host in the depths of the sea, while those who put their trust in You, the Master of all creation, You led through unharmed, and they, seeing the works of Your hand, praised You, the Almighty.
8. You, O King, who created the boundless and immeasurable earth, chose this city, and sanctified this place for Your glory, who have need of nothing, and glorified it with Your majestic appearing, making it a place of renown for Your great and honored name.
8. “The boundless and immeasurable earth...” — a hyperbolic expression for the vastness of the earth, set in contrast to the tiny space occupied by Jerusalem, the place of Jehovah’s choosing.
9. Out of love for the house of Israel You promised that, if misfortune should befall us and oppression should overtake us, and we, coming to this place, should pray, You would hear our prayer.
9. The thought of this verse is borrowed from 1 Kings VIII: 33 and following, where it is expressed not as a divine promise but as Solomon’s prayer to God. Calling this thought a divine promise is justified by virtue of God’s promise to do everything in accordance with the king’s prayer (1 Kings IX: 3).
10. And You are faithful and true, and many times, when our fathers faced hardships, You helped them in their distress and delivered them from great dangers.
11. And now, O Holy King, for our many and great sins we are suffering, delivered into the hands of our enemies, and we are exhausted by our afflictions.
12. In our present downfall this bold and wicked man presumes to violate this holy place, consecrated on earth to Your glorious name.
13. For although Your dwelling, the heaven of heavens, is beyond the reach of men, yet You, having been pleased to manifest Your glory to Your people Israel, have sanctified this place.
13. “Heaven of heavens...” ουρανός του ουρανού ..., Slavonic: “heaven of heaven...” — a Hebraism ??? — used to denote, first, the uppermost bounds of the space above the earth,
14. Do not punish us for their uncleanness, and do not chastise us for their desecration, lest the lawless boast in their thoughts and exult in the pronouncement of their tongue, saying: we have trampled the house of holiness, as houses of abomination are trampled.
14. “Do not punish us for their uncleanness...” Greek: μή καταδικάσης ήμας έν τή τούτων ακαθαρσία ..., more accurately in the Slavonic: “do not avenge upon us the uncleanness of these” — that is, “do not punish us (for our sins) by allowing the pagan uncleanness to defile Your holy place!” Similarly, what follows: “do not chastise us for their desecration...” μηδέ ευθύνη ήμας έν βεβηλώσει ..., more accurately in the Slavonic: “neither chastise us with the desecration of these...” — that is, “do not punish us by allowing pagan desecration!” Thus, the Jews here fear not punishment for the pagan uncleanness and desecration, as if already accomplished, but rather this very uncleanness and desecration as a punishment from God, ready to overtake them for their sins. The Russian translation renders the thought quite incorrectly. — “House of holiness...” οίκος άγιασμού — instead of οίκος αγιος.
15. Forgive our sins, pardon our iniquities, and show Your mercy in this hour; let Your compassions quickly come before us; grant praise to the lips of those who have fallen in spirit and are broken in heart; grant us peace.”
16. Then the all-seeing God and Holy above all in holy things, having heard the prayer of humility, struck down the one who was puffed up with violence and boldness, shaking him here and there like a reed in the wind, so that he lay motionless on the floor, his limbs paralyzed, unable even to speak, being overtaken by a righteous judgment.
16. “Holy above all in holy things...” πρό πάντων άγιος έν αγίοις .., Slavonic: “Holy before all in holy things...” — an intensified expression to denote the all-surpassing holiness of God.
17. Then his friends and bodyguards, seeing the sudden and severe punishment that had overtaken him, and fearing that he might lose his life, hastily carried him out, themselves struck with extraordinary terror.
18. After some time, when he recovered from the punishment he had experienced, he showed not the slightest repentance and departed with harsh threats.
19. Returning to Egypt and multiplying the deeds of his wickedness, he, along with the aforementioned companions in feasting and friends who had forgotten all justice, not only gorged himself on countless debaucheries, but reached such a degree of boldness that he uttered curses against the Jews in those places, and many of his friends, following the king’s example, themselves followed his desires.
19. “He uttered curses against the Jews in those places...” δυσφημίας έν τοις τόποις συνίστασθεν, Slavonic: “he composed blasphemies in those places...” — that is, he uttered blasphemies against their places — specifically, against Jerusalem and the Jews.
20. At last he resolved publicly to disgrace the Jewish people, and set up on the tower of his palace a pillar with an inscription on it: “Let no one who does not offer sacrifice enter their sacred places; all Jews are to be registered among the common people and enrolled in the status of slaves; and those who resist are to be taken by force and deprived of life;
20. “Let no one who does not offer sacrifice enter their sacred places...” — an obscure rendering of the Greek: μηδένα τών μή θυόντων εις τα ιερά αυτών εισιέναι ..., Slavonic: “let none of those who do not sacrifice enter their sacred places...” While the inscription is quite general in character, some commentators argue clearly that it concerned the Jews specifically, since they alone in Egypt did not offer sacrifices in their synagogues; consequently, the king’s order was tantamount to a command to close all Jewish synagogues in the country and a prohibition of their public worship. On another interpretation, the king set up his own statue, and the inscription beneath it had the meaning that “whoever does not offer sacrifice to him cannot enter the temple of God” — that is, either their places of prayer generally, or the royal palace, which signified the deprivation of all royal help, protection, and justice. Polybius (in Strabo XVII, 797) distinguishes three classes in the population of Alexandria: 1) Macedonians, as founders of the city, enjoying preferential rights. In close proximity to them, in almost equal rights, were the Jews, both captives and voluntary settlers, from the time of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy I; 2) the “numerous and independent” mercenary army; 3) native Egyptians. The Jews apparently occupied a middle position between the first (Alexandrian citizens) and the last (the Egyptian people generally). Now by the king’s decree they were decisively reclassified among the latter.
21. and those registered are to be marked by burning into their body the sign of Dionysus — an ivy leaf — after which they are to be released into the assigned status with restricted rights.”
21. Dionysus was considered the patron deity of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Philopator was especially devoted to his cult.
22. But so as not to make himself hateful to all, he added in the inscription that if any of them wished to live according to pagan rites, they would be granted equal rights with Alexandrian citizens.
23. Therefore some, for the sake of citizenship rights and despising their ancestral religion, hastily went over, as if expecting to gain great glory through their future association with the king.
24. But the greater part strengthened themselves in the courage of their spirit and did not fall away from their religion; they paid money for their lives, and fearlessly attempted to escape registration, having a good hope of receiving help, and they turned away from the apostates, counting them as enemies of their people and avoiding all contact and friendly dealings with them.