Chapter 9.
CONCERNING THE DEATH OF ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANE.
HOW ANTIOCHUS
EUPATOR FOUGHT AGAINST JUDA AND BESIEGED HIM IN THE TEMPLE AND AFTERWARDS
MADE PEACE WITH HIM AND DEPARTED; OF ALCIMUS AND ONIAS.FJAJ 12.74
1. ABOUT this time it was that king Antiochus, as he was going over
the upper countries, heard that there was a very rich city in Persia, called
Elymais; and therein a very rich temple of Diana, and that it was full
of all sorts of donations dedicated to it; as also weapons and breastplates,
which, upon inquiry, he found had been left there by Alexander, the son
of Philip, king of Macedonia
And being incited by these motives, he went
in haste to Elymais, and assaulted it, and besieged it
But as those that
were in it were not terrified at his assault, nor at his siege, but opposed
him very courageously, he was beaten off his hopes; for they drove him
away from the city, and went out and pursued after him, insomuch that he
fled away as far as Babylon, and lost a great many of his army
And when
he was grieving for this disappointment, some persons told him of the defeat
of his commanders whom he had left behind him to fight against Judea, and
what strength the Jews had already gotten
When this concern about these
affairs was added to the former, he was confounded, and by the anxiety
he was in fell into a distemper, which, as it lasted a great while, and
as his pains increased upon him, so he at length perceived he should die
in a little time; so he called his friends to him, and told them that his
distemper was severe upon him; and confessed withal, that this calamity
was sent upon him for the miseries he had brought upon the Jewish nation,
while he plundered their temple, and contemned their God; and when he had
said this, he gave up the ghost
Whence one may wonder at Polybius of Megalopolis,
who, though otherwise a good man, yet saith that "Antiochus died because
he had a purpose to plunder the temple of Diana in Persia;" for the
purposing to do a thing, (23)
Since St. Paul, a Pharisee, confesses that he had not known concupiscence,
or desires, to be sinful, had not the tenth commandment said, "Thou
shalt not covet," Romans 7:7, the case seems to have been much the
same with our Josephus, who was of the same sect, that he had not a deep
sense of the greatness of any sins that proceeded no further than the intention.
However, since Josephus speaks here properly of the punishment of death,
which is not intended by any law, either of God or man, for the bare intention,
his words need not to be strained to mean, that sins intended, but not
executed, were no sins at all.
but not actually doing it, is not worthy of punishment
But if Polybius
could think that Antiochus thus lost his life on that account, it is much
more probable that this king died on account of his sacrilegious plundering
of the temple at Jerusalem
But we will not contend about this matter with
those who may think that the cause assigned by this Polybius of Megalopolis
is nearer the truth than that assigned by us.FJAJ 12.75
2. However, Antiochus, before he died, called for Philip, who was one
of his companions, and made him the guardian of his kingdom; and gave him
his diadem, and his garment, and his ring, and charged him to carry them,
and deliver them to his son Antiochus; and desired him to take care of
his education, and to preserve the kingdom for him.FJAJ 12.76
(24)
No wonder that Josephus here describes Antiochus Eupator as young, and
wanting tuition, when he came to the crown, since Appian informs us (Syriac.
p. 177) that he was then but nine years old.
This Antiochus died in the hundred forty and ninth year; but it was Lysias
that declared his death to the multitude, and appointed his son Antiochus
to be king, (of whom at present he had the care,) and called him Eupator.FJAJ 12.77
3. At this time it was that the garrison in the citadel of Jerusalem,
with the Jewish runagates, did a great deal of harm to the Jews; for the
soldiers that were in that garrison rushed out upon the sudden, and destroyed
such as were going up to the temple in order to offer their sacrifices,
for this citadel adjoined to and overlooked the temple
When these misfortunes
had often happened to them, Judas resolved to destroy that garrison; whereupon
he got all the people together, and vigorously besieged those that were
in the citadel
This was in the hundred and fiftieth year of the dominion
of the Seleucidse
So he made engines of war, and erected bulwarks, and
very zealously pressed on to take the citadel
But there were not a few
of the runagates who were in the place that went out by night into the
country, and got together some other wicked men like themselves, and went
to Antiochus the king, and desired of him that he would not suffer them
to be neglected, under the great hardships that lay upon them from those
of their own nation; and this because their sufferings were occasioned
on his father's account, while they left the religious worship of their
fathers, and preferred that which he had commanded them to follow: that
there was danger lest the citadel, and those appointed to garrison it by
the king, should be taken by Judas, and those that were with him, unless
he would send them succors
When Antiochus, who was but a child, heard
this, he was angry, and sent for his captains and his friends, and gave
order that they should get an army of mercenaries together, with such men
also of his own kingdom as were of an age fit for war
Accordingly, an
army was collected of about a hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand
horsemen, and thirty-two elephants.FJAJ 12.78
4. So the king took this army, and marched hastily out of Antioch, with
Lysias, who had the command of the whole, and came to Idumea, and thence
went up to the city Bethsnra, a city that was strong, and not to be taken
without great difficulty
He set about this city, and besieged it
And
while the inhabitants of Bethsura courageously opposed him, and sallied
out upon him, and burnt his engines of war, a great deal of time was spent
in the siege
But when Judas heard of the king's coming, he raised the
siege of the citadel, and met the king, and pitched his camp in certain
straits, at a place called Bethzachriah, at the distance of seventy furlongs
from the enemy; but the king soon drew his forces from Bethsura, and brought
them to those straits
And as soon as it was day, he put his men in battle-array,
and made his elephants follow one another through the narrow passes, because
they could not be set sideways by one another
Now round about every elephant
there were a thousand footmen, and five hundred horsemen
The elephants
also had high towers [upon their backs], and archers [in them]
And he
also made the rest of his army to go up the mountains, and put his friends
before the rest; and gave orders for the army to shout aloud, and so he
attacked the enemy
He also exposed to sight their golden and brazen shields,
so that a glorious splendor was sent from them; and when they shouted the
mountains echoed again
When Judas saw this, he was not terrified, but
received the enemy with great courage, and slew about six hundred of the
first ranks
But when his brother Eleazar, whom they called Auran, saw
the tallest of all the elephants armed with royal breastplates, and supposed
that the king was upon him, he attacked him with great quickness and bravery.
He also slew many of those that were about the elephant, and scattered
the rest, and then went under the belly of the elephant, and smote him,
and slew him; so the elephant fell upon Eleazar, and by his weight crushed
him to death
And thus did this man come to his end, when he had first
courageously destroyed manyof his enemies.FJAJ 12.79
5. But Judas, seeing the strength of the enemy, retired to Jerusalem,
and prepared to endure a siege
As for Antiochus, he sent part of his army
to Bethsura, to besiege it, and with the rest of his army he came against
Jerusalem; but the inhabitants of Bethsura were terrified at his strength;
and seeing that their provisions grew scarce,
they delivered themselves
up on the security of oaths that they should suffer no hard treatment from
the king
And when Antiochus had thus taken the city, he did them no other
harm than sending them out naked
He also placed a garrison of his own
in the city
But as for the temple of Jerusalem, he lay at its siege a
long time, while they within bravely defended it; for what engines soever
the king set against them, they set other engines again to oppose them.
But then their provisions failed them; what fruits of the ground they had
laid up were spent and the land being not ploughed that year, continued
unsowed, because it was the seventh year, on which, by our laws, we are
obliged to let it lay uncultivated
And withal, so many of the besieged
ran away for want of necessaries, that but a few only were left in the
temple.FJAJ 12.80
6. And these happened to be the circumstances of such as were besieged
in the temple
But then, because Lysias, the general of the army, and Antiochus
the king, were informed that Philip was coming upon them out of Persia,
and was endeavoring to get the management of public affairs to himself,
they came into these sentiments, to leave the siege, and to make haste
to go against Philip; yet did they resolve not to let this be known to
the soldiers or to the officers: but the king commanded Lysias to speak
openly to the soldiers and the officers, without saying a word about the
business of Philip; and to intimate to them that the siege would be very
long; that the place was very strong; that they were already in want of
provisions; that many affairs of the kingdom wanted regulation; and that
it was much better to make a league with the besieged, and to become friends
to their whole nation, by permitting them to observe the laws of their
fathers, while they broke out into this war only because they were deprived
of them, and so to depart home
When Lysias had discoursed thus to them,
both the army and the officers were pleased with this resolution.FJAJ 12.81
7. Accordingly the king sent to Judas, and to those that were besieged
with them, and promised to give them peace, and to permit them to make
use of, and live according to, the laws of their fathers; and they gladly
received his proposals; and when they had gained security upon oath for
their performance, they went out of the temple
But when Antiochus came
into it, and saw how strong the place was, he broke his oaths, and ordered
his army that was there to pluck down the walls to the ground; and when
he had so done, he returned to Antioch
He also carried with him Onias
the high priest, who was also called Menelaus; for Lysias advised the king
to slay Menelaus, if he would have the Jews be quiet, and cause him no
further disturbance, for that this man was the origin of all the mischief
the Jews had done them, by persuading his father to compel the Jews to
leave the religion of their fathers
So the king sent Menelaus to Berea,
a city of Syria, and there had him put to death, when he had been high
priest ten years
He had been a wicked and an impious man; and, in order
to get the government to himself, had compelled his nation to transgress
their own laws
After the death of Menelaus, Alcimus, who was also called
Jacimus, was made high priest
But when king Antiochus found that Philip
had already possessed himself of the government, he made war against him,
and subdued him, and took him, and slew him
Now as to Onias, the son of
the high priest, who, as we before informed you, was left a child when
his father died, when he saw that the king had slain his uncle Menelaus,
and given the high priesthood to Alcimus, who was not of the high priest
stock, but was induced by Lysias to translate that dignity from his family
to another house, he fled to Ptolemy, king of Egypt; and when he found
he was in great esteem with him, and with his wife Cleopatra, he desired
and obtained a place in the Nomus of Heliopolis, wherein he built a temple
like to that at Jerusalem; of which therefore we shall hereafter give an
account, in a place more proper for it.FJAJ 12.82