2 Maccabees — Chapter 13

Anno centesimo quadragesimo nono

In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas was informed that Antiochus Eupator was coming with a great multitude against Judea. This chapter (notes Lapide) should be collocated in the chronological order alongside Book I, chapter 6, verse 28, since both accounts narrate the same campaign. The difference in narration between the two books shows that they had different authors, as is evident from their different styles and emphases.

Peditum centum decem millia

A hundred and ten thousand footmen and five thousand horsemen and twenty-two elephants. Lapide notes the discrepancy with 1 Maccabees 6:30 which gives one hundred thousand footmen and twenty thousand horsemen and thirty-two elephants. He explains: on various days the number of forces varied — some arrived, others were dismissed; hence at different times the numbers were different, and both accounts are truthful.

Commiscuit autem se illis

But with these also joined Menelaus, who promised the king many good things. Menelaus, the pseudopontifex appointed by Antiochus Epiphanes, joined Eupator's campaign against Judas, petitioning the king to confirm his pontificate. See what was said at chapter 4:23 and the last verse of that chapter.

Sed rex regum suscitavit

But the King of kings stirred up the mind of Antiochus against the sinner, and upon Lysias suggesting that Menelaus was the cause of all evils, he commanded him to be apprehended and put to death. God the King of kings — who rules the hearts of kings (Proverbs 21:1: \"The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever he will he shall turn it\") — inflamed Antiochus Eupator against Menelaus the apostate and traitor, so that in his anger he punished him as he deserved. Lysias had explained to the king that all the seditions and wars which the Jews waged against Antiochus were caused by Menelaus the pseudopontifex, whom the Jews, unable to tolerate his insolence and sacrilege, refused to accept (so Josephus).

Erat autem in eodem loco turris

But there was in that place a tower fifty cubits high, full of ashes, and it had a round machine on all sides hanging steeply down into the ashes. This mechanism for execution by suffocation in ashes was invented by Darius Ochus king of the Persians as a way of punishing conspirators without breaking the oath he had sworn not to kill them with the sword (Valerius Maximus IX, iii; Ovid, Ibis). Thus Menelaus, who deserved to be plunged and buried in the ashes of the desecrated altar of God because he had scattered and contaminated its sacred ashes with his sacrileges (as is expressly stated at verse 8), was by the just retribution of divine providence condemned to be suffocated and buried in profane ashes.

Inde in cinerem dejici jussit

The sacrilegious man he commanded to be thrown down into the ashes. See here the just and fitting penalty of retaliation inflicted on Menelaus by God the avenger: he was buried and smothered in profane ashes, because he had scattered and contaminated the sacred ashes of God's altar with his sacrileges. Thus divine justice makes the instrument of the crime also the instrument of the punishment.

Sed rex mente effrenatus

But the king, his mind being full of rage, was coming on against the Jews with the purpose of showing himself more cruel than his father (Antiochus Epiphanes, most cruel of all). Lapide notes: Eupator threatened to surpass even his father in cruelty against the Jews — but was thwarted by Judas's victories and by divine intervention.

Quibus Judas cognitis praecepit

Judas, knowing of this, commanded the people to call upon the Lord day and night; that as always he had helped them, so now also he would help them. Three days and nights of continuous public litany — a triduanum of prayer and fasting. Lapide: here is the origin and prototype of the public litany and continuous prayer, day and night, for forty or even seventy-two hours. These were the spiritual weapons of Judas, with which he always triumphed over his enemies.

Dans itaque potestatem omnium Deo

Therefore giving all power to God, and exhorting his men to fight manfully, and to give their lives for their laws and their country, he fell upon the camp of Antiochus by night. Judas committed himself and his people to God as to the Lord of all, resigning themselves to his good pleasure, and then attacked Antiochus's camp at night — either to conquer or to die as God willed. The watchword he gave his men was \"God the victor\" or \"God the helper\" — as was his custom (cf. chapter 8:23; 15:17).

Et dato signo suis Dei victurus

Giving his men the watchword, God will give the victory. Judas gave his soldiers this military watchword or tessera: \"God the victor,\" or \"God's victory,\" or \"God the helper.\" This was his customary sign before battle, serving both as an omen and as the cause of victory — as is evident from chapter 8, verse 23. Under this sign, leading God, Judas immediately cut down four thousand enemies and terrified the rest with dread of death.

Bethsurae, etc., castra admovebat

He moved his camp against Bethsura; but it was being forced back, it was diminished. Vatablus translates: he was being worn down, both by famine and by diseases and by the arms of the besieged Jews and those of Judas who kept falling upon him unexpectedly. Bethsura was the most strongly fortified stronghold in all of Judea (Josephus XIII, ix: \"Bethsura was the most fortified place in all of Judea\"), situated on a rock to the south of Jerusalem, five stadia away, to defend against the incursions of the Idumaeans and other enemies.

Enuntiavit autem mysteria hostibus Rhodocus

But Rhodocus, from the army of the Jews, disclosed their secrets to the enemies. Salianus plausibly surmises that these \"mysteries\" (secrets) were the hidden paths by which provisions were secretly conveyed to the garrison of Bethsura — which the perfidious Rhodocus revealed to the enemies, intending to defect to them. When this was discovered, he was sought out, found, and cast into prison. This is inferred from the following verse.

Iterum rex sermonem habuit

The king again held parley with them that were in Bethsura; he gave them his right hand, received theirs, departed. The king first addressed the soldiers of Bethsura to persuade them to surrender; being repulsed (since Judas was supplying the besieged through secret paths), he tried again after Rhodocus the traitor had revealed and blocked those paths; and this time the soldiers, already suffering from famine, were induced to surrender.

Commisit cum Juda; superatus est

He engaged in combat with Judas; he was overcome. Antiochus, having taken Bethsura, proceeded to neighbouring Jerusalem; but there he was repulsed and defeated by Judas (see 1 Maccabees 6:54). Thus Sanchez, though Salianus refers this to the four thousand cut down in Antiochus's camp by Judas at night (verse 15).

Machabium amplexatus est

He embraced Maccabeus and made him commander and chief from Ptolemais as far as the Gerrenians. The Greek says: \"He left Judas as military commander from Ptolemais as far as the principality of the Gerrheni, that he should administer those regions in Antiochus's name as a kind of viceroy.\" Lapide notes: this is a remarkable outcome — Judas, who had been hunted as a rebel, now received from the king himself a formal commission as commander and viceroy over a vast territory.

Ut autem venit Ptolemaidam

When he came to Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais were indignant at the treaties, being very angry, and wishing that the terms might be broken. The people of Ptolemais were angry at Antiochus's concessions to the Jews, fearing either that the now-stronger Jews would become insolent, break the peace treaty, and attack them and neighbouring regions as former subjects of Judas; or that the Ptolemaeans themselves, as subjects now of Judas the viceroy, would be compelled to join his rebellion against the king. For the Ptolemaeans were ancient enemies of the Jews, as is evident from the fact that they had treacherously captured and killed Jonathan, Judas's brother (1 Maccabees 12:48).

Tunc ascendit Lysias tribunal

Then Lysias mounted the tribunal, and made the best defence he could, and having persuaded them, returned to Antioch. Lysias mounted the tribunal — a raised platform from which he could be seen and heard by all — and explained why the peace treaty had been concluded with Judas and the Jews (namely, because it was expedient for the king and for the Ptolemaeans themselves to cultivate peace with the Jews as very brave, most fortunate, most just, and most faithful men), thus calming the tumultuous crowd. So the expedition of the king proceeded and returned in this manner.