Axial Commons
Hebrew / Jewish
The king listened to this, and then turning aside to his potations, commanded the guests to sit down before him.
This done, he asked them to enjoy themselves, and to indulge in mirth at this somewhat late hour of the banquet.
Conversation grew on, and the king sent for Hermon, and enquired of him, with fierce denunciations, why the Jews had been allowed to outlive that day.
Hermon explained that he had done his bidding over night; and in this he was confirmed by his friends.
The king, then, with a barbarity exceeding that of Phalaris, said, That they might thank his sleep of that day. Lose no time, and get ready the elephants against to-morrow, as you did before, for the destruction of these accursed Jews.
When the king said this, the company present were glad, and approved; and then each man went to his own home.
Nor did they employ the night in sleep, so much as in contriving cruel mockeries for those deemed miserable.
The morning cock had just crowed, and Hermon, having harnessed the brutes, was stimulating them in the great colonnade.
The city crowds were collected together to see the hideous spectacle, and waited impatiently for the dawn.
The Jews, breathless with momentary suspense, stretched forth their hands, and prayed the Greatest God, in mournful strains, again to help them speedily.
The sun's rays were not yet shed abroad, and the king was waiting for his friends, when Hermon came to him, calling him out, and saying, That his desires could now be realized.
The king, receiving him, was astonished at his unwonted exit; and, overwhelmed with a spirit of oblivion about everything, enquired the object of this earnest preparation.
But this was the working of that Almighty God who had made him forget all his purpose.
Hermon, and all his friends, pointed out the preparation of the animals. They are ready, O king, according to your own strict injunction.
The king was filled with fierce anger at these words; for, by the Providence of God regarding these things, his mind had become entirely confused. He looked hard at Hermon, and threatened him as follows:
Your parents, or your children, were they here, to these wild beasts a large repast they should have furnished; not these innocent Jews, who me and my forefathers loyally have served.
Had it not been for familiar friendship, and the claims of your office, your life should have gone for theirs.
Hermon, being threatened in this unexpected and alarming manner, was troubled in visage, and depressed in countenance.
The friends, too, stole out one by one, and dismissed the assembled multitudes to their occupations.
The Jews, having heard of these events, praised the glorious God and King of kings, because they had obtained this help, too, from him.
Now the king arranged another banquet after the same manner, and proclaimed an invitation to mirth.
And he summoned Hermon to his presence, and said, with threats, How often, O wretch, must I repeat my orders to thee about these same persons?
Once more, arm the elephants against the morrow for the extermination of the Jews.
His kinsmen, who were reclining with him, wondered at his instability, and thus expressed themselves:
O king, how long dost thou make trial of us, as of men bereft of reason? This is the third time that thou hast ordered their destruction. When the thing is to be done, thou changest thy mind, and recallest thy instructions.
For this cause the feeling of expectation causes tumult in the city: it swarms with factions; and is continually on the point of being plundered.
The king, just like another Phalaris, a prey to thoughtlessness, made no account of the changes which his own mind had undergone, issuing in the deliverance of the Jews. He swore a fruitless oath, and determined forthwith to send them to Hades, crushed by the knees and feet of the elephants.
He would also invade Judea, and level its towns with fire and the sword; and destroy that temple which the heathen might not enter, and prevent sacrifices ever after being offered up there.
Joyfully his friends broke up, together with his kinsmen; and, trusting in his determination, arranged their forces in guard at the most convenient places of the city.
And the master of the elephants urged the beasts into an almost maniacal state, drenched them with incense and wine, and decked them with frightful instruments.
About early morning, when the city was now filled with an immense number of people at the hippodrome, he entered the palace, and called the king to the business in hand.
The king's heart teemed with impious rage; and he rushed forth with the mass, along with the elephants. With feelings unsoftened, and eyes pitiless, he longed to gaze at the hard and wretched doom of the above-mentioned [Jews].
But the [Jews], when the elephants went out at the gate, followed by the armed force; and when they saw the dust raised by the throng, and heard the loud cries of the crowd,
thought that they had come to the last moment of their lives, to the end of what they had tremblingly expected. They gave way, therefore, to lamentations and moans: they kissed each other: those nearest of kin to each other hung about one another's necks: fathers about their sons, mothers their daughters: other women held their infants to their breasts, which drew what seemed their last milk.
Nevertheless, when they reflected upon the succour before granted them from heaven, they prostrated themselves with one accord; removed even the sucking children from the breast, and
sent up an exceeding great cry, entreating the Lord of all power to reveal himself, and have mercy upon those who now lay at the gates of Hades.
And Eleazar, an illustrious priest of the country, who had attained to length of days, and whose life had been adorned with virtue, caused the presbyters who were about him to cease to cry out to the holy God, and prayed thus:
O King, mighty in power, most high, Almighty God, who regulatest the whole creation with thy tender mercy,
look upon the seed of Abraham, upon the children of the sanctified Jacob, thy sanctified inheritance, O Father, now being wrongfully destroyed as strangers in a strange land.
Thou destroyedst Pharaoh, with his host of chariots, when that lord of this same Egypt was uplifted with lawless hardihood and loud-sounding tongue. Shedding the beams of thy mercy upon the race of Israel, thou didst overwhelm him with his proud army.
When Sennacherim, the grievous king of the Assyrians, glorying in his countless hosts, had subdued the whole land with his spear, and was lifting himself against thy holy city, with boastings grievous to be endured, thou, O Lord, didst demolish him and didst shew forth thy might to many nations.
When the three friends in the land of Babylon of their own will exposed their lives to the fire rather than serve vain things, thou didst send a dewy coolness through the fiery furnace, and bring the fire upon all their adversaries.
It was thou who, when Daniel was hurled, through slander and envy, as a prey to lions down below, didst bring him back again unhurt to light.
When Jonah was pining away in the belly of the sea-bred monster, thou didst look upon him, O Father, and recover him to the sight of his own.
And now, thou who hatest insolence; thou who dost abound in mercy; thou who art the protector of all things; appear quickly to those of the race of Israel, who are insulted by abhorred, lawless Gentiles.
If our life has during our exile been stained with iniquity, deliver us from the hand of the enemy, and destroy us, O Lord, by the death which thou preferrest.
Let not the vain-minded congratulate vain idols at the destruction of thy beloved, saying, Neither did their God deliver them.
Thou who art All-powerful and Almighty, O Eternal One, behold! have mercy upon us who are being withdrawn from life, like traitors, by the unreasoning insolence of lawless men.
Let the heathen cower before thy invincible might to-day, O glorious One, who hast all power to save the race of Jacob.
The whole band of infants and their parents with tears beseech thee.
Let it be shewn to all the nations that thou art with us, O Lord, and hast not turned thy face away from us; but as thou saidst that thou wouldst not forget them even in the land of their enemies, so do thou fulfil this saying, O Lord.
Now, at the time that Eleazar had ended his prayer, the king came along to the hippodrome, with the wild beasts, and with his tumultuous power.
When the Jews saw this, they uttered a loud cry to heaven, so that the adjacent valleys resounded, and caused an irrepressible lamentation throughout the army.
Then the all-glorious, all-powerful, and true God, displayed his holy countenance, and opened the gates of heaven, from which two angels, dreadful of form, came down, and were visible to all but the Jews.
And they stood opposite, and filled the enemies' host with confusion and cowardice; and bound them with immoveable fetters.
And a cold shudder came over the person of the king, and oblivion paralysed the vehemence of his spirit.
They turned back the animals upon the armed forces which followed them; and the animals trod them down, and destroyed them.
The king's wrath was converted into compassion; and he wept at his own machinations.
For when he heard the cry, and saw them all on the verge of destruction, with tears he angrily threatened his friends, saying,
Ye have governed badly; and have exceeded tyrants in cruelty; and me your benefactor ye have laboured to deprive at once of my dominion and my life, by secretly devising measures injurious to the kingdom.
Who has gathered here, unreasonably removing each from his home, those who, in fidelity to us, had held the fortresses of the country?
Who has thus consigned to unmerited punishments those who in good will towards us from the beginning have in all things surpassed all nations, and who often have engaged in the most dangerous undertakings?
Loose, loose the unjust bonds; send them to their homes in peace, and deprecate what has been done.
Release the sons of the almighty living God of heaven, who from our ancestors' times until now has granted a glorious and uninterrupted prosperity to our affairs.
These things he said: and they, released the same moment, having now escaped death, praised God their holy Saviour.
The king then departed to the city, and called his financier to him, and bade him provide a seven days' quantity of wine and other materials for feasting for the Jews. He decided that they should keep a gladsome festival of deliverance in the very place in which they expected to meet with their destruction.
Then they who were before despised and nigh unto Hades, yea, rather advanced into it, partook of the cup of salvation, instead of a grievous and lamentable death. Full of exultation, they parted out the place intended for their fall and burial into banqueting booths.
Ceasing their miserable strain of woe, they took up the subject of their fatherland, hymning in praise God their wonder-working Saviour. All groans, all wailing, were laid aside: they formed dances in token of serene joy.
So, also, the king collected a number of guests for the occasion, and returned unceasing thanks with much magnificence for the unexpected deliverance afforded him.
Those who had marked them out as for death and for carrion, and had registered them with joy, howled aloud, and were clothed with shame, and had the fire of their rage ingloriously put out.
But the Jews, as we just said, instituted a dance, and then gave themselves up to feasting, glad thanksgivings, and psalms.
They made a public ordinance to commemorate these things for generations to come, as long as they should be sojourners. They thus established these days as days of mirth, not for the purpose of drinking or luxury, but because God had saved them.
They requested the king to send them back to their homes.
They were being enrolled from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epiphi, a period of forty days: the measures taken for their destruction lasted from the fifth of Epiphi till the seventh, that is, three days.
The Ruler over all did during this time manifest forth his mercy gloriously, and did deliver them all together unharmed.
They feasted upon the king's provision up to the fourteenth day, and then asked to be sent away.
The king commended them, and wrote the subjoined letter, of magnanimous import for them, to the commanders of every city.
King Ptolemy Philopator to the commanders throughout Egypt, and to all who are set over affairs, joy and strength.
We, too, and our children are well; and God has directed our affairs as we wish.
Certain of our friends did of malice vehemently urge us to punish the Jews of our realm in a body, with the infliction of a monstrous punishment.
They pretended that our affairs would never be in a good state till this took place. Such, they said, was the hatred borne by the Jews to all other people.
They brought them fettered in grievous chains as slaves, nay, as traitors. Without enquiry or examination they endeavoured to annihilate them. They buckled themselves with a savage cruelty, worse than Scythian custom.
For this cause we severely threatened them; yet, with the clemency which we are wont to extend to all men, we at length permitted them to live. Finding that the God of heaven cast a shield of protection over the Jews so as to preserve them, and that he fought for them as a father always fights for his sons;
and taking into consideration their constancy and fidelity towards us and towards our ancestors, we have, as we ought, acquitted them of every sort of charge.
And we have dismissed them to their several homes; bidding all men everywhere to do them no wrong, or unrighteously revile them about the past.
For know ye, that should we conceive any evil design against, or in any manner aggrieve them, we shall ever have as our opposite, not man, but the highest God, the ruler of all might. From Him there will be no escape, as the avenger of such deeds. Fare ye well.
When they had received this letter, they were not forward to depart immediately. They petitioned the king to be allowed to inflict fitting punishment upon those of their race who had willingly transgressed the holy God, and the law of God.
They alleged that men who had for their bellies' sake transgressed the ordinances of God, would never be faithful to the interests of the king.
The king admitted the truth of this reasoning, and commended them. Full power was given them, without warrant or special commission, to destroy those who had transgressed the law of God boldly in every part of the king's dominions.
Their priests, then, as it was meet, saluted him with good wishes, and all the people echoed with the Hallelujah. They then joyfully departed.
Then they punished and destroyed with ignominy every polluted Jew that fell in their way;
slaying thus, in that day, above three hundred men, and esteeming this destruction of the wicked a season of joy.
They themselves having held fast their God unto death, and having enjoyed a full deliverance, departed from the city garlanded with sweet-flowered wreaths of every kind. Uttering exclamations of joy, with songs of praise, and melodious hymns they thanked the God of their fathers, the eternal Saviour of Israel.
Having arrived at Ptolemais, called from the specialty of that district Rose-bearing, where the fleet, in accordance with the general wish, waited for them seven days,
they partook of a banquet of deliverance, for the king generously granted them severally the means of securing a return home.
They were accordingly brought back in peace, while they gave utterance to becoming thanks; and they determined to keep these days during their sojourn as days of joyfulness.
These they registered as sacred upon a pillar, when they had dedicated the place of their festivity to be one of prayer. They departed unharmed, free, abundant in joy, preserved by the king's command, by land, by sea, and by river, each to his own home.
They had more weight than before among their enemies; and were honoured and feared, and no one in any way robbed them of their goods.
Every man received back his own, according to inventory; those who had obtained their goods, giving them up with the greatest terror. For the greatest God wrought with perfectness wonders for their salvation.
Blessed be the Redeemer of Israel unto everlasting. Amen.