XCIII

Chronicles of Jerahmeel, by M. Gaster [1899], at sacred-texts.com

XCIII. (1) Departing thence, Judah went to Bakires (###) and Timothios, and a severe battle ensued between them, in which he himself killed on that day twenty Macedonian warriors. Bakires and Timothios took to flight, and Judah pursued them, but did not overtake them, for they went to Ashtaroth Karnaim. But he

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captured Phillipio, the man who had done so much evil in Judah. When Judah approached him he turned from the way he was going into a house in the vicinity. Judah then ordered his men to overthrow the house upon him, and to burn him to death in that place. He thus avenged the death of Eleazar and the blood of those pious men which Phillipio had shed. They then returned to strip the slain and they sent the spoil to Jerusalem. (2) Nicanor fled thence and escaped, for he had stripped himself of his purple coat, and dressed himself in a poor man's coat, so that he could not be recognised. In this way he came to Macedon and related to Lysias all that had happened.

(3) At that time King Antiochus returned from Persia, ashamed in that the Persians had made him flee the country of Ecbatana, and when he was informed of all Judah had done to his chiefs, and how he had smitten them, he was filled with wrath and fury. He reviled and blasphemed, and said, 'I will go to Jerusalem, and make it a burial-ground, and will fill it with the carcasses of the slain.' He then summoned together all his people, his charioteers and horsemen, a large and mighty multitude. (4) But the Lord had a jealous care for His people, for His city, and His temple, and remembering all the evil Antiochus did to His people, He required the blood of those pious men from Antiochus, and therefore plagued him with boils and with an internal disease. Yet he was not humbled through this, but said, 'Press on, ye charioteers; press on, ye horsemen; press on, ye soldiers. I will go to Jerusalem, and will carry out my intention, for who can stand before me? Is not the sea and the dry land mine, to change their being according to my will? Can I not transform the earth into sea and the sea into earth?' When he had finished speaking thus he mounted his chariot, and went with his huge army in the direction of Jerusalem. With him were many elephants, and his camp was enormous.

(5) Now, while on the journey, his chariot happened to pass in front of one of the elephants, and it trumpeted.

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[paragraph continues] At this the horses took fright, and slipping down, overturned the chariot, and threw Antiochus out of it. As a result of the fall, his bones were broken, for he was a stout and very heavy man. The Lord, however, heaped up plagues upon him, and his flesh stank. The stench of his body was like that of a dead man cast upon the field in the height of the summer. As soon as his servants lifted him upon their shoulders, they had to cast him back again to the ground and run away, for they could not possibly approach him or carry him on account of the dreadful stench of the flesh of that reviler, and blasphemer, and enemy of God. (6) Now, when his army became weary, and he also became sick unto death of the stench arising from his body, he knew then that the hand of the Lord had touched him, and being humbled and made lowly, he exclaimed, 'The Lord is righteous, who humbleth the proud and humiliates the wicked like me, for I have done all this wickedness to His people and to His pious men. It is for this that all these evils have overtaken me.' He then made a vow, saying, 'If the Lord will heal me from this disease, I will go to Jerusalem and fill it with silver and gold; I will spread carpets of purple in all the streets, and will give all my treasury to the temple of the great God. I will circumcise my foreskin, and will go about the whole land exclaiming in a loud voice, ‘There is no God in the whole world like the God of Israel.'

(7) But the Lord did not hearken to his prayer, nor did He give ear to him, for all the way Antiochus the Cruel was travelling his flesh fell off from his bones, until finally his very bowels fell out upon the ground. Thus his life came to an end. He died in shame and disgrace and in a strange land. Eopator, his son, succeeded him.