1 Maccabees 10

1 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. 2 And you have profaned it in that you say: The table of the Lord is defiled: and that which is laid thereupon is contemptible with the fire that devoureth it. 3 And you have said: Behold of our labour, and you puffed it away, saith the Lord of hosts, and you brought in of rapine the lame, and the sick, and brought in an offering: shall I accept it at your hands, saith the Lord? 4 Cursed is the deceitful man that hath in his flock a male, and making a vow offereth in sacrifice that which is feeble to the Lord: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the Gentiles. 6 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you. 7 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart. 8 Behold, I will cast the shoulder to you, and will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it. 9 And you shall know that I sent you this commandment, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. 10 My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave him fear: and he feared me, and he was afraid before my name. 11 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace, and in equity, and turned many away from iniquity. 12 For the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. 13 But you have departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law: you have made void the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. 14 Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all people, as you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law. 15 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why then doth every one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers? 16 Juda hath transgressed, and abomination hath been committed in Israel, and in Jerusalem: for Juda hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 17 The Lord will cut off the man that hath done this, both the master, and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering to the Lord of hosts. 18 And this again have you done, you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and bellowing, so that I have no more a regard to sacrifice, neither do I accept any atonement at your hands. 19 And you have said: For what cause? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee, and the wife of thy youth, whom thou hast despised: yet she was thy partner, and the wife of thy covenant. 20 Did not one make her, and she is the residue of his spirit? And what doth one seek, but the seed of God? Keep then your spirit, and despise not the wife of thy youth. 21 When thou shalt hate her put her away, saith the Lord, the God of Israel: but iniquity shalt cover his garment, saith the Lord of hosts, keep your spirit, and despise not. 22 You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said: Wherein have we wearied him? In that you say: Every one that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or surely where is the God of judgment? 24 Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts. 25 And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s herb: 26 And he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice. 27 And the sacrifice of Juda and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in the days of old, and in the ancient years. 28 And I will come to you in judgment, and will be a speedy witness against sorcerers, and adulterers, and false swearers, and them that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widows, and the fatherless: and oppress the stranger, and have not feared me, saith the Lord of hosts. 29 For I am the Lord, and I change not: and you the sons of Jacob are not consumed. 30 For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances, and have not kept them: Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the Lord of hosts. And you have said: Wherein shall we return? 31 Shall a man afflict God, for you afflict me. And you have said: Wherein do we afflict thee? in tithes and in firstfruits. 32 And you are cursed with want, and you afflict me, even the whole nation of you. 33 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and try me in this, saith the Lord: if I open not unto you the flood-gates of heaven, and pour you out a blessing even to abundance. 34 And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he shall not spoil the fruit of your land: neither shall the vine in the field be barren, saith the Lord of hosts. 35 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightful land, saith the Lord of hosts. 36 Your words have been unsufferable to me, saith the Lord. 37 And you have said: What have we spoken against thee? You have said: He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts? 38 Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up, and they have tempted God and are preserved. 39 Then they that feared the Lord, spoke every one with his neighbour: and the Lord gave ear, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that fear the Lord, and think on his name. 40 And they shall be my special possession, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do judgment: and I will spare them, as a man spareth his son that serveth him. 41 And you shall return, and shall see the difference between the just and the wicked: and between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. 43 For behold the day shall come kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave them root, nor branch. 44 But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd. 45 And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts. 46 Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, the precepts, and judgments. 47 Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 48 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema. 49 The First Book of Maccabees 51 Now it came to pass, after that Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, who first reigned in Greece, coming out of the land of Cethim, had overthrown Darius, king of the Persians and Medes: 52 He fought many battles, and took the strong holds of all, and slew the kings of the earth: 53 And he went through even to the ends of the earth: and took the spoils of many nations: and the earth was quiet before him. 54 And he gathered a power, and a very strong army: and his heart was exalted and lifted up: 55 And he subdued countries of nations, and princes; and they became tributaries to him. 56 And after these things, he fell down upon his bed, and knew that he should die. 57 And he called his servants, the nobles that were brought up with him from his youth: and he divided his kingdom among them, while he was yet alive. 58 And Alexander reigned twelve years, and he died. 59 And his servants made themselves kings, every one in his place: 60 And they all put crowns upon themselves after his death, and their sons after them, many years; and evils were multiplied in the earth. 61 And there came out of them a wicked root, Antiochus the Illustrious, the son of king Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome: and he reigned in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. 62 In those days there went out of Israel wicked men, and they persuaded many, saying: Let us go and make a covenant with the heathens that are round about us: for since we departed from them, many evils have befallen us. 63 And the word seemed good in their eyes. 64 And some of the people determined to do this, and went to the king: and he gave them license to do after the ordinances of the heathens. 65 And they built a place of exercise in Jerusalem, according to the laws of the nations: 66 And they made themselves prepuces, and departed from the holy covenant, and joined themselves to the heathens, and were sold to do evil: 67 And the kingdom was established before Antiochus, and he had a mind to reign over the land of Egypt, that he might reign over two kingdoms. 68 And he entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots, and elephants, and horsemen, and a great number of ships: 69 And he made war against Ptolemee king of Egypt; but Ptolemee was afraid at his presence and fled, and many were wounded unto death. 70 And he took the strong cities in the land of Egypt: and he took the spoils of the land of Egypt. 71 And after Antiochus had ravaged Egypt, in the hundred and forty-third year, he returned and went up against Israel. 72 And he went up to Jerusalem, with a great multitude. 73 And he proudly entered into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof, and the table of proposition, and the pouring vessels, and the vials, and the little mortars of gold, and the veil, and the crowns, and the golden ornament that was before the temple: and he broke them all in pieces. 74 And he took the silver and gold, and the precious vessels: and he took the hidden treasures, which he found: and when he had taken all away, he departed into his own country. 75 And he made a great slaughter of men, and spoke very proudly. 76 And there was great mourning in Israel, and in every place where they were: 77 And the princes, and the ancients mourned, and the virgins and the young men were made feeble, and the beauty of the women was changed. 78 Every bridegroom took up lamentation: and the bride that sat in the marriage bed, mourned: 79 And the land was moved for the inhabitants thereof, and all the house of Jacob was covered with confusion. 80 And after two full years, the king sent the chief collector of his tributes to the cities of Juda, and he came to Jerusalem with a great multitude. 81 And he spoke to them peaceable words in deceit; and they believed him. 82 And he fell upon the city suddenly, and struck it with a great slaughter, and destroyed much people in Israel. 83 And he took the spoils of the city, and burnt it with fire, and threw down the houses thereof, and the walls thereof round about: 84 And they took the women captive, and the children, and the cattle they possessed. 85 And they built the city of David with a great and strong wall, and with strong towers, and made it a fortress for them: 86 And they placed there a sinful nation, wicked men, and they fortified themselves therein: and they stored up armour; and victuals, and gathered together the spoils of Jerusalem; 87 And laid them up there: and they became a great snare. 88 And this was a place to lie in wait against the sanctuary, and an evil devil in Israel. 89 And they shed innocent blood round about the sanctuary, and defiled the holy place.