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Chapter 7

Expedition of Bacchides and Alcimus. (A)In the one hundred and fifty-first year,[a] Demetrius, son of Seleucus, set out from Rome, arrived with a few men at a coastal city, and began to rule there. As he was entering the royal palace of his ancestors, the soldiers seized Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him. When he was informed of this, he said, “Do not show me their faces.” So the soldiers killed them, and Demetrius assumed the royal throne.

Then all the lawless men and renegades of Israel came to him. They were led by Alcimus,[b] who desired to be high priest. They made this accusation to the king against the people: “Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your friends and have driven us out of our land. So now, send a man whom you trust to go and see all the destruction Judas has wrought on us and on the king’s territory, and let him punish them and all their supporters.”

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Footnotes

  1. 7:1–3 The one hundred and fifty-first year: the spring of 161 B.C. Demetrius, son of Seleucus, was the lawful heir to the kingdom; but when only nine years old, he was taken as a hostage to Rome in place of his uncle, who ruled as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. At the age of twenty-five Demetrius fled secretly from Rome and, with the support of the Syrians, overcame his rival Antiochus V and put him to death. The royal palace: at Antioch.
  2. 7:5–6 Alcimus: a Jew hostile to the Maccabees, who became high priest after the death of Menelaus (2 Mc 14:3). He received confirmation in his office from the new king Demetrius (1 Mc 7:9), and brought malicious charges against Judas and his brothers and the people (1 Mc 7:6).