²⁴ Antiochus^[a] sent Apollonius, the captain of the Mysians, with an army of twenty-two thousand and commanded him to kill all the grown men and to sell the women and boys as slaves.^(A)

The Occupation of Jerusalem

²⁹ Two years later the king sent to the cities of Judah a chief collector of tribute, and he came to Jerusalem with a large force.^{(A) 30} Deceitfully he spoke peaceable words to them, and they believed him, but he suddenly fell upon the city, dealt it a severe blow, and destroyed many people of Israel.^{(B) 31} He plundered the city, burned it with fire, and tore down its houses and its surrounding walls. ³² They took captive the women and children and seized the livestock. ³³ Then they fortified the city of David with a large strong wall and strong towers, and it became their citadel.^{(C) 34} They stationed there a sinful nation, men who were renegades. These strengthened their position;^{(D) 35} they stored up arms and food, and, collecting the spoils of Jerusalem, they stored them there and became a great menace,

The Suppression of Judaism

6 Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian^[a] senator^[b] to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God,^{(A) 2} also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus and to call the one in Gerizim Zeus-the-Friend-of-Strangers, as the people who live in that place are known.^(B)

³ Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil. ⁴ For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the nations, who dallied with prostitutes and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.^{(C) 5} The altar was covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden by the laws.^{(D) 6} People could neither keep the Sabbath nor observe the festivals of their ancestors nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.^(E)

⁷ On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews^[c] were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices, and when a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus.^{(F) 8} At the suggestion of the people of Ptolemais,^[d] a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them partake of the sacrifices^{(G) 9} and should kill those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them.^{(H) 10} For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. They publicly paraded them around the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then hurled them down headlong from the wall.^{(I) 11} Others who had assembled in the caves nearby in order to observe the seventh day secretly were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of their regard for that most holy day.^(J)

Installation of Gentile Cults

⁴¹ Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people ⁴² and that all should give up their particular customs. All the nations accepted the command of the king.^{(A) 43} Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. ⁴⁴ And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, ⁴⁵ to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and festivals,^{(B) 46} to defile the sanctuary and the holy ones, ⁴⁷ to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals,^{(C) 48} and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane ⁴⁹ so that they would forget the law and change all the ordinances. ⁵⁰ He added,^[a] “And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.”^(D)

⁵¹ In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. He appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the towns of Judah to offer sacrifice, town by town.^{(E) 52} Many of the people, everyone who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; ⁵³ they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had.^(F)

⁵⁴ Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah^{(G) 55} and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. ⁵⁶ The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. ⁵⁷ Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant or anyone who adhered to the law was condemned to death by decree of the king. ⁵⁸ They kept using violence against Israel, against those who were found month after month in the towns. ⁵⁹ On the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering.^{(H) 60} According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised^{(I) 61} and their families and those who circumcised them, and they hung the infants from their mothers’ necks.