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1 Maccabees 13
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Chapter 13
V. SIMON, HIGH PRIEST AND ETHNARCH OF THE JEWS (142-134 B.C.)
Simon takes command
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Simon heard that Trypho had collected a large army to invade and devastate the land of Judah,
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and when he saw how the people were quaking with fear, he went up to Jerusalem, called the people
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and exhorted them thus, ‘You know yourselves how much I and my brothers and my father’s family have done for the laws and the sanctuary; you know what wars and hardships we have experienced.
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That is why my brothers are all dead, for Israel’s sake, and I am the only one left.
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Far be it from me, then, to be sparing of my own life in any time of oppression, for I am not worth more than my brothers.
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Rather will I avenge my nation and the sanctuary and your wives and children, now that all the pagans have united in their malice to destroy us.’
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The spirit of the people rekindled as they listened to his words,
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and they shouted back at him, ‘You are our leader in place of Judas and your brother Jonathan.
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Fight our battles for us, and we will do whatever you tell us.’
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So he assembled all the fighting men and hurried on the completion of the walls of Jerusalem, fortifying the whole perimeter.
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He sent a considerable force to Joppa under Jonathan, son of Absalom, who drove out the inhabitants and remained there in occupation.
Simon repels Trypho from Judaea
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Trypho now left Ptolemais with a large army to invade the land of Judah, taking Jonathan with him under guard.
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Simon pitched camp in Adida, facing the plain.
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When Trypho learned that Simon had stepped into the place of his brother Jonathan, and that he intended to join battle with him, he sent envoys to him with this message,
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‘Your brother Jonathan was in debt to the royal exchequer for the offices he held; that is why we are detaining him.
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If you send a hundred talents of silver and two of his sons as hostages, to make sure that on his release he does not revolt against us, we will release him.’
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Although Simon was aware that the message was a ruse, he sent for the money and the boys for fear of incurring great hostility from the people,
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who would have said that Jonathan died because Simon did not send Trypho the money and the boys.
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He therefore sent both the boys and the hundred talents, but Trypho broke his word and did not release Jonathan.
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Next, Trypho set about the invasion and devastation of the country; he made a detour along the Adora road, but Simon and his army confronted him wherever he attempted to go.
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The men in the Citadel kept sending messengers to Trypho, urging him to get through to them by way of the wilderness and send them supplies.
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Trypho organised his entire cavalry to go, but that night it snowed so heavily that he could not get through for the snow, so he struck camp and moved off into Gilead.
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As he approached Baskama[*a] he killed Jonathan, and he was buried there.
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Trypho turned back and regained his own country.
Jonathan is buried in the mausoleum built by Simon at Modein
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Simon sent and recovered the bones of his brother Jonathan, and buried him in Modein, the town of his ancestors.
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All Israel kept solemn mourning for him, bewailing him for many days.
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Over the tomb of his father and brothers Simon raised a monument high enough to catch the eye, using dressed stone back and front.
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He erected seven pyramids facing each other, for his father and mother and his four brothers,
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raising them on plinths and surrounding them with tall columns on which he had trophies of arms carved to their everlasting memory and, beside the armour, sculptured ships to be seen by all who sailed the sea.
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Such was the monument he constructed at Modein, and it is still there today.
The favours of Demetrius II to Simon
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Trypho treated the young King Antiochus treacherously and put him to death.
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He usurped his throne, assuming the crown of Asia, and brought great havoc on the country.
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Simon built up the fortresses of Judaea, surrounding them with high towers, great walls and gates with bolts, and stocked these fortresses with food.
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He also sent a delegation to King Demetrius to induce him to grant relief to the province, because all that Trypho did was to confiscate.
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King Demetrius replied to his request in a letter framed as follows:
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‘King Demetrius to Simon, high priest and Friend of Kings, and to the elders and nation of the Jews, greetings.
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It has pleased us to accept the golden crown and the palm you have sent us, and we are disposed to make a general peace with you, and to write to the officials to grant you remissions.
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Everything that we have decreed concerning you remains in force, and the fortresses you have built are to remain in your hands.
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We pardon all offences, unwitting or intentional, committed up to this day, as well as the crown tax which you owe, and any other duty that used to be paid in Jerusalem shall no longer be payable.
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If any of you are suitable for enrolment in our bodyguard, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us.’
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lt was in the year one hundred and seventy, that the rule of the pagans was lifted from Israel,
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and the people began to engross their documents and contracts, ‘In the year one of Simon, great high priest, military commissioner, and leader of the Jews.’
The capture of Gezer by Simon
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At that time Simon went to lay siege to Gezer and surrounded it with his troops. He constructed a mobile tower, brought it up to the city, opened a breach in one of the bastions and took it.
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The men in the mobile tower sprang out into the city, where great confusion ensued.
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The citizens, accompanied by their wives and children, mounted the ramparts with their garments torn and loudly implored Simon to make peace with them:
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‘Treat us’ they said ‘not as our wickedness deserves, but as your mercy prompts you’.
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Simon came to terms with them and stopped the fighting; but he expelled them from the city, purified the houses which contained idols, and then made his entry with songs of praise.
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He banished all uncleanness from it, settled men in it who observed the Law, and having fortified it, built a residence there for himself.
Simon occupies the Citadel in Jerusalem
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The men in the Citadel in Jerusalem, prevented as they were from going out into the country and back to buy and sell, were in desperate want of food, and numbers of them were carried off by starvation.
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They begged Simon to make peace with them, and he granted this, though he expelled them and purified the Citadel from its pollutions.
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The Jews made their entry on the twenty-third day of the second month in the year one hundred and seventy-one, with acclamations and carrying palms, to the sound of harps, cymbals and zithers, chanting hymns and canticles, since a great enemy had been crushed and thrown out of Israel.
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Simon made it a day of annual rejoicing. He strengthened the fortifications of the Temple hill by the side of the Citadel, and took up residence there with his men.
53
Seeing that his son John had come to manhood, Simon appointed him commander of all the forces, with his residence in Gezer.
Chapters of 1 Maccabees
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
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