Second Book of Maccabees 9

¹ About that time, as it happened, Antiochus had retreated in disorder from the country of Persia.

² He had entered the city called Persepolis, planning to rob the temple and occupy the city; but the population at once sprang to arms to defend themselves, with the result that Antiochus was routed by the inhabitants and forced to beat a humiliating retreat.

³ On his arrival in Ecbatana he learned what had happened to Nicanor and to Timotheus’ forces.

⁴ Flying into a passion, he resolved to make the Jews pay for the disgrace inflicted by those who had routed him, and with this in mind he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping and get the journey over. But the condemnation of heaven travelled with him. He had said in his pride, ‘When I reach Jerusalem I will turn it into a mass grave for the Jews’.

⁵ But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and unseen complaint. The words were hardly out of his mouth when he was seized with an incurable pain in his bowels and with excruciating internal torture;

⁶ and this was only right, since he had inflicted many barbaric tortures on the bowels of others.

⁷ Even so he in no way diminished his arrogance; still bursting with pride, breathing fire in his wrath against the Jews, he was in the act of ordering an even keener pace when he suddenly hurtled from his chariot, and the violence of his headlong fall racked every bone in his body.

⁸ He who only a little while before had thought in his superhuman boastfulness to command the waves of the sea, he who imagined he could weigh mountain peaks in a balance, found himself flat on the ground, borne in a litter, a visible demonstration to all of the power of God,

⁹ in that the very eyes of this godless man teemed with worms and his flesh rotted away while he lingered on in agonising pain, and the stench of his decay sickened the whole army.

¹⁰ A short while beforehand he had thought to grasp the stars of heaven; now no one could bring himself to act as his bearer, for the stench was unbearable.

¹¹ In consequence he began there and then, in his shattered state, to shed his excessive pride and to come to his senses under the divine lash, for he was tormented with pain all the time.

¹² His stench became unendurable even to himself, and he exclaimed, ‘It is right to submit to God; no mortal should aspire to equality with the godhead’.

¹³ The wretch began to pray to the Master, who would never take pity on him now, declaring

¹⁴ that the Holy City, towards which he had been speeding to raze it to the ground and turn it into a mass grave, should be declared free;

¹⁵ as for the Jews, whom he had considered as not even worth burying, so much carrion to be thrown out with their children for birds and beasts to prey on, he would make them all the equals of the citizens of Athens;

¹⁶ the holy Temple which he had once plundered he would now adorn with the finest offerings; he would restore all the sacred vessels many times over; he would defray from his personal revenue the expenses incurred for the sacrifices;

¹⁷ and to crown it all he would himself turn Jew and visit every place where men lived, proclaiming the power of God.

¹⁸ Finding no respite at all from his suffering, because God had punished him with his righteous sentence, he abandoned all hope for himself and wrote the Jews the letter transcribed below, which takes the form of an appeal in these terms:

¹⁹ ‘To the excellent Jews his citizens, Antiochus, king and commander-in-chief, sends hearty greetings, wishing them all health and prosperity.

²⁰ If you and your children are well and your affairs are as you would wish, then I am profoundly thankful.

²¹ For my part, though prostrate with sickness, I cherish tender memories of you. On my return from the country of Persia I fell seriously ill, and thought it necessary to make provision for the common security of all.

²² Not that I despair of my condition, for I have great hope of shaking off the malady,

²³ but considering how my father, whenever he was making an expedition into the uplands, would designate his successor,

²⁴ so that in case of any unforeseen event or disquieting rumour the people of the provinces might know to whom he had left the conduct of affairs and thus remain undisturbed:

²⁵ furthermore, being well aware that the princes on our frontiers and neighbours of our realm are watching for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen, I have designated as king my son Antiochus, whom I have more than once entrusted and commended to most of you when I was setting out for the upland satrapies; a transcript of my letter to him is appended hereto.

²⁶ I therefore urge and require you to remember past favours both public and personal, and to persist, each one of you, in your existing goodwill towards myself and my son.

²⁷ I am confident that he will pursue my own policy with benevolence and humanity, and will prove accommodating to your interests.’

²⁸ And so this murderer and blasphemer, having endured the same terrible suffering as he had made others endure, met his pitiable fate, and ended his life among the remote and inhospitable mountains.

²⁹ His comrade Philip brought back his body, and then, fearing Antiochus’s son, withdrew to Egypt, to the court of Ptolemy Philometor.