Eodem tempore, Antiochus secundam profectionem paravit in Ægyptum.

At this time Antiochus was preparing once more for a campaign against Egypt.

At the same time Antiochus prepared for a second journey into Egypt.

Contigit autem per universam Jerosolymorum civitatem videri diebus quadraginta per aëra equites discurrentes, auratas stolas habentes et hastis, quasi cohortes armatos:

And all about the city of Jerusalem, by the space of forty days together, there were strange sights appearing. High up in air, horsemen were seen riding this way and that, in vesture of gold, and spears they carried as if they went to battle;

And it came to pass that through the whole city of Jerusalem for the space of forty days there were seen horsemen running in the air, in gilded raiment, and armed with spears, like bands of soldiers.

et cursus equorum per ordines digestos, et congressiones fieri cominus, et scutorum motus, et galeatorum multitudinem gladiis districtis, et telorum jactus, et aureorum armorum splendorem, omnisque generis loricarum.

now riding in ordered ranks, now engaged in close combat. In long array they moved past, shields and helmeted heads and drawn swords; flew javelin and flashed golden harness, a whole armoury of shining mail.

And horses set in order by ranks, running one against another, with the shakings of shields, and a multitude of men in helmets, with drawn swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden armour, and of harnesses of all sorts.

Quapropter omnes rogabant in bonum monstra converti.

No wonder if the prayer was on all men’s lips, good not ill such high visions might portend.

Wherefore all men prayed that these prodigies might turn to good.

Sed cum falsus rumor exisset, tamquam vita excessisset Antiochus, assumptis Jason non minus mille viris, repente agressus est civitatem: et civibus ad murum convolantibus ad ultimum apprehensa civitate, Menelaus fugit in arcem:

And now a false rumour went abroad, Antiochus had come by his death. Jason’s ears it reached, and all at once, with full a thousand men at his back, he delivered an assault upon the city. Let the townsfolk man the walls as they would, at last it fell, and Menelaus must take refuge within the citadel.

Now when there was gone forth a false rumour, as though Antiochus had been dead, Jason taking with him no fewer than a thousand men, suddenly assaulted the city: and though the citizens ran together to the wall, the city at length was taken, and Menelaus fled into the castle.

Jason vero non parcebat in cæde civibus suis, nec cogitabat prosperitatem adversum cognatos malum esse maximum, arbitrans hostium et non civium se trophæa capturum.

As for Jason, he fell upon his own fellow-countrymen, and that without mercy. His own flesh and blood to vanquish, what was this but shameful defeat? Ay, but to him friend was foe, were there spoil for the winning!

But Jason slew his countrymen without mercy, not considering that prosperity against one’s own kindred is a very great evil, thinking they had been enemies, and not citizens, whom he conquered.

Et principatum quidem non obtinuit, finem vero insidiarum suarum confusionem accepit, et profugus iterum abiit in Ammanitem.

Yet high priesthood he got none; disappointed of his scheming, back he must go to the Ammonite country,

Yet he did not get the principality, but received confusion at the end, for the reward of his treachery, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.

Ad ultimum, in exitium sui conclusus ab Areta Arabum tyranno fugiens de civitate in civitatem, omnibus odiosus, ut refuga legum et execrabilis, ut patriæ et civium hostis, in Ægyptum extrusus est:

and there, marked down for death by king Aretas of the Arabians, fled from city to city. An outlaw, hated and shunned by his kind, of a whole land, of a whole race, the common foe, he was driven out into Egypt;

At the last having been shut up by Aretas the king of the Arabians, in order for his destruction, flying from city to city, hated by all men, as a forsaker of the laws, and execrable, as an enemy of his country and countrymen, he was thrust out into Egypt:

et qui multos de patria sua expulerat, peregre periit, Lacedæmonas profectus, quasi pro cognatione ibi refugium habiturus:

and so making his way to Lacedaemon, as if to find refuge there by right of kinship, died miserably. In exile he died, that had brought exile on so many;

And he that had driven many out of their country, perished in a strange land, going to Lacedemon, as if for kindred sake he should have refuge there:

et qui insepultos multos abjecerat, ipse et illamentatus et insepultus abjicitur, sepultura neque peregrina usus, neque patrio sepulchro participans.

cast away without dole or tomb, that left so many tombless; in a strange land unburied, that might have rested in his fathers’ grave.

But he that had cast out many unburied, was himself cast forth both unlamented and unburied, neither having foreign burial, nor being partaker of the sepulchre of his fathers.

His itaque gestis, suspicatus est rex societatem deserturos Judæos: et ob hoc profectus ex Ægypto efferatis animis, civitatem quidem armis cepit.

Here was news to make the king doubt whether the Jews were loyal to him, and back he came from Egypt in a great taking of rage. He occupied the city, and that by force of arms;

Now when these things were done, the king suspected that the Jews would forsake the alliance: whereupon departing out of Egypt with a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms.

Jussit autem militibus interficere, nec parcere occursantibus, et per domos ascendentes trucidare.

then he bade his troops go about killing, with no quarter for any they met; let a man but shew his face on the house-top, he must be slaughtered with the rest.

And commanded the soldiers to kill, and not to spare any that came in their way, and to go up into the houses to slay.

Fiebant ergo cædes juvenum ac seniorum, et mulierum et natorum exterminia, virginumque et parvulorum neces.

Fell young and old alike; children with their mothers must die, nor maidenhood was spared, nor helpless infancy.

Thus there was a slaughter of young and old, a destruction of women and children, and killing of virgins and infants.

Erant autem toto triduo octoginta millia interfecti, quadraginta millia vincti, non minus autem venundati.

By the end of three days, eighty thousand had been massacred, forty thousand held as prisoners, and as many more sold into slavery.

And there were slain in the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, forty thousand were made prisoners, and as many sold.

Sed nec ista sufficiunt: ausus est etiam intrare templum universa terra sanctius, Menelao ductore, qui legum et patriæ fuit proditor:

Nor might all this content him; with Menelaus for his guide, that was traitor to faith and folk, what must he do but make his way into God’s temple, holier in all the world is none?

But this was not enough; he presumed also to enter into the temple, the most holy in all the world, Menelaus, that traitor to the laws, and to his country, being his guide.

et scelestis manibus sumens sancta vasa, quæ ab aliis regibus et civitatibus erant posita ad ornatum loci, et gloriam, contrectabat indigne, et contaminabat.

What, should those sacred ornaments, dedicated by kings and peoples for the more splendour and worthiness of it, be caught up in his impious hands, pawed and defiled by his touch?

And taking in his wicked hands the holy vessels, which were given by other kings and cities, for the ornament and the glory of the place, he unworthily handled and profaned them.

Ita alienatus mente Antiochus, non considerabat quod propter peccata habitantium civitatem, modicum Deus fuerat iratus: propter quod et accidit circa locum despectio:

Surely he had taken leave of his wits, this Antiochus; how should he know that this sanctuary, for once, would lack the divine protection? And only because, for a little, God’s anger was provoked by sins of the men that dwelt there!

Thus Antiochus going astray in mind, did not consider that God was angry for a while, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city: and therefore this contempt had happened to the place:

alioquin nisi contigisset eos multis peccatis esse involutos, sicut Heliodorus, qui missus est a Seleuco rege ad expoliandum ærarium, etiam hic statim adveniens flagellatus, et repulsus utique fuisset ab audacia.

Free had they been from the meshes of such guilt, Antiochus, too, should have been greeted with a drubbing, as Heliodorus was, the man king Seleucus sent to rob the treasury, and should have learned to leave his rash purpose.

Otherwise had they not been involved in many sins, as Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to rob the treasury, so this man also, as soon as he had come, had been forthwith scourged, and put back from his presumption.

Verum non propter locum, gentem: sed propter gentem, locum Deus elegit.

But what would you? People it was God chose, and city for people’s sake;

But God did not choose the people for the place’s sake, but the place for the people’s sake.

Ideoque et ipse locus particeps factus est populi malorum: postea autem fiet socius bonorum, et qui derelictus in ira Dei omnipotentis est, iterum in magni Domini reconciliatione cum summa gloria exaltabitur.

chastisement that fell on the people, city must rue, and anon share its good fortune. He, the omnipotent, the ruler of all, would leave Jerusalem forlorn in his anger, would raise her to heights of glory, his anger once appeased.

And therefore the place also itself was made partaker of the evils of the people: but afterwards shall communicate in the good things thereof, and as it was forsaken in the wrath of Almighty God, shall be exalted again with great glory, when the great Lord shall be reconciled.

Igitur Antiochus mille et octingentis ablatis de templo talentis, velociter Antiochiam regressus est, existimans se præ superbia terram ad navigandum, pelagus vero ad iter agendum deducturum propter mentis elationem.

Antiochus, then, came away from the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents the richer; and back he went to Antioch, all at reckless speed; he had a mind to sail his fleet over the plain, march his troops across the sea, his heart so swelled with pride in his doings.

So when Antiochus had taken away out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents, he went back in all haste to Antioch, thinking through pride, that he might now make the land navigable, and the sea passable on foot: such was the haughtiness of his mind.

Reliquit autem et præpositos ad affligendam gentem: Jerosolymis quidem Philippum genere Phrygem, moribus crudeliorem eo ipso a quo constitutus est:

As for the Jewish folk, he left viceroys of his own to harry them; in Jerusalem Philip, that was a Phrygian born, and outdid his own master in cruelty;

He left also governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, but in manners more barbarous than he that set him there:

in Garizim autem Andronicum et Menelaum, qui gravius quam ceteri imminebant civibus.

at Garizim Andronicus and Menelaus, heaviest burden of all for the folk to bear.

And in Gazarim, Andronicus and Menelaus, who bore a more heavy hand upon the citizens than the rest.

Cumque appositus esset contra Judæos, misit odiosum principem Apollonium cum exercitu viginti et duobus millibus, præcipiens ei omnes perfectæ ætatis interficere, mulieres ac juvenes vendere.

But he would do worse by the Jews yet; or why did he send out Apollonius, the arch-enemy, and a force of twenty-two thousand, to cut off manhood in its flower, women and children to sell for slaves?

And whereas he was set against the Jews, he sent that hateful prince, Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand men, commanding him to kill all that were of perfect age, and to sell the women and the younger sort.

Qui cum venisset Jerosolymam, pacem simulans, quievit usque ad diem sanctum sabbati: et tunc feriatis Judæis arma capere suis præcepit.

This Apollonius, when he reached Jerusalem, was all professions of friendship, and nothing did until the sabbath came round, when the Jews kept holiday. Then he put his men under arms,

Who when he was come to Jerusalem, pretending peace, rested till the holy day of the sabbath: and then the Jews keeping holiday, he commanded his men to take arms.

Omnesque qui ad spectaculum processerant, trucidavit: et civitatem cum armatis discurrens, ingentem multitudinem peremit.

and butchered all that went out to keep festival; to and fro he went about the streets, with armed fellows at his heels, and made a great massacre.

And he slew all that were come forth to see: and running through the city with armed men, he destroyed a very great multitude.

Judas autem Machabæus, qui decimus fuerat, secesserat in desertum locum, ibique inter feras vitam in montibus cum suis agebat: et fœni cibo vescentes, demorabantur, ne participes essent coinquinationis.

Meanwhile Judas Machabaeus, and nine others with him, went out into the desert, where they lived like wild beasts on the mountain-side; better lodge there with herbs for food, than be party to the general defilement.

But Judas Machabeus, who was the tenth, had withdrawn himself into a desert place, and there lived amongst wild beasts in the mountains with his company: and they continued feeding on herbs, that they might not be partakers of the pollution.