2nd Maccabees Chapter 5

Second Egyptian campaign


5:1 About the same time Antiochus was preparing his second invasion of Egypt:
5:2 And then it so happened, that through all the city, for almost forty days, there were seen apparitions of horsemen running through the air, clad in gold, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords,
5:3 troops of cavalry fully armed, attacks and counter-attacks made on this side and on that, with waving of shields, and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and throwing of spears, and glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts.
5:4 So every man prayed that that apparition might prove a good omen.

Jason’s insurrection; counteraction by Antiochus Epiphanes


5:5 When a false rumor surfaced that Antiochus  was dead, Jason took at the least a thousand men, and suddenly made an assault on the city; When the troops on the wall had been forced back, and the city was to the point of being taken, Menelaus escaped into the stronghold:
5:6 However Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his citizens, not realizing that success at the cost of one’s kindred is the greatest disaster; but picturing that he was winning trophies of victory from enemies and not over countrymen, whom he conquered.
5:7 However for all this he didn’t win the control of the government, in the end he got only disgrace from his treason, and escaped again into the country of the sons of Ammonעַמּוֹן‎
Transliteration: ʿammôn Pronunciation: am-mone’ Ammon = “tribal” From Ben-ammi son of Lot and his youngest daughter click here Referring to the Ammonites (or sons of Ammon) the people living in Transjordan
.
5:8 Finally he met a miserable end, being imprisioned by Aretas the king of the Arabians, escaping from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a rebel against the laws, and being had in as the executioner of his country and countrymen, he was throw out into Egypt.
5:9 So he that had driven many out of their own country into exile died in exile, retiring to the Sparta, hoping that, kinship’s sake, he might of find protection there:
5:10 And he that had thrown out many to lie unburied had no one to mourn for him, or any somber funerals at all, nor sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)
noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. Tomb– Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’.
with his forefathers.
5:11 When news of what had happened reached the king, he thought that Judeaיהודה
(Yəhūda Greek: Ἰουδαία Latin: Iudaea) or Judaea – a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name “Judah”, which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite tribe of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. For more info click here
had revolted: So leaving out of Egypt raging like a wild animal, he took the city by storm,
5:12 And ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy everyone they met , and to butcher those who took refuge their houses.
5:13 So there was massacre of young and old men, a slaughter of women, and children, killing of young women and infants.
5:14 There were eighty thousand victims in three days, forty thousand were killed in hand-to-hand fighting; and no fewer sold than killed.

Pillage of the Temple


5:15 Not content with this, Antiochus dared to enter the most holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
temple in all the world; guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country:
5:16 with impure hands he seized the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
vessels, and with profane hands he seize  the offerings that other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
place.
5:17 Having a high opinion of himself, Antiochus didn’t realize that YAHWEH יְהֹוָה
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here
was temporarily angry because of the sins of those that lived in the city, and that was the reason he was ignoring the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
place.
5:18 If they hadn’t been previously wrapped in many sins, this man, would have been flogged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, like Heliodorus was, when Seleucus the king sent to inspect the treasury.
5:19 However Elohimאֱלֹהִים
romanized: ʾĔlōhīm: [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im]), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ‎ (ʾĔlōah), is a Hebrew word meaning “gods”. Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity particularly the God of Israel In other verses it refers to the singular gods of other nations or to deities in the plural A name for GOD — God The Creator. For more info click here
didn’t choose the people for the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
place’s sake, but the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
place for the people’s sake.
5:20 And so the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
place itself shared in the misfortunes that happened to the nation and afterwards shared in its benefits, and having been abandoned by Shaddaiשַׁדַּי
romanized: Šaddāy; or Shaddai is one of the names of the God of Israel. El Shaddai is conventionally translated into English as God Almighty (Deus Omnipotens in Latin, Arabic: الله عزوجل, romanized: ʾAllāh ʿazzawajal), but its original meaning is unclear. One of God’s names Shaddai = Exhaustless Bounty click here
in his anger, once the great Adonaiהָאָדוֹן
the Lord, Pluralis majestatis taken as singular) is the possessive form of adon (“Lord”), along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic. As with Elohim, Adonai’s grammatical form is usually explained as a plural of majesty. For more info click here
was appeased it was returned with all its glory.
5:21 So when Antiochus had carried out of the temple a thousand eight hundred talents The Biblical weight of a talent is equal to approximately 34 kilograms or 74.96lbs For more info click here, hurried back to Antioch (Turkey),  in his arrogance thinking he could sail on the land and walk on the sea: such was the self-importance of his mind.
5:22 And he left governors to oppress the nation: at Jerusalemיְרוּשָׁלַם
Transliteration: yᵊrûšālam – Pronunciation: yer-oo-shaw-lah’-im – proper locative noun meaning “teaching of peace” or possession of peace – also called the city of David and Zion – the chief city of Palestine and capital of the united kingdom and the nation of Judah after the split For more info click here
, Philip, for his country a Phrygian (Asian Turkey), and more vicious than the man who appointed him;
5:23 And at Mount Garizim, Andronicus *Andronicus was like Philip an administrative official representative of the royal authority in a town. He supposedly lived at the foot of Mount Gerizim at Shechem. From the New Jerusalem Bible; and besides, Menelaus, who lorded it over his the countrymen, worse than the all the others.

Activities of Apollonius the Mysarch


5:24 He also sent Apollonius the captain of the Mysians with an army of twenty-two thousand, commanding him to kill men in their prime, and to sell the women and children:
5:25 When he arrived in Jerusalemיְרוּשָׁלַם
Transliteration: yᵊrûšālam – Pronunciation: yer-oo-shaw-lah’-im – proper locative noun meaning “teaching of peace” or possession of peace – also called the city of David and Zion – the chief city of Palestine and capital of the united kingdom and the nation of Judah after the split For more info click here
, as a man of peaceשָׁלוֹם
Transliteration šālôm Pronunciation shaw-lome’ shalom – completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, be well, prosperity For more info click here
, waited till the holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
day of the Sabbathשַׁבָּת
romanized: Šabbāṯ, [ʃa’bat], lit. ’rest’ or ‘cessation’) is Judaism’s day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the creation of the heavens and earth in six days and the redemption from slavery and the Exodus from Egypt, and look forward to a future Messianic Age. Since the Jewish religious calendar counts days from sunset to sunset, Shabbat begins in the evening of what on the civil calendar is Friday For more info click here
, when taking the Jews keeping holyקָדְשׁוֹ
Transliteration qōḏeš Pronunciation ko’-desh a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:—consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (× most) holy (× day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. For more info click here
day, then, while the Jews weren’t working, he commanded his men to parade fully armed.
5:26 And so he killed all those who came out to watch them, and rushing through the city with his armed troops, killed a massive number of people.
5:27 But Judas Maccabaeusיהודה המכבי
romanized: Yehudah HaMakabi Judah Maccabee (or Judas Maccabaeus /mækəˈbiːəs/, also spelled Maccabeus was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (“Dedication”) commemorates the restoration of Jewish worship at the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, after Judah Maccabee removed all of the statues depicting Greek gods and goddesses and purified it. For more info click here
about nine others, got away into the wildernessמִדְבָּר
Transliteration: miḏbār Pronunciation; mid-bawr’ desert, south, speech, wilderness For more info click here
, and lived in the mountains like wild animals do, with his company, who ate nothing but wild plants, so that they might not share in the pollution.

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