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to Alcimus, or Jacimus, a person nearly as wicked as his predecessor; whereupon, Onias, the son of him of that name, who at the instigation of Menelaus had been slain at Antioch, and who ought to have succeeded him, exasperated at the injustice which was done him, fled from Antioch, where he then resided, to the court of Egypt, and obtained the favour of Ptolemy Philometer, and of his queen Cleopatra.*

Demetrius Soter, who was heirt to the throne of Syria, having made his escape from Rome, was almost immediately acknowledged as sovereign at Antioch, and forthwith put to death both Antiochus Eupator and his tutor Lysias.‡

Alcimus, the new high priest, having in various ways polluted himself by conforming to the heathen idolatries, collected as many of the apostate Jews as he could assemble; and presented himself to Demetrius, with complaints against Judas and his brethren, alleging that they slew many of the king's friends, and banished others, including themselves, for no other reason than because they had obeyed the edicts of Antiochus Epiphanes. Urged by this representation, the Syrian

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monarch sent Bacchides with a large army into Judea, accompanied by Alcimus, whom he confirmed in the office of the high priest. They at first proceeded by artifice, and, under an oath of peace and amity, drew several of the Asidæans into their snare, whom Alcimus immediately slew; but Judas and his companions cautiously kept aloof. Bacchides encamped for some time at Bezeph, and committed many atrocities; after which he withdrew into Syria, and left part of his forces with Alcimus, who excited great commotions, and did much mischief. Judas having, however, on the departure of the Syrian general, marched out with his troops and punished those cities and districts which had revolted, Alcimus was afraid to meet him in the field, and fled to Antioch; and presenting Demetrius with a crown of gold and other gifts, renewed his complaints against Judas, assuring him that as long as Judas Maccabæus lived, the king's authority would never become established in that country.

Demetrius influenced by these suggestions, and the advice of his courtiers, ordered Nicanor with another army to proceed to Judea, and destroy both Judas and his followers. That officer, however, being convinced by past experience that it was much easier to plan such matters at Antioch, than to execute them in Judea, commenced a negociation with the Jewish leader, and having met and conversed in a friendly way, soon settled the preliminaries of a treaty of peace; but Alcimus, the arch-heretic, no sooner discovered the peaceable dispositions of Nicanor, but he posted away again to Antioch, and so influenced the mind of Demetrius, that he refused to ratify the treaty into which Nicanor had entered, and dispatched positive instructions to that officer, to prosecute a bellum internecinum against Judas and his brethren.*

Forgetting the honourable principles by which he had been

* Prid. ii. 274.

snare.

so lately actuated, and abandoning those which ought to govern a noble-minded and generous soldier, the crafty Syrian attempted to inveigle Judas into his power, by inviting him to a renewal of the late conference; but Judas discovering that an ambush was laid for him, avoided the The first action which took place between them was at Capharsalama; when Nicanor, having lost five thousand men, retreated to Jerusalem.* Nicanor then went to the mountain of the temple, and demanded that Judas and his host should be delivered up to him; threatening them, in case of refusal, that he would on his return pull down the altar, burn the temple, and erect thereon a temple to Bacchus in its stead; using many blasphemous expressions, alike against the temple and the God of the temple. The pious Jews betook themselves to their strong hold-prayer to Jehovah of Hosts-nor without avail; for Nicanor, having in a rage led his troops forthwith against Judas, was slain in

* Being much enraged by means of this defeat, Nicanor first vented his wrath on Razis, an eminent and honourable senator of the Jewish senate, called the Sanhedrim. For finding that he was much honoured and beloved by the Jews, not only by reason of his steady and constant perseverance in his religion through the worst of times, but also because of the good and kind offices which he was ready on all occasions to do his people, Nicanor thought it would be an act of great displeasure and despite to the Jews to have him cut off; and therefore sent out a party of five hundred men to take him, with intent to put him to death. But Razis being at a castle of his which he had in the country, there defended himself against them for some time with great valour; but at length finding he could hold out no longer, he fell upon his own sword. The wound not killing him, he cast himself headlong over the battlements of the turret whereon he fought; and finding himself alive after that also, he thrust his hand into his wound, and pulling out his bowels, cast them upon the assailants, and so died. The Jews for this reckoned him a martyr; but St. Austin, in his epistle to Dulcitius, condemns the fact as self-murder, and there gives reasons for it that cannot be answered. Prid. ii, 296.

the outset; and his army was so dispersed and destroyed by the inhabitants of the country, that the whole thirty-five thousand men, of which it consisted, were utterly destroyed.

Judas having found the body of Nicanor on the field of battle, cut off his head, and right hand which he had stretched out in defiance of the living God, and hung them both up in one of the towers of Jerusalem.*

Notwithstanding the signal deliverances which he had so often experienced, Judas, very soon after the death of Nicanor, sent ambassadors to Rome, who consented to enter into a treaty of alliance and mutual defence with the Jews; a step which probably led to his subsequent defeat; and which in the result was unquestionably a secondary cause of the final destruction of their temple, and the dispersion of their nation.+

In the mean time, however, and before the issue of this embassy was known, Demetrius had sent Bacchides again into Judea, to revenge the death of Nicanor and the destruction of that army; when all the troops of Judas, except one thousand eight hundred, deserted their commander; and he, having rashly engaged the numerous forces of the enemy with that handful of men, was himself slain. And all Judah and Jerusalem made great lamentation for him; and his brethren, Jonathan and Simon, buried him honourably in the sepulchre of his fathers at Modin.§

By the aid of the apostate Jews, and of the advocates of the

• Prid. ii. 297.

+ The Israelites had often been instructed, that they could not offend their Heavenly Governor by any thing more, than by confiding in foreign alliances, instead of placing their trust simply in him. 2 Kings, xviii. 21, 22. Is. xxxvi. 6, 7. And so it is with every private Christian, who, in the time of difficulty, has recourse to any crooked policy or mere human device, instead of placing all his trust in God and Christ.

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doctine of expediency, of which there are always a sufficient number amongst the great and dignified in all countries, but who are no less traitors to their country than to their king and their God, Alcimus soon acquired the ascendancy; when the Maccabæan family, and their friends and partisans, were exposed to rigid persecution. Upon which all the true servants of God collected round Jonathan, one of the brothers of Judas, and appointed him captain over them, who, with his brother Simon, immediately raised what forces he could; but being pursued by Bacchides, they retreated into the wilderness of Tekoa, and encamped near Jordan, with a morass on one side, and the river on the other. Having sent their brother John to their friends, the Nabotheans, with their baggage and effects, that commander was intercepted, and plundered, and slain by the Jambrians, an Arabian tribe, who then inhabited Medola, a city which had formerly belonged to the Moabites. In revenge for this, Jonathan and Simon laid an ambush for seizing one of the Jambrian nobles with his bride, whilst meeting in the mountains of Canaan, and succeeded in cutting off both them and their attendants, and then returned to their camp.†

Bacchides, hearing of this occurrence, proceeded to attack their camp on the sabbath day; but Jonathan putting the Jews in mind of the edict of his father, Mattathias, exhorted them to resist the enemy, which they did with such effect as to slay one thousand men; and then, throwing themselves into the river Jordan, swam over to the other side, and finally escaped.§

Bacchides, returning to Jerusalem, fortified the cities and strong holds throughout Judea, and especially mount Acra, supplying it abundantly with men and provisions; and seizing

* Prid. ii. 299.

+ Prid. ii. 299.
§ Prid. ii. 300.

See p. 374.

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