Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
AND PLAGUE WHICH HE HAD BROUGHT UPON THE LAND (in the provinces subject to him) THAT HE MIGHT TAKE AWAY THE LAWS, that is, the laws and rites and religion of the nations handed down to them by their forefathers, WHICH HAD BEEN OF OLD, from the first days in which the commonwealths of those nations had been founded. For nothing so turns peoples from a king, and stirs them to sedition, as the overthrow of the laws of their fathers and ancestral religion, and the introduction of a new one, as Antiochus did, who abolished the gods of the Gentiles, and wished no one but himself and Olympian Jove to be worshipped. Add that Asia, subject to Antiochus Epiphanes since the time of his father Antiochus the Great, conquered by Scipio, had to pay the Romans every year as tribute two thousand talents. Wherefore the Asians, seeing themselves drained by the Antiochi, and afflicted by the Romans, were thinking of refusing tribute to Antiochus Epiphanes, indeed of rebelling.
32. AND HE LEFT LYSIAS—with the other half of the army and the elephants, to attack, crush and root out Judas and the Jews. [And to bring up Antiochus] Eupator HIS SON—a boy, in the manner and magnificence that became the king’s son, and that, if anything human should befall himself in Persia, he might put his son in his place in the kingdom.
38. AND LYSIAS (the viceroy of Antiochus Epiphanes) CHOSE PTOLEMEE THE SON OF DORYMENES (in Greek “Dorymenes,” governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, as is plain from 2 Machab. chap. 8, 8) AND NICANOR THE SON OF PATROCLUS.—This is that Nicanor who, sent by Lysias against Judas and the Jews, presiding, and as if certain of victory, proudly boasted that he would sell ninety Jewish slaves for one talent, 2 Machab. chap. 8, 11. But he paid the penalty of his boasting, when, conquered by Judas, his head was cut off and publicly hung up in mockery. AND GORGIAS, most experienced in warlike matters, as is said in the same place, with 40,000 footmen and seven thousand horsemen, as follows.
40. AND THEY WENT FORTH WITH ALL THEIR POWER. Greek dynamei, that is, with the power and strength of so many footmen and horsemen, and also of elephants.
AND PITCHED NEAR EMMAUS,—where Christ appeared to two disciples, and made himself known in the breaking of bread, Luke, last chapter, which was afterwards called Nicopolis from the victory of Titus on the capture of Jerusalem, distant from Jerusalem 60 stadia, that is, seven Italian miles and a half. There is another Emmaus near Tiberias. So St. Jerome in his Places, Josephus, Adrichomius and others.
41. AND THE MERCHANTS HEARD—of the forces and threats of Nicanor against the Jews, and therefore came in troops, as if to buy slaves from him at the lowest price. So in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus eleven hundred thousand Jews were slain, and 97,000 taken, and sold at a low price like the vilest slaves, as Josephus relates in the last book On the War,
46. AND THEY ASSEMBLED TOGETHER, AND CAME TO MASPHA, OVER AGAINST JERUSALEM.—This Maspha therefore was situated on the border of the tribes of Benjamin and Juda, and to it they gathered for public prayer, as Samuel assembled the people there to renew the covenant of the people with God. There was another Maspha in the tribe of Gad, of which Judges 11, 29; and another likewise in the tribe of Ruben, of which 1 Mach.
47. AND THEY FASTED THAT DAY, (until evening and the rising of Hesperus, in the manner of the Jews), AND PUT ON HAIRCLOTH, AND PUT ASHES UPON THEIR HEADS, AND THEY RENT THEIR GARMENTS.—These were acts and signs of penance, humility and supplication, by which, in so great a number and danger of enemies, distrusting themselves, they most ardently implored the help of God, and therefore obtained it. Such also were the things that follow, verses 48, 49, 50.
[the books] in fact as if with a mute voice cried to the Lord that which they contained, and so often repeated, especially in the Psalms: “Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us;” and that by the showing of his own books they might move God, not to suffer them to be polluted, torn and burnt by the Gentiles. So Ezechias, Sennacherib pressing, spread out the sacred books before God, that he might protect them with his worship, 4 Kings 19.
IN WHICH THE GENTILES SEARCHED FOR THE LIKENESS OF THEIR IDOLS,—as if to say: The Gentiles sought the books of Holy Scripture, that they might paint in them their images and idols, and so violate them, and mock the Jews. Whence the Greek has: “They searched to inscribe in them the likeness of their idols.”
But our version has not “to inscribe,” nor “in them,” but “of them;” wherefore according to it the sense is plainer, as if to say: The Gentiles are wont to abuse our sacred books to their superstitions and gentile rites. For from them, and especially from Leviticus, they take the ceremonies and rites of sacrificing and adoring their idols, of consecrating their priests, of purifying the unclean, etc. Moreover they profane the sacred histories by turning them into the fables of their gods. So they transformed Moses into Minos, the giants into Titans, Samson into Hercules, the flood of Noe into the flood of Osiris, the chariot of Elias into the chariot of the sun, and finally Jehovah into Jove. So Rupert, book 6 on Genesis chap. 15, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez and others. Wherefore do not permit, O Lord, that we be delivered to the Gentiles, because if you do this, they will profane, violate, tear in pieces and burn your books and ours, which will be a great ignominy and contempt, both of yours and ours.
49. AND THEY BROUGHT THE PRIESTLY ORNAMENTS, (namely the sacred garments, as the cidaris, the breeches, the tunic of hyacinth, the Ephod, etc., as if to say: Suffer not, O Lord, that these be taken by the Gentiles, because they will tear them, or clothe with them the priests of their idols; likewise they will seize and devour the first-fruits and tithes)
we explain, the Maccabees here show that they care not for their own affairs but for God’s, and are moved by zeal for his religion and worship, so that they as it were compel God to bring help, not so much to his people as to himself and his own religion and worship. Wherefore this their earnest and sincere prayer was efficacious, and inclined God to succour them. In like manner let us also pray, and we shall likewise bend God.
AND THEY STIRRED UP THE NAZARITES THAT HAD ACCOMPLISHED THEIR DAYS—of their vow of Nazariteship; for when the days of the vow were completed the Nazarites had to present themselves to God in the temple, and there offer the victims prescribed by God, Num. 6. See what is said there. Moreover the Nazarites were like the religious of that age, who had dedicated and consecrated themselves to God, and therefore let their hair grow, and abstained from wine and strong drink. Wherefore they bring them forward here, and present them to God, that God might protect them as his own and consecrated to himself against Antiochus and Lysias.
50. AND THEY CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE TOWARD HEAVEN, SAYING: WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THESE, AND WHITHER SHALL WE CARRY THEM?—if Lysias should take us and subdue to himself all Judea as well as Jerusalem and the temple, and fill it with his idols and idolaters, thy veneration being cut off
51. FOR THY HOLY PLACES, (the altars, vessels and all the places of the temple profaned by the attendants of Antiochus), ARE TRODDEN DOWN AND PROFANED.
AND THY PRIESTS ARE IN MOURNING,—both actively; for the priests mourn that they can no longer perform the priesthood, but are driven into exile by Antiochus, and robbed of their offerings, on which they lived: and passively, because the people mourn the mournful state of their priests, and that they are deprived of them, so that through them they cannot sacrifice to God, nor be instructed by them in the law of God.
the priests are despised, there likewise are despised the sacrifices, the law, piety, the worship of God, and the faithful and pious people itself.
54. AND THEY SOUNDED WITH TRUMPETS, AND CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE,—that both by voice and by trumpets resounding to heaven they might implore the help of God with the loudest cries.
55. AND AFTER THIS (because after divine helps human ones also must be used; for God helps only those who try and work together, and do all that duty and prudence require) JUDAS APPOINTED CAPTAINS OVER THE PEOPLE,—namely his brothers Jonathan, Joseph and Simon. See 2 Mach. 8, 22, where Judas, drawing up his battle line, divides it into four divisions, and puts one of his brothers as leader over each, so that each led 1,400 soldiers under the standards, and Judas himself as fourth as many, that is, six thousand in all.
56. AND HE SAID TO THEM THAT WERE BUILDING HOUSES, etc., AND WERE FEARFUL, THAT THEY SHOULD RETURN HOME,—lest they should communicate their fear to their fellow-soldiers; and this according to the law of Deuteronomy chap. 20, 8. See what is said there.
58. GIRD YOURSELVES, (with swords, arms and the rest of the warlike equipment), AND BE VALIANT MEN.—In Hebrew anse chail, that is, men of virtue, that is, strenuous, courageous, strong.
59. FOR IT IS BETTER FOR US TO DIE IN BATTLE, THAN TO SEE THE EVILS OF OUR NATION AND OF OUR HOLY PLACES,—that is, of holy things, as the temple, the altars, the priests, etc. For it is a glorious death to fall fighting for the faith, the law and God, as if to say: Let us fight generously, because either we shall conquer, and so triumph over the enemy; or we shall be conquered, and so be honoured with a glorious death.
60. NEVERTHELESS AS IT SHALL BE THE WILL OF GOD IN HEAVEN, SO BE IT DONE,—whether we conquer, or be conquered and gloriously fall, as God shall will, as if to say: However the die of war shall fall, it will fall well, because it will fall by the will of God, than which nothing is better. Whether therefore we conquer or be conquered, we shall fulfil the will of God, than which nothing more excellent can be wished or desired. Note here the fortitude, piety and resignation of Judas to the will of God, by which he won for himself and his men the grace and victory of God. Let princes and leaders of war imitate him, if they wish to gain a like victory and to have it given by God.