Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
54. AND IN THE YEAR 153 (of the Greeks), IN THE SECOND MONTH, ALCIMUS COMMANDED (the false Pontiff and wicked apostate and traitor, who had stirred up King Demetrius to send Bacchides against Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, and to give him the Pontificate, Judas being excluded, chap. vii, 4 ff.) THE WALLS OF THE INNER HOLY PLACE TO BE THROWN DOWN,—to show himself Pontiff and lord of the temple. The Greek: He ordered the wall of the inner court of the holy things to be pulled down. Some take this wall to be that which Judas Maccabeus, chap. iv, 60, set before the temple to guard it, lest the Demetrians occupying the neighbouring citadel of Sion should rush into it. But this wall was of the outer court, not the inner, nor was it the work of the prophets, as follows, but of Judas Maccabeus. Wherefore this wall is to be understood of the temple, namely of the Holy and the Holy of Holies; or rather of the court of the priests, adjoining the temple or Holy. For this court is called the inner court, or inner house, in respect of the court of the laity, which was called the outer court or house. For between these two courts there was a wall of three cubits’ height, which Josephus calls Gysum, to separate the priests from the laity, lest laymen should be able to approach the court of the priests and the altar of holocausts, which was in it. Alcimus therefore began to destroy this intermediate wall, both to profane the priests and sacrifices, and that laymen and Gentiles might approach the altar of holocausts and sacrifice on it like the priests. So Salianus, Sanchez and others.
AND THE WORKS OF THE PROPHETS TO BE PULLED DOWN,—namely the wall of the court of the priests already mentioned: for this, as well as the rest of the temple, the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias commanded to be built by the order of God, and by their oracles they continually urged the people to carry on and complete the begun building of the temple, so that the temple and the works done in the temple for its adornment can and ought to be called the works of these prophets, as of Ezechiel, who in chap. xl described the plan of the temple to be built, that they might build according to it. Perhaps there were also in this court certain special monuments of these and other prophets, by which both their holiness and prophecy would be signified, and that they were the authors and promoters of the building of the temple.
55. AT THAT TIME (when he laid sacrilegious hands to the demolition of the holy wall just mentioned) ALCIMUS (the sacrilegious) WAS STRUCK (by God, the guardian of his temple and avenger of sacrilege), AND HIS WORKS WERE HINDERED (in demolishing the wall of the temple court), AND HIS MOUTH WAS STOPPED (the blasphemous mouth with which, as Pontiff, he had ordered this wall to be pulled down), AND HE WAS TAKEN WITH A PALSY, SO THAT HE COULD NO MORE SPEAK A WORD, NOR GIVE ORDER CONCERNING HIS HOUSE,—as if to say: He could not make a will, nor dispose of the affairs of his house, who had unjustly disposed of the house of God and wished to pull it down. This punishment was therefore justly and fittingly inflicted by God on the crime and sacrilege of Alcimus. This wicked Jew and apostate, to please Demetrius and the Greeks, took for the Hebrew Joachim, which was his own name, a neighbouring Greek name, and called himself Alcimus, in Greek alkimos, that is, strong, vigorous, strenuous, fierce, that Demetrius might use him as a kind of leader to subdue Judas and Jonathan, and he indeed used him; but God soon chastised the sacrilegious man, and dissolved him with palsy; and so weakened and laid him low that he could not even utter a word, namely:
God as avenger follows the proud from behind, so that he makes the alkimos, the robust, a nero, that is, most wretched, most sorrowful, worn out with pains and torments.
56. AND ALCIMUS DIED AT THAT TIME IN GREAT TORMENT,—namely in the year 153 of the Greeks, as was said ver. 54, which was the second year of the leadership of Jonathan. Wherefore Josephus errs when he writes that Judas Maccabeus succeeded Alcimus dying in the Pontificate. For Judas had fallen already in the preceding year, namely 152 of the Greeks, as was said chap. ix, 3 ff. A short time therefore did Alcimus enjoy his impiety and pseudo-Pontificate, namely only two years. For he entered on it in the year 151 of the Greeks, as was said chap. vii, 4 and 5; and ended it in 153 of the Greeks, in the second month, as is said here. So short is the joy of the wicked, so short their impiety, which is soon followed by the longest eternity of hell.
57. AND THE LAND WAS QUIET (Judea rested from wars and the molestation of Bacchides) FOR TWO YEARS, in which Jonathan raised and armed himself and his men.
58. AND ALL THE WICKED HELD A COUNSEL,—the Jewish apostates, and the rivals, enemies and traitors of Jonathan, who secretly called in Bacchides, to seize and crush Jonathan by night, thinking no evil; but in vain: for God directing, their treason became known to Jonathan.
61. AND HE TOOK (not Bacchides, as Josephus will have it, but Jonathan his traitors) OF THE MEN OF THE COUNTRY THAT WERE THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS OF THE MISCHIEF (of treason), FIFTY MEN, AND SLEW THEM.
62. AND JONATHAN AND SIMON, AND THEY THAT WERE WITH HIM, RETIRED INTO BETHBESSEN, WHICH IS IN THE DESERT, AND HE BUILT UP THE RUINS THEREOF, AND THEY MADE IT STRONG.—Jonathan, shut out of the whole of Judea by the fraud of the apostates and traitors and the strong forces of Bacchides, withdrew with his brother Simon and a few followers into the city of Bethbessen, situated in the desert of Jericho in the tribe of Benjamin, not far from the Jordan, and fortified it, that in it he might defend himself and his men against Bacchides. Bacchides heard of it, and gathering all his forces besieged Bethbessen, to crush Jonathan with all his men there assembled and so end the whole war. What did Jonathan and Simon do in answer to this?
65. AND JONATHAN LEFT HIS BROTHER SIMON IN THE CITY (to defend it against Bacchides), AND WENT FORTH INTO THE COUNTRY (the neighbourhood, to gather soldiers), AND CAME WITH A NUMBER,—with a numerous army.
66. AND HE SMOTE ODARES.—He was one of the friends and commanders of Bacchides. Some, reading “Oduren” for “Odaren,” think this name is not a proper name but a common noun, signifying a besetter of roads, or robber and brigand; for this is what the Greek hodoidokes means.
AND HE BEGAN TO SLAY (the allies and friends of Bacchides scattered through the plains and there dwelling securely in tents, attacking them unexpectedly) AND TO INCREASE IN FORCES.—In Greek en dynamei, that is, in armies, as if to say: Jonathan, having gathered a band, attacked Odares with his men, and slew the other allies of Bacchides; then, many running to him and his forces and courage increased, he attacked the very camp of Bacchides, which was besieging Bethbessen, giving a signal to his brother Simon to break out of the city and attack the besiegers in front, whom he himself attacked from behind; so it came about that the enemy, attacked on both sides, were slain with such force on both sides by both, and so Simon burnt their engines with which they assailed the city, as follows. So Josephus, book XIII, chap. i, whom hear: “Simon his brother being left for the defence of the town, Jonathan went out secretly, and having gathered men of his faction in the neighbouring region, at night rushed upon the camp of Bacchides, and many being slaughtered, caused his brother to know his coming. For as soon as he perceived the tumult in the enemy’s camp, making a sally he set fire to their engines, with no small slaughter too.” So also Hugo, Salianus, Sanchez and others. Gorionides adds that Bacchides fled into the desert, and there captured by Jonathan, made a suppliant to him, swore that he would restore all that he had taken from Judea; and so peace being established he was dismissed free and returned into Syria to his own. But Scripture has nothing of the kind, indeed it indicates the contrary, namely that Jonathan first sought peace from Bacchides, and therefore accepted conditions little fair to the Jews, as will appear ver. 70.
69. AND HE SLEW MANY OF THEM.—Bacchides, beaten by Jonathan, turned his anger on the apostate Jews, who had called him out of Syria into Judea against Jonathan, promising him a sure victory over a man not thinking of war; wherefore, seeing himself deceived, he slew them as the authors of his misfortune. See here how bad counsel is worst for the counsellor, and returns upon his own throat.
AND HE PURPOSED WITH THE REST TO RETURN INTO THEIR COUNTRY.—Thinking this one thing, says Josephus, how, an end being put to the siege with dignity to himself and the king, he might without disgrace lead the army back to Antioch to King Demetrius, and therefore he at once accepted the conditions of peace offered by Jonathan.
70. AND JONATHAN HAD KNOWLEDGE OF IT, AND SENT AMBASSADORS TO HIM TO MAKE PEACE, AND TO RESTORE THE PRISONERS,—that is, captives. For this was the condition of peace, that captives on both sides be exchanged and restored. Jonathan first sought peace, because his affairs and those of the Jews were afflicted, and therefore he dared not ask of him either Jerusalem, which Bacchides held, or other cities of Judea.
73. AND THE SWORD CEASED FROM ISRAEL,—that is, war and battles ceased, in which many are slain by the sword, and in fact many had been slain in Israel.
AND JONATHAN DWELT IN MACHMAS.—The proper seat of the Prince and Pontiff Jonathan was Jerusalem and the temple; but this being occupied by Bacchides’ men, Jonathan chose his seat in the town of Machmas, which was situated on the border of the tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim, and there began to judge the people, and to exterminate the apostates from Israel, and to settle the whole commonwealth of Israel, as Samuel too had done there, judge and prince, I Kings vii, 5.