Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
46. AND HE BELIEVED HIM.—Too easily did Jonathan, a man of simple and candid mind, believe the crafty and perfidious Tryphon; wherefore he rashly dismissed the army, and therefore was captured by him and slain.
51. AND THEY THAT HAD PURSUED AFTER THEM (the soldiers of Tryphon), SEEING THAT THEY STOOD FOR THEIR LIVES (that is, that the Jews would fight for their life even to death), RETURNED BACK;—for with desperate men, or those resolved in mind, who have decreed either to conquer or to die, one fights most dangerously, and not without sure risk of receiving a great defeat, as Vegetius and Julius Frontinus teach, book II of the Stratagems, chap. vii, whose title is: On letting the enemy go, lest, shut in, he renew the battle from despair, where he confirms the same by many examples. “L. Marius, he says, to whom, the two Scipios being slain, the army committed the command, when the Carthaginians surrounded by him, that they might not die unavenged, fought more fiercely, loosened the maniples and gave room for flight, and slaughtered them dispersed without danger to his own. C. Caesar ordered the shut-in Germans, fighting more bravely from despair, to be let out, and attacked them as they fled. Hannibal, when at Trasimene the shut-in Germans were fighting most fiercely, drawing off his ranks gave them abundant opportunity, and cut them down as they went without blood of his own. Antigonus king of Macedonia gave the Aetolians, who driven into a siege by him were pressed by hunger and had resolved to die together in a sally, a way of flight, and thus their impetus being broken, cut them down as he pursued, their backs turned. Themistocles, Xerxes being conquered, forbade his men who wished to break the bridge, having taught that it was better that he be expelled from Europe than forced by despair to fight. The same sent to him one to tell him in what danger he was unless he hastened his flight.” See what was said II Kings ii, 26, on those words: “Knowest thou not that desperation is dangerous?”
Note that all these things are related more fully by Josephus, Appian and Justin, books XXXV and XXXVI, in which, however, some things go in a way that dissent from the narration of Holy Scripture in this place, wherein therefore credit plainly wavers. And that you may see how the Gentiles, hostile to the Jews, either did not know or depraved their affairs, Justin in the cited book XXXVI writes thus of the Jews: “The origin of the Jews was from Damascus, which is the most noble city of Syria; whence also the Syrians had their kings’ descent from queen Semiramis. The name of the city was given by king Damascus; in whose honour the Syrians worshipped the tomb of Arathes his wife in place of a temple, and have since held her as a goddess of most holy religion. After Damascus, Abraham, Moses, Israel were kings. But the happy produce of ten sons made Israel more famous than his ancestors. And so he divided the people into ten kingdoms, delivered them to his sons, and called them all from the name of Judas, who had died after the division, Jews, and ordered his memory to be worshipped by all”; where you see more errors and fictions than sentences, but he adds falser things than these, saying that Joseph son of Jacob was great, and adds: “His (Joseph’s) son was Moses, whom besides the inheritance of his father’s knowledge the beauty of his form commended. But when the Egyptians suffered from scab and itch, warned by an oracle they drove him with the sick out of the bounds of Egypt, lest the plague creep to more. Made therefore leader of the exiles, he carried off the sacred things of the Egyptians by theft, which the Egyptians demanding back by arms were driven by storms to return home.”
And not many things after: “And because they remembered that they had been driven out of Egypt through fear of contagion, lest for the same cause they should be hated among the inhabitants, they took care not to communicate with strangers; which, done for that cause, they gradually turned into a discipline and religion. After Moses also his son Arvas, priest of the Egyptian rites, was soon made king, and ever since it was a custom with the Jews to have the same men as kings and priests; whose justice mixed with religion, it is incredible how much they grew.”
What can be said more false than these lies heaped and condensed together?
Jonathan captured, his brother Simon succeeds, who sent and paid to Tryphon, demanding it for Jonathan, a ransom of a hundred talents and two of his sons as hostages; but these received, the perfidious Tryphon kills Jonathan with his sons. The same soon, ver. 34, kills Antiochus the ward committed to him, and seizes his kingdom. Wherefore against him Simon fortifies the cities of Judea, and ratifies a treaty with Demetrius, rival of Tryphon. Finally, ver. 43, he storms Gaza and, ver. 49, the citadel of Sion by famine, and sets his son John over the army.
1. And Simon heard that Tryphon had gathered together a very great army to invade the land of Juda, and to waste it: 2. And seeing that the people was in dread and in fear, he went up to Jerusalem, and assembled the people: 3. And exhorting them, said: You know what great battles I and my brethren, and the house of my father, have fought for the laws and the sanctuary, and the distresses that we have seen: 4. By reason whereof all my brethren have lost their lives for the sake of Israel, and I am left alone. 5. And now far be it from me to spare my own life in any time of trouble: for I am no better than my brethren. 6. I will avenge then my nation, and the sanctuary, and our children, and wives: for all the heathens are gathered together to destroy us out of mere malice. 7. And the spirit of the people was enkindled as soon as they heard these words: 8. And they answered with a loud voice, saying: Thou art our leader in the place of Judas and Jonathan thy brother: 9. Fight thou our battles, and all that thou shalt say to us, we will do. 10. So gathering together all the men of war, he made haste to finish all the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it round about. 11. And he sent Jonathan the son of Absalom, and with him a new army into Joppe: and he cast out them that were in it, and himself remained there. 12. And Tryphon removed from Ptolemais with a great army to invade the land of Juda: and Jonathan was with him in custody. 13. But Simon pitched in Addus over against the plain. 14. And when Tryphon knew that Simon was risen up in the place of his brother Jonathan, and that he meant to join battle with him, he sent ambassadors to him, saying: 15. We detain thy brother Jonathan for the money that he owed in the king’s account, by reason of the affairs which he had the management of, 16. But now send a hundred talents of silver, and two of his sons for hostages, that when he is set at liberty he may not revolt from us, and we will release him. 17. And Simon knew that he spoke deceitfully to him, nevertheless he ordered the money and the children to be sent: lest he should bring upon himself a great hatred of the people of Israel, who might have said: 18. Because he sent not the money and the children, therefore is he lost. 19. So he sent the children and the hundred talents: and he lied and did not let Jonathan go. 20. And after this Tryphon came to invade the land and destroy it: and he went about by the way that leadeth to Ador: and Simon and his army marched against him in every place, whithersoever he went. 21. Now they that were in the castle sent messengers to Tryphon, that he should make haste to come by the desert, and send them victuals. 22. And Tryphon made ready all his horsemen to come that night: but there fell a very great snow, and he came not into Galaad. 23. And when he came near to Bascama, he slew Jonathan and his sons there. 24. And Tryphon returned, and went into his own land. 25. And Simon sent and took the bones of Jonathan his brother, and buried him in Modin the city of his fathers. 26. And all Israel bewailed him with great lamentation, and mourned for him many days. 27. And Simon built over the sepulchre of his father and his brethren a building lofty to behold, of polished stone behind and before: 28. And he set up seven pyramids, one against another, for his father, and his mother, and his four brethren. 29. And round about these he made great engines, and set up great pillars upon them, and upon the pillars arms for a perpetual memory, and by the arms ships carved, which might be seen by all that sail on the sea. 30. This is the sepulchre that he made in Modin, even unto this day. 31. But Tryphon, when he was upon a journey with the young king Antiochus, treacherously slew him. 32. And he reigned in his place, and put on the crown of Asia: and brought great evils upon the land. 33. And Simon built up the strong holds of Judea, fortifying them with high towers, and great walls, and gates, and bars: and he stored up victuals in the fortresses. 34. And Simon chose men, and sent to king Demetrius, to the end that he should give the land an immunity: for all that Tryphon did was to plunder. 35. And king Demetrius in answer to this request, wrote a letter in this manner: 36. King Demetrius to Simon the high priest, and friend of kings, and to the ancients, and to the nation of the Jews, greeting. 37. The golden crown, and the palm, which you sent, we have received: and we are ready to make a firm peace with you, and to write to the king’s chief officers to release you the things that we have released. 38. For all that we have decreed in your favour, shall stand in force. The strong holds that you have built shall be your own. 39. As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day, we forgive it, and the crown which you owed: and if any other thing were taxed in Jerusalem, now let it not be taxed. 40. And if any of you be fit to be enrolled among ours, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us. 41. In the year one hundred and seventy the yoke of the Gentiles was taken off from Israel. 42. And the people of Israel began to write in their instruments and public records, The first year under Simon the high priest, the great captain and prince of the Jews. 43. In those days Simon camped against Gaza, and surrounded it with armies, and he made engines, and applied them to the city, and struck one tower, and took it. 44. And they that were within the engine leapt into the city: and there was a great uproar in the city. 45. And they that were in the city went up with their wives and children upon the wall, with their garments rent, and they cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to grant them peace. 46. And they said: Deal not with us according to our evil deeds, but according to thy mercies. 47. And Simon being moved, did not destroy them: yet he cast them out of the city, and cleansed the houses wherein there had been idols, and then he entered into it with hymns, blessing the Lord. 48. And having cast out of it all uncleanness, he placed in it men that should observe the law: and made it stronger than it was before, and built therein a dwelling place for himself. 49. But they that were in the castle at Jerusalem were hindered from going out and coming into the country, and from buying and selling: and they were straitened with hunger, and many of them perished through famine. 50. And they cried to Simon for peace, and he granted it to them: and he cast them out from thence, and cleansed the castle from uncleannesses. 51. And they entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month, in the hundred and seventy-first year, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and harps, and cymbals, and with stringed instruments, and with hymns, and canticles, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel. 52. And he ordained that these days should be kept every year with gladness. 53. And he fortified the mountain of the temple that was near the castle, and he dwelt there himself, and they that were with him. 54. And Simon saw that John his son was a valiant man for war: and he made him captain of all the forces: and he dwelt in Gazara.