Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
Chapter 16. Synopsis of the Chapter
Simon, by Judas and John his sons, routs Cendebeus. Then, ver. 11, Ptolemy, son-in-law of Simon, inviting him, treacherously kills him with two sons, that he may make himself Prince of Judea. Finally, ver. 19, John, surviving son of Simon, sought by Ptolemy for death, forewarned, eluded his attempts, and succeeded his father in the Leadership and Pontificate.
1. And John went up from Gazara, and told Simon his father what Cendebeus had done against their people. 2. And Simon called his two eldest sons, Judas and John, and said to them: I, and my brethren, and my father’s house, have fought against the enemies of Israel from our youth even unto this day: and things have prospered so well in our hands that we have delivered Israel oftentimes. 3. But now I am old; but be ye in my place, and my brethren’s, and go out and fight for our nation: and the help from heaven be with you. 4. And he chose out of the country twenty thousand fighting men and horsemen: and they went against Cendebeus, and rested in Modin. 5. And they rose in the morning, and went into the plain: and behold a very great army of footmen and horsemen came to meet them: and there was a running river between them. 6. And he and his people pitched their camp over against them: and he saw that the people were afraid to go over the river, so he went over first: and then the men seeing him, passed over after him. 7. And he divided the people, and set the horsemen in the midst of the footmen: for the enemies’ horsemen were very numerous. 8. And they sounded the holy trumpets: and Cendebeus and his army were put to flight, and many of them were slain, and the remnant fled into the strong hold. 9. At that time Judas, John’s brother, was wounded: but John pursued after them, till he came to Cedron, which he had built. 10. And they fled even to the towers that were in the fields of Azotus, and he burnt them with fire. And there were slain of them two thousand men, and he returned into Judea in peace. 11. And Ptolemee the son of Abobus was appointed captain in the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold: 12. For he was son in law to the high priest. 13. And his heart was lifted up, and he designed to make himself master of the country, and he purposed treacherously against Simon and his sons to destroy them. 14. Now Simon was visiting the cities that were in the country of Judea, and taking care for the good ordering of them: at that time he went down himself to Jericho with his sons Mathathias and Judas, in the year one hundred and seventy-seven, in the eleventh month, the same is called Sabath. 15. And the son of Abobus received them deceitfully into a little fortress, that is called Doch, which he had built: and he made them a great feast, and hid men there. 16. And when Simon and his sons had drunk plentifully, Ptolemee and his men rose up, and took their weapons, and entered into the banqueting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and some of his servants. 17. And he committed a great treachery in Israel, and rendered evil for good. 18. And Ptolemee wrote these things, and sent to the king, that he should send him an army to aid him, and he would deliver him the country and their cities, and tributes. 19. And he sent others to Gazara to kill John: and to the tribunes he sent letters to come to him, and that he would give them silver, and gold, and gifts. 20. And he sent others to take Jerusalem, and the mountain of the temple. 21. Now one running before told John in Gazara, that his father and his brethren were slain, and that he hath sent men to kill thee also. 22. But when he heard it, he was exceedingly afraid: and he apprehended the men that came to kill him, and he put them to death: for he knew that they sought to make him away. 23. And as concerning the rest of the acts of John, and his wars, and the worthy deeds which he bravely achieved, and the building of the walls which he made, and the things that he did, 24. Behold these are written in the book of the days of his priesthood, from the time that he was made high priest after his father.
Gaza, where Simon his father had left and appointed him as commander of the army in his place.
3. BUT NOW I AM OLD; BUT BE YE IN MY PLACE, AND MY BRETHREN’S.—The Greek and the Complutensian Latin have: and of my brother, namely of Jonathan and Judas, that you may succeed us in the leadership and in the wars for Israel. The Greek adds: And you by mercy are fit by age, that is, you are, by benefit, fit for war by age.
4. AND HE CHOSE OUT OF THE COUNTRY TWENTY THOUSAND FIGHTING MEN (warriors), AND HORSEMEN.—Here only I find horsemen in the camp of John and the Jews, whereas in the camps of Judas, Jonathan and Simon we have hitherto read of none but foot, because God, Deut. xvii, had forbidden the Jews the multiplying of horses.
6. AND HE WENT OVER FIRST,—namely John himself, the son of Simon and leader of the army, whose example the rest, who had before been afraid, at once followed; wherefore attacking Cendebeus boldly they slew him and put him to flight.
AND THE REMNANT FLED INTO THE STRONG HOLD,—namely into Gedor, which they had fortified, in the preceding chapter, ver. 39.
9. TILL HE CAME TO CEDRON (namely Gedor, for this is called Cedron in Greek; this therefore John, pressing on the fleeing enemy, wrested away) WHICH HE HAD BUILT,—that is, which Cendebeus had built and fortified, in the preceding chapter, ver. 39.
This was the beginning of the victories and heroic deeds of John, with which he bravely and happily inaugurated the principate in the place of Simon his father, for whom death was now being prepared by the guile of Ptolemy. See here the providence of God, which took thought for Israel by John, while Simon his father and leader is by fraud slain by his son-in-law.
Moreover Josephus after his manner embellishes this battle, and therefore mingles many falsehoods, namely that Simon himself was present at this battle, that he attacked Cendebeus by ambush, that he engaged with him more than once and was always victor.
CAPTAIN IN THE PLAIN OF JERICHO,—namely by Simon Leader and Pontiff his father-in-law, as follows. This Ptolemy was wealthy, and by his wealth purposed to obtain the leadership of Juda; and therefore he meditated destroying Simon with his sons and the whole stock of the Asamoneans. See here the monstrous parricide and sacrilege of Ptolemy, by which he treacherously slew the supreme Pontiff, whose daughter he had himself taken to wife. What does not ambition and the lust of reigning dare?
16. AND WHEN SIMON HAD DRUNK PLENTIFULLY (that is, was cheered by a more generous drink)—without drunkenness, however. Whence Vatablus renders: When they were filled with drink. For as Nonius Marcellus says: “Not only the wine-bibbing, but those filled with any thing are called drunk.” So the brethren of Joseph are said to be inebriated, that is, to have grown warm with wine, Gen. xliii; and Psalm lxiv: “Thou hast visited the earth, he says, and hast inebriated it”; and Cant.
AND SLEW HIM, AND HIS TWO SONS.—Josephus adds, and Hegesippus from him, that the wife of Simon was captured with her sons, except John; that John avenged the death of his father and brothers, and besieged Ptolemy, but raised the siege because Ptolemy threatened his captive mother with scourges and other torments, and many like things which seem little probable, indeed discordant from Holy Scripture, as Salianus and Sanchez show.
Simon ruled Israel seven whole years; for he began in the year of the Greeks 170, in which Jonathan his predecessor was slain, I Mach. xiii, 8. And he ceased in the year 177 of the Greeks, as is said ver. 14. Wherefore Josephus errs when he assigns Simon 18 years, and says he was slain by Ptolemy king of Egypt, and that by the just vengeance of God, because he had made a treaty with the Spartans and Romans, who were Gentiles. Finally Simon was slain in the year 134 before the birth of Christ.
GAZARA,—that is, the city Gaza, as I said. This John was the first-born son of Simon, a spirited and warlike man, who succeeded Simon in the Leadership and Pontificate; he was surnamed Hyrcanus, because he had overcome the Hyrcanians in war, says Eusebius and St. Thomas. The heroic deeds of this Hyrcanus are described, book IV of the Maccabees. For he made a treaty with Antiochus Sidetes king of Syria, the king sending several bulls with gilded horns to the sacrifices of the temple. He accompanied the same king to the Parthian war; took very many cities of Syria, conquered the Samaritans, overthrew the temple on Garizim, subdued the Idumeans, sent ambassadors to Rome to renew the alliance. At length after 31 years of his principate and priesthood he yielded to fate, leaving as successor his son Aristobulus, who in place of “leader” first of the Asamoneans assumed the name of “king” with the diadem, and joined it to the Pontificate, and left it so joined to his brother Alexander, and to Alexander’s son Aristobulus the second: under whose reign Jerusalem being taken by Pompey the royal power was wholly torn from the Pontifical.
And then the Leadership ceased, and the stock of the Asamoneans, when it had stood 130 years, as I said in the Proem; for the Romans appointed Herod, a foreigner, king of Judea, and then, the sceptre failing from Juda, Christ came and was born according to the oracle of Jacob, Gen. xlix, 9 and 10.