Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
The first seven verses of this chapter, in the order of time and of the event, are to be joined to verse 1, chapter iii, of Book I; the rest, to the end of the chapter, seem to belong between verses 37 and 38 of the same chapter iii.
Thus far we have heard of the passive fortitude of the Jewish martyrs; now to the end of the book we shall hear of the active fortitude of the Jewish soldiers, namely of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers. “It is Roman,” said he, “to do brave deeds; but it is Maccabean, and Christian too, to suffer hard things as well as to do brave ones.”
1. BUT JUDAS MACCABEUS, ETC., ASSEMBLED ABOUT SIX THOUSAND MEN.—With these few forces he overthrew the greatest armies of Antiochus Epiphanes, both because these were men as it were desperate, who fought for their altars and hearths, and because they entered battle with great hope in God and invocation of him; wherefore God added courage and strength to them, and took them away from the enemies.
3. AND HEAR THE VOICE OF THE BLOOD (of the innocent Jews slain by Antiochus, as we heard in chapter vii and before) THAT CRIED TO HIM (with a mute voice, like Abel’s against the fratricide Cain).
5. NOW WHEN MACCABEUS HAD GATHERED A MULTITUDE, HE COULD NOT BE WITHSTOOD (in Greek, “unbearable,” intolerable, one whom no one could endure, whose arms and strength no one could withstand, but all yielded to them and succumbed) BY THE GENTILES; FOR THE WRATH OF THE LORD (with which he had hitherto chastised the sin of the Jews through Antiochus) WAS TURNED INTO MERCY—so that through Judas he made the Jews, before conquered and trampled down by Antiochus, his conquerors and trampers-down. This is what in the preceding year the last of the Maccabees, in his torments, as a prophet had foretold to Antiochus, chapter vii, verse 38: “In me,” he said, “and in my brethren the wrath of the Almighty shall cease.” For that this might come to pass, he with his brethren by such heroic endurance of martyrdom deserved it, by which they also expiated the sins of the Jews before God, and turned his wrath into mercy and grace; whereby it came about that God raised up Judas Maccabeus, and added courage and strength to him, with which he routed the forces of Antiochus everywhere.
UNAWARES, HE SET THEM ON FIRE.—For this is a stratagem of distinguished generals of war, to rush suddenly, and therefore by night, upon unarmed and unprepared enemies, nay upon men buried in sleep and wine, and so slaughter them like cattle, as this Judas did. Hannibal did the same to the Romans, and the Romans in turn to Hannibal, as Livy, Justin, Plutarch and others testify.
8. AND PHILIP SEEING—who had been appointed by Antiochus governor at Jerusalem, chapter v, verse 22—THAT THE MAN INCREASED BY LITTLE AND LITTLE; namely that Judas was growing daily in victories as well as in courage, strength and forces flocking to him as to a conqueror, and prospering, fearing for himself and his men, sought help from Ptolemee, the Prefect of Celesyria.
9. AND HE (Ptolemee) FORTHWITH CHOSE NICANOR THE SON OF PATROCLUS, etc., GIVING HIM NO FEWER THAN TWENTY THOUSAND MEN OF DIVERS NATIONS;—but afterwards many more joined these, as
10. AND NICANOR UNDERTOOK (puffed up with such forces, and in sure hope of victory, as if devouring all the Jews) TO MAKE SO MUCH MONEY OF THE CAPTIVE JEWS, AS SHOULD PAY THE TRIBUTE (which the king, Antiochus, was to pay to the Romans, because the Romans had conquered his father Antiochus the Great in war and condemned him to tribute; the sum of this tribute to be paid to the Romans was) OF TWO THOUSAND TALENTS,—that is, he would raise the greater part of this whole sum from the sale of the Jews to be taken captive by himself. Hence he summoned the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon and other neighbouring places to buy up Jewish slaves at a very low price; for indeed,
11. PROMISING THAT HE WOULD SELL THEM NINETY SLAVES FOR A TALENT (of silver)—that is, he would sell them for 500 gold pieces, so that each slave would cost only five and a half gold pieces; whereas shortly before Hyrcanus had sold one young man for a talent, that is 500 gold pieces, as Josephus testifies, Book XII, chapter iv. This indignity and contempt stung the Jews, so that they flocked in crowds to the camp of Judas, to fight to the death for the law and for liberty. Wherefore Nicanor acted imprudently in this, provoking the Jews to fight as if desperate, and therefore he was conquered and slain by them.
13. DISTRUSTING THE JUSTICE OF GOD,—namely that God would be the patron and avenger of the just and innocent cause of the Jews, and would through them lay low the unjust Nicanor.
14. OTHERS SOLD ALL THAT THEY HAD LEFT,—and with it procured arms and provisions, that coming to the camp of Judas they might fight bravely to the death against Nicanor for their country and faith.
15. AND IF NOT FOR THEIR OWN SAKES, YET FOR THE COVENANT—
They besought the Lord to deliver them from Nicanor, not for their own merits but for those of the Fathers, namely Isaac, Jacob, etc., with whom God had made a testament, that is, a pact, promising that he would be their God, that is, guardian and protector, and that of their posterity, if they in turn worshipped him as their God.
16. BUT MACCABEUS HAVING ASSEMBLED SEVEN THOUSAND,—the Greek has six thousand; for so many are named in verses 1 and 22, but Judas himself led the seventh thousand, and his brothers, as leaders, the remaining six thousand. So Salian.
NOT TO BE RECONCILED TO THE ENEMIES,—but to wage with them an implacable war, that is, an irreconcilable one, and therefore to be feared and dreaded by the enemies, such as Hannibal waged with the Romans, who, when he was but a boy, was bound by an oath by his father Hamilcar sacrificing at the altars that he would, as soon as age allowed, be an enemy of the Romans, as Plutarch testifies in his life. So the Numantines in Spain, besieged by the Romans for 14 years, refused to be reconciled to them, and therefore destroyed 40 thousand Romans; but at last, pressed by hunger by Scipio, they burned all their possessions and themselves in a fire kindled in the forum. So Florus, Book II. Hasdrubal, Prefect of Carthage besieged by Scipio, mutilated Roman captives on the walls, in eyes, tongues, fingers or soles of the feet, and so cast them down alive over the rocks, that he might leave the Carthaginians no hope of obtaining pardon from the Romans, but make them place their safety in arms alone, says Appian. For with the obstinate, war is hard and dangerous. Such a war every faithful man ought to wage throughout his whole life with Lucifer, with the flesh and the world, with pride, anger, gluttony and lust, so as to admit no conditions of peace, but contend with them continually in a battle of extermination.
20. AND OF THE BATTLE THAT THEY HAD AGAINST THE GALATIANS IN BABYLONIA, HOW THEY CAME ALL TO THE FIELD, AND WHEN THE MACEDONIANS WERE AT A STAND, THE EIGHT THOUSAND DESTROYED A HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND.—This seems to have happened under Antiochus the First, who, son and successor of Seleucus the First, king of Asia and Syria after Alexander, was surnamed Soter. For he, as Appian relates in the Syriacs, repulsed the Galatians invading Asia from Europe, and that with the help of the Jews, on whom both he and his son Antiochus surnamed Theos conferred in gratitude the highest dignities and privileges, as Josephus relates, Book XII, chapter iii; Justin, Books XXIV and XXV; Plutarch in the life of Demetrius, and others. So Serarius, Mariana and others.
22. AND HE MADE HIS BROTHERS CAPTAINS OVER EACH BAND, SIMON AND JOSEPH.—Joseph here is called by another name John, Book I, chapter ii, verse 2. So Serarius.
23. MOREOVER ALSO, WHEN ESDRAS HAD READ THE HOLY BOOK TO THEM.—This Esdras was not that true and famous scribe who wrote the book of Esdras, but one far later than he, namely a priest or distinguished doctor of the law, who, to add courage and hope of victory to the soldiers about to go to war, read to them from Deuteronomy, chapter xxvii, verse 7, where God promises the Jews, if they worship him rightly, a sure triumph over their enemies. And God had ordered this very thing to be done before battle, Deuteronomy, chapter xx, saying: “When the battle is now at hand, the priest shall stand before the army, and shall speak thus: Hear, O Israel, fear not, because the Lord your God is in the midst of you.” Moreover, the Greek has: Judas also appointed Eleazar, namely his fourth brother, leader of war, with 1500 soldiers likewise assigned to him; for so he distributed the six thousand soldiers among four brothers as leaders, assigning to each a fourth part, namely 1500 soldiers. Then they add another opinion, that Judas, as High Priest and supreme commander of the war, as he went before, read the book of Deuteronomy to the soldiers.