2 Maccabees 1

1 “To our brothers, the Jews throughout Egypt: greetings from your brothers, the Jews in Jerusalem and in the country of Judea, and good peace. [a] 2 May God do good to you, and may he remember his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants. 3 May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a great heart and a willing soul.

4 May he open your heart in his law and in his decrees, and make peace, 5 and hear your pleas, and be reconciled to you, and not abandon you in an evil time. 6 And now, we are here praying for you.

7 In the reign of Demetrius, in the 169th year, we the Jews wrote to you in the trouble that came on us in those years, and at the worst of it — from the time Jason and his men revolted from the holy land and the kingdom, [b] 8 when they burned down the gateway and shed innocent blood. But we pleaded with the Lord and were heard, and we offered sacrifice and fine flour, and we lit the lamps and set out the loaves. 9 And now, keep the days of the Feast of Tents in the month of Chislev.” In the 188th year. [c]

10 “The people in Jerusalem and in Judea, and the council of elders, and Judas, to Aristobulus, teacher of King Ptolemy and himself of the family of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt: greetings, and good health. [e] 11 Since we have been brought safely by God out of great dangers, we thank him greatly, as men drawn up in battle against a king. 12 For he himself flung out those who had drawn up in battle inside the holy city.

13 For when the leader reached Persia, and with him the army that seemed impossible to stand against, they were cut down in the temple of Nanea by a trick the priests of Nanea used. 14 Antiochus came to the place as though he meant to marry her, and his friends came with him, to take a great sum of money as a dowry. 15 The priests of Nanea’s temple set the money out, and he went in with a few men inside the wall of the sacred precinct. Then, as soon as Antiochus was inside, they shut the temple, 16 opened the hidden door in the panelled ceiling, hurled stones, struck the leader down like a thunderbolt, cut them limb from limb, took off their heads and flung them out to the men outside. [f] 17 Blessed be our God in every way, who has handed over the ungodly.

18 We are about to keep the purification of the temple on the twenty-fifth of Chislev, and we thought it right to make it known to you, so that you too may keep days of tents, and of the fire — the fire from the time when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices. 19 For when our fathers were being led away to Persia, the devout priests of that time took some of the fire of the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry well, and made it so safe that the place was unknown to everyone. 20 After a good many years had gone by, when it pleased God, Nehemiah — who had been sent by the king of Persia — sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden it to fetch the fire. When they reported to us that they had found no fire, but thick water, he ordered them to dip some out and bring it.

21 When the things for the sacrifice had been brought up, Nehemiah told the priests to sprinkle the water on the wood and on what was laid upon it. 22 When this had been done, and time had passed, and the sun — which had been under cloud — blazed out, a great fire was kindled, and everyone was amazed.

23 While the sacrifice was being consumed the priests made a prayer — the priests and everyone else, Jonathan beginning it and the rest answering, as Nehemiah did. 24 And the prayer went like this:

30 And the priests sang the hymns. [g] 31 When the things of the sacrifice had been used up, Nehemiah ordered the water that was left to be poured over some larger stones. 32 When this was done a flame blazed up; but when the light from the altar shone back against it, it was swallowed up.

33 When the matter became known, word reached the king of the Persians that in the place where the priests who had been carried away hid the fire, water had appeared — and that Nehemiah and his men had purified the things of the sacrifice with it. 34 So the king fenced the place off and made it sacred, once he had tested the matter. [h] 35 And the king took in much valuable revenue and passed it on to those he wished to favor. 36 Nehemiah and his men called this nephthar, which means ‘cleansing’; but most people call it nephthai.” [i]