2 Maccabees 14

1 Three years later, word reached Judas and his men that Demetrius son of Seleucus had sailed into the harbor at Tripolis with a strong force and a fleet, [a] 2 and had taken control of the country, having made away with Antiochus and his guardian Lysias.

3 A certain Alcimus, who had been chief priest before and had willingly defiled himself in the days when there was no mingling, saw that there was no rescue for him by any road at all, and no more way in to the holy altar. [b] 4 So in about the 151st year he came to King Demetrius, bringing him a crown of gold and a palm branch, and with them some of the boughs customary at the temple; and that day he kept quiet. [d] 5 But when he got the opening his own folly wanted, and was called into council by Demetrius and asked in what mind and purpose the Jews stood, he answered:

6 “Those Jews called Hasideans, whose leader is Judas Maccabeus, keep the war fed and stir up faction, and they will not let the kingdom come to any settled state. [e] 7 That is why I have come here, robbed of my ancestral honor — I mean the office of chief priest — 8 first because I am honestly minded toward what belongs to the king, and second with an eye to my own countrymen; for through the recklessness of the men I have named, our whole people is in no small trouble. 9 Now that you know each of these things, O king, take thought for our country and for our people, hemmed in on every side, in keeping with the kindness you show so readily to everyone. 10 For as long as Judas is alive, it is impossible for the government to find peace.”

11 This had hardly been said by him when the rest of the king’s friends, who were already hostile toward Judas, quickly inflamed Demetrius further. 12 He at once put forward Nicanor, who had been commander of the elephants, named him commander of Judea, and sent him out 13 with orders to make away with Judas himself, to scatter the men with him, and to install Alcimus as chief priest of the greatest temple. 14 The men of the nations who had fled Judea before Judas came flocking to Nicanor in herds, reckoning that the misfortunes and disasters of the Jews would be their own good fortune.

15 When the Jews heard of Nicanor’s approach and of the attack of the nations, they poured earth on their heads and begged the one who had established his own people forever, and who always takes hold of his own portion by showing himself. [g] 16 At their leader’s order they broke camp from there at once and met the enemy at the village of Dessau. 17 Simon, Judas’s brother, had already engaged Nicanor, but had come off slightly the worse because of the sudden silence of his opponents. [h]

18 Even so, Nicanor had heard what manly courage Judas and his men had, and what high heart they carried into the struggles for their homeland, and he shrank from settling the matter by bloodshed. 19 So he sent Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias to give and take right hands. 20 There was a long examination of the terms; the leader laid them before the people; opinion showed itself to be of one mind; and they agreed to the treaty. 21 They fixed a day on which they would come together privately. A chair was brought forward from each side, and they set out the seats. 22 Judas posted armed men ready at the useful places, in case of some sudden treachery from the enemy; and they held the conference as it should be held.

23 Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem and did nothing out of place; he dismissed the crowds that had gathered to him in herds. 24 He kept Judas always before his face; he was drawn to the man in his soul. 25 He urged him to marry and have children. So Judas married, settled down, and shared in ordinary life. [i]

26 But Alcimus saw the goodwill between the two of them. He took the treaty they had made, went to Demetrius, and said that Nicanor’s mind was not on the government’s interests: he had named Judas, the plotter against the kingdom, as his own successor. [j] 27 The king flew into a rage. Stung by the slanders of that utterly wicked man, he wrote to Nicanor that he was displeased about the treaty, and ordered him to send Maccabeus to Antioch in chains, and quickly. 28 When this reached Nicanor he was thrown into confusion, and took it hard that he should break the terms agreed on when the man had done no wrong. 29 But since there was no acting against the king, he watched for a good moment to carry the thing out by a stratagem. 30 Maccabeus, though, noticed that Nicanor was dealing with him more harshly and had grown rougher at their usual meetings, and judged that this harshness came from nothing good. So he gathered a good many of his men and kept himself out of Nicanor’s sight.

31 When the other realized that the man had outgeneraled him handsomely, he came to the greatest and holy temple while the priests were offering the sacrifices that were due, and ordered them to hand the man over. 32 They said on oath that they did not know where the man he was looking for was. 33 So he stretched out his right hand toward the sanctuary and swore this: “If you do not hand Judas over to me in chains, I will level this sacred enclosure of God to the ground, I will dig up the altar, and I will raise a temple to Dionysus here for all to see.” [k]

34 With that he went away. And the priests stretched out their hands toward heaven and called on the one who has always fought for our nation, saying: [l]

37 A man named Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor — a man who loved his fellow citizens, very well spoken of, and called father of the Jews for his goodwill. 38 For in the earlier days, when there was no mingling, he had been brought to trial for the Jewish way of life, and he had staked body and soul for that way with everything he had. [n] 39 Nicanor, wanting to make plain the hatred he had for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him; 40 for he reckoned that by arresting him he would deal them a blow.

41 When the troops were about to take the tower and were forcing the courtyard door, and calling for fire to be brought and the doors set alight, Razis, caught on every side, put his sword under himself, 42 wanting to die nobly rather than fall into the hands of those wretches and be outraged in a way unworthy of his own noble birth. 43 But in the haste of the struggle his blow missed its mark, and with the crowds pouring in through the doorways he ran bravely up onto the wall and threw himself down manfully into the crowd. 44 They stepped back quickly, a gap opened, and he came down in the middle of the empty ground. 45 Still breathing, and on fire with anger, he got to his feet, his blood pouring out in streams and his wounds terrible, and ran through the crowds; and standing on a sheer rock, 46 now completely drained of blood, he pulled out his own bowels, took them in both hands and hurled them at the crowds; and calling on the Master of life and breath to give them back to him again, he died in this way. [o]