3 Maccabees 1

1 When Philopator learned from the men who came back that Antiochus had taken away the places he had been holding, he sent orders to all his forces, foot and horse, took his sister Arsinoe along with him, and marched out as far as the country around Raphia, where Antiochus and his men were camped. [a] 2 A man named Theodotus, meaning to carry a plot of his own through to the end, took the best of the Ptolemaic troops that had been put under him and got through by night to Ptolemy’s tent, to kill him single-handed and so break off the war. 3 But Dositheus — said to be the son of Drimylus, and a Jew by birth, though later he changed the practices and made himself a stranger to the teachings handed down from his fathers — moved Ptolemy out of the way and laid some unknown man down in the tent in his place; and it fell to that man to take the punishment meant for the king. [c]

4 The battle was hard fought, and things were going the better for Antiochus, so Arsinoe went again and again through the ranks with her hair let down, and with pity and tears urged the men to come boldly to the help of themselves and their children and their wives, promising to give each of them two and a half pounds of gold if they won. [d] 5 And so it turned out that their opponents were cut down in hand-to-hand fighting, and many were taken prisoner besides.

6 Having mastered the plot, the king decided to go around the nearby cities and encourage them. 7 He did this, and handed out gifts to their sacred precincts, and so put fresh courage into his subjects.

8 The Jews sent men to him from the council of elders and from the elders, to greet him, to bring him gifts of welcome, and to be glad with him over what had happened; and this made him all the more eager to come to them as quickly as he could. 9 So he was brought over to Jerusalem, and he sacrificed to the greatest God and gave thanks and carried out what came next there; and when he came into the place itself he was struck by the care and the beauty of it, [e] 10 and marveling as well at the good order of the temple, he took it into his head to plan on going into the sanctuary. [f]

11 They told him this was not permitted, since not even those of the nation were allowed to go in, nor all the priests, but only the chief priest who is set at the head of them all — and he only once a year. But he would not be persuaded at all. [g] 12 Even when the law was read out to him he did not let it go, but kept pressing his own case, that he had to go in. He said, “Even if they are shut out of this honor, I must not be.”

13 And he demanded to know why, when he went into every sacred precinct, not one of those standing by had ever stopped him. 14 Someone answered without thinking that he did wrong to make a marvel of this very thing. 15 But the king said, “Since this has happened, whatever the reason, am I not to go in all the same, whether they are willing or not?”

16 The priests fell down in all their robes and begged the greatest God to help them in what was on them and to turn aside the rush of the man who was setting on them so wickedly; and they filled the temple with crying and tears. 17 Then those who were left behind in the city were shaken and came rushing out, unable to make out what was happening.

18 The young unmarried girls who were kept indoors in their rooms broke out with the mothers who bore them, threw dust on their hair, and filled the wide streets with wailing and groaning. 19 Women only just married left the bridal chambers made ready for the wedding, left the modesty that belonged to them, and joined a wild running through the city. 20 Mothers and nurses left the newborn children in their care, one here, one there, some in the houses, some in the lanes, and never looking back they crowded into the temple that stands highest of all. [h]

21 The prayer of those who had gathered there took every kind of form, over the unholy thing he was setting his hand to. 22 Along with them some of the citizens grew bold and would not put up with him any longer, as he pressed on and meant to carry his purpose through to the end. 23 They shouted to rush to arms and to die boldly for the law of their fathers, and they raised a great tumult in the place; and only with difficulty were they turned back by the old men and the elders, and stood again at the same station of prayer as before. 24 And the crowd, as it had done before, went on giving itself to prayer.

25 The elders in the king’s company tried in many ways to shift his arrogant mind off the plot he had set his heart on. 26 But he grew bold, brushed it all aside, and was already making his approach, thinking to put an end to the matter just spoken of. 27 So when the men about him saw this, they too turned to call, along with our own people, on the one who holds all power, to come to their help in what was upon them and not to overlook so lawless and proud an act. [i]

28 Out of the packed and straining cry of the gathered crowds there rose a shout beyond anything you could liken it to. 29 For it seemed that not only the people but the walls and the whole floor were sounding, since every one of them at that moment would sooner take death in exchange than see the place treated as common. [j]