3 Maccabees 3

1 When the godless king learned of this he flew into such a rage that he was not only furious with the Jews in Alexandria; he came down harder still on those out in the country, and gave orders that they be gathered into one place with all speed and put to death by the worst end there was. [a] 2 While this was being arranged, an ugly report was sounded abroad against the people by men who had banded together to do harm, and they were handed a pretext for it: that the Jews were keeping them from their own practices. [b]

3 The Jews, for their part, kept their goodwill toward the kings, and their loyalty, unbent. 4 But because they worshiped God and lived by his law they held themselves separate in the matter of food, and for that reason they looked hateful to some. [c] 5 Yet since they adorned their life among their neighbors with the good conduct of the righteous, they stood well with everyone.

6 That good conduct of the people, which was on everyone’s lips, the foreigners took no account of at all. 7 What they talked about was the difference over worship and over food. These men, they said, would not sit at one table with the king or with his forces; they were ill-disposed, and set hard against the government. And they fastened no small blame on them.

8 The Greeks in the city, who had been done no wrong, saw the sudden uproar over these people and the crowds running together unchecked. They had no strength to help — the temper of the government was a tyrant’s — but they gave them what heart they could, and took it hard, and supposed things would turn. 9 A body of people so great, they thought, which had done no wrong, would surely not be passed over like this. [d] 10 By now some neighbors too, and friends, and men they did business with, were drawing a few of them aside in secret and giving their word that they would stand shoulder to shoulder with them and spare nothing to help.

11 The king, swollen with his present good fortune, not seeing the strength of the greatest God, and supposing that he would hold to the same purpose forever, wrote this letter against them:

12 “King Ptolemy Philopator to the commanders and to the soldiers in Egypt and in every place: greetings, and good health. [e] 13 I myself am well, and so are our affairs.

14 Our campaign into Asia, which you know of yourselves, was brought to its end just as we reckoned, by the sure alliance of the gods; 15 and we determined to nurse the nations living in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia not by force of the spear but by fairness and much kindness, and gladly to do them good. 16 We assigned generous revenues to the temples in their cities, and we went on as far as Jerusalem and went up to honor the temple of those wretches who never leave off their folly.

17 In word they welcomed our coming; in fact they did not. We were eager to go into their sanctuary and to honor it with the most splendid and beautiful gifts, [f] 18 but, carried away by their old conceit, they shut us out of the entrance — and they came off untouched by our strength, because of the kindness we have toward all men. 19 They make their ill will toward us plain. Alone of all the nations they hold their necks high against kings and against their own benefactors, and they will bear nothing that is honest.

20 We put up with their folly, and when we had been carried home to Egypt in victory we met all the nations kindly and did as was fitting, 21 and in all this we let everyone see that we bore no grudge against their fellow countrymen. Because of their service as allies, and because of the countless matters put in their hands in good faith from the first, we ventured a complete change: we were willing to count them worthy of citizenship in Alexandria and to make them sharers in our standing sacred rites. [g]

22 They took it the other way. With the malice bred in them they pushed the good offer away, and always swerving toward what is base 23 they not only turned away a citizenship beyond price; they loathe — by what they say and by their silence — the few among them who are honestly disposed toward us, and at every turn, living that most disgraceful life of theirs, they look for us to overturn our arrangements, and soon.

24 So, being well convinced by proofs that they mean us ill in every way, and looking ahead in case some sudden disturbance should come upon us later and we should have these godless men at our back as traitors and savage enemies, 25 we have given orders that the moment this letter reaches you, in that same hour, you send us the Jews who live among you, with their wives and children, under insult and rough handling, in iron chains shut fast on every side, to a death past all cure and full of shame, the death that fits men who hate us. 26 For with these punished all together we judge that from now on our affairs will be settled completely, in steadiness and in the best order.

27 Whoever shelters any of the Jews, from the old man down to the child and the baby at the breast, is to be beaten to death with the foulest tortures, and his whole household with him. 28 Anyone who wishes may inform, and he shall have the property of the man who falls under sentence, and about twenty-five pounds of silver out of the royal treasury, and shall be crowned with freedom. [h] 29 And any place at all where a Jew is found sheltering is to be made ground no one may set foot on, and burned with fire, and shown to be useless in every way to every living thing for all time to come.” [i] 30 That is how the letter was written.