3 Maccabees

3 Maccabees 6

Eleazar’s Prayer

1 Now a man named Eleazar, one of the priests from the country and well known among them, who had already come to the age of an elder and was adorned with every virtue of life, quieted the elders around him from crying out to the holy God, and prayed like this:

2 “King, great in might, Most High, Almighty God,

you who steer the whole creation in pity:

3 look on the seed of Abraham,

on the children of Jacob, whom you made holy,

on the people of your holy share,

strangers in a strange land, being destroyed unjustly, Father.

4 You destroyed Pharaoh with all his chariots,

the man who was once sovereign of this same Egypt,

when he was lifted up in lawless daring and with a boasting tongue.

You drowned him in the sea with his arrogant army,

and made the light of your mercy appear to the people of Israel.

5 You, Master, broke Sennacherib, the harsh king of the Assyrians,

who swelled with pride over his countless forces,

who had already taken the whole land under his hand with the spear

and was lifting himself against your holy city,

speaking harsh things in swagger and daring;

and you showed your might plainly to many nations.

6 You wet the blazing furnace with dew

when the three companions in Babylonia gave their lives to the fire of their own choice

rather than serve empty things,

and you rescued them unharmed, down to a hair,

and sent the flame against all who stood against them.

7 You brought Daniel up into the light unhurt,

when the slanders of envy threw him down into the earth to the lions,

food for wild beasts.

8 And when Jonah was wasting away in the belly of the sea monster bred in the deep,

you looked on him, Father,

and showed him again, unharmed, to all his own.

9 And now, you who hate insolence, rich in mercy, shelter of all things:

appear quickly to those of the people of Israel

who suffer outrage from detestable and lawless nations.

10 If our life in this exile has been caught in ungodly deeds,

rescue us from the hand of our enemies

and destroy us yourself, Master, by whatever death you choose.

11 Do not let the worthless-minded bless what is worthless

over the destruction of those you love, saying,

‘Not even their God rescued them.’

12 But you, Everlasting One, who hold all strength and all sovereign power:

look now, and have mercy on us,

who are being taken out of life by the senseless insolence of lawless men,

in the manner of plotters.

13 Let the nations cower today before your unconquerable power,

you who are held in honor, who have power to rescue the people of Jacob.

14 The whole crowd of little children and their parents plead with you in tears.

15 Let it be shown to all the nations that you are with us, Lord,

and that you have not turned your face away from us.

As you said, ‘Not even when they were in the land of their enemies did I overlook them,’

so bring it about, Lord.”

The Two Messengers

16 Just as Eleazar was ending his prayer, the king came along to the hippodrome with the beasts and all the swagger of his army. 17 When the Jews saw it, they cried out loudly to heaven, so that the valleys nearby rang with the sound and set off a panic through the whole army that could not be held back.

18 Then the Almighty and true God, great in glory, made his holy face appear and opened the gates of heaven, and from them two messengers came down in glory, terrible to look at, seen by everyone except the Jews. 19 They stood opposed, and filled the forces set against them with confusion and cowardice, and bound them with fetters that could not be moved. 20 Even the king’s body shuddered, and forgetting took hold of his heavy-tempered daring. 21 And they turned the beasts back on the armed forces coming behind them, and the beasts trampled them down and destroyed them.

The King Turns

22 So the king’s anger turned to pity and tears over what he had schemed before. 23 For when he heard the shouting and saw them all thrown down on their faces for destruction, he wept, and in anger he threatened his friends and said,

24 “You are ruling in my place! You have gone beyond rulers in cruelty, and you are trying to take my rule and my breath from me — your own benefactor — scheming in secret against the good of the kingdom. 25 Who has taken these men from their homes, one by one, and herded them here for no reason — men who held the strongholds of the country for us in good faith? 26 Who has, against all custom, wrapped in tortures men who from the beginning have surpassed every nation in goodwill toward us, and who have often taken on the worst dangers men face? 27 Loose them, set them free of their unjust chains! Send them home in peace, and beg pardon for what has been done. 28 Release the sons of the Almighty, the living God of heaven, who from the days of our ancestors until now has given our affairs stability and glory, with nothing to hinder them.” 29 That is what he said. And they, set free in a single moment, blessed their holy God, the one who rescues them, having just escaped death.

The Feast of Rescue

30 Then the king went off to the city, called in the man over the revenues, and ordered him to supply the Jews with wine and everything else needed for a feast, for seven days. He decided that in the very place where they had thought to meet their ruin, there they should keep the feast of their rescue with all gladness. 31 So those who a little before had been held in contempt and were close to Hades — rather, had already set foot in it — set out a cup of rescue instead of a bitter and lamentable death, and divided up the very place made ready for their fall and their burial into places to recline for the feast, and they were full of rejoicing. 32 They left off the all-mourning tune of their dirges and took up the song of their fathers, praising God, the one who rescues them and works wonders. They pushed away all groaning and wailing and formed dances, a sign of gladness at peace.

33 In the same way the king gathered a great banquet for all this, and without stopping he acknowledged his thanks toward heaven, on a grand scale, for the unlooked-for rescue that had come to him. 34 But those who had counted them as good as destroyed and food for the birds, and had registered them with joy, groaned aloud. They wrapped shame around themselves, and their fire-breathing daring was quenched without honor. 35 And the Jews, as we said before, formed the dance we spoke of and passed the time in feasting, in glad thanksgivings and psalms.

36 They laid down a common rule about it, and set these days to be kept as days of gladness through the whole time they lived as strangers, for generations to come — not for the sake of drinking and indulgence, but because of the rescue that had come to them through God. 37 Then they went to the king and asked him to let them go home. 38 They had been registered from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epiphi, forty days; and the plan for their destruction was set from the fifth of Epiphi to the seventh, three days. 39 In those days the Sovereign of all made his mercy appear in great glory and rescued them all together, without a stumble.

40 They feasted, supplied with everything by the king, until the fourteenth, and on that day they made their petition to be let go. 41 The king agreed, and wrote out for them the letter below, to the commanders in every city, a letter that held to their cause earnestly and with great generosity: