3 Maccabees 7

1 “King Ptolemy Philopator to the commanders throughout Egypt and to all who are set over affairs: greetings, and good health. [a] 2 We ourselves are in good health, and our children too, for the great God has set our affairs straight, just as we would have them.

3 Some of our friends, out of malice, kept close about us and persuaded us to gather the Jews of the kingdom into one body and punish them with the strange punishments used on deserters, 4 claiming that our affairs would never be settled, because of the ill will these people bear toward all nations, until this was carried out. 5 They even brought them down in chains, roughly handled, as slaves — no, as plotters — and without any inquiry or examination set about killing them, buckled about with a cruelty wilder than the law of the Scythians.

6 We threatened them severely for this, and out of the fairness we show to all people we barely granted them their lives; and we have come to know that the God of heaven holds a sure shield over the Jews, fighting for them all along as a father fights for his sons. 7 Taking into account the firm goodwill of a friend that they have toward us and toward our ancestors, we have justly cleared them of every charge, on whatever ground it was brought, [b] 8 and we have given orders that every one of them is to go back to his own home, in every place, with no one doing them any harm at all, or reproaching them for what has happened, against all reason. 9 Know this: if we devise anything evil against them, or grieve them in any way at all, we shall have against us not a man but God Most High, the Master of all power, as the avenger of these things — in every way, past all escape, for all time. Farewell.” [c]

10 When they had received this letter they were in no hurry to set out at once. Instead they asked the king that those of the Jewish people who had of their own choice broken away from the holy God and from God’s law should receive from their hands the punishment they deserved. 11 They argued that men who had broken God’s decrees for their belly’s sake would never be loyal to the king’s affairs either. [d] 12 The king agreed that they were speaking the truth, and praised them, and gave them free leave in everything to destroy those who had broken God’s law, anywhere in his kingdom, openly, without any royal authority or inspection.

13 Then their priests and the whole crowd cheered him, as was fitting, and called out the Hallelujah, and left in joy. [e] 14 And so, on the road, they punished any of their own people they met among the defiled, and killed them, making a public example of them. 15 On that day they killed more than three hundred men, and they kept it as a day of gladness with joy, for they had overpowered men who had made themselves common. [f]

16 But those who had held to God right up to death, and now had the full enjoyment of their rescue, set out from the city crowned with flowers of every kind and of the sweetest scent, with gladness and shouting, thanking the God of their fathers in songs of praise and hymns of every measure — the everlasting one who rescues Israel. 17 They came to Ptolemais, called Rose-bearing from something particular to the place, where the fleet waited for them seven days by their own common decision; [g] 18 and there they held a drinking feast for their rescue, since the king had supplied each of them generously with everything they needed for the journey to his own house.

19 So they were brought home in peace, with fitting thanksgivings, and there too, in the same way, they established that these days should be kept as days of gladness for the whole time they lived as strangers. 20 They made the days sacred, set on a stone pillar, and dedicated a place of prayer at the site where they had feasted; then they left — unharmed, free, overflowing with joy, brought safely home by the king’s order, by land and sea and river, each to his own place.

21 They also had more authority among their enemies than before, and were held in glory and in fear, and no one took anything from them by force at all. 22 Every one of them got back all his own property from the register, and those who held any of it gave it back in the greatest fear; for the greatest God had worked great things, complete, for their rescue.

23 Blessed is the Rescuer of Israel through all time to come. Amen. [h]