Rival Kings Court Jonathan

In the hundred and sixtieth year it happened that Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, came up into Syria and took Ptolemais, the soldiers inside betraying it to him. They were hostile to Demetrius because of his arrogance and how hard he was to approach. He had shut himself up in a four-towered palace that he had built not far from Antioch and admitted no one; he was lazy and careless about public affairs, and so his subjects’ hatred of him blazed up all the more, as we have shown elsewhere. When Demetrius heard that Alexander was in Ptolemais, he took his whole force and led it against him. He also sent envoys to Jonathan about alliance and goodwill, for he had decided to forestall Alexander, so that Alexander would not negotiate with Jonathan first and win his help. He did this because he was afraid that Jonathan would remember the old hostility and join in the attack on him. So he authorized Jonathan to gather a force, to make arms, and to take back the Jewish hostages whom Bacchides had shut up in the citadel of Jerusalem. When this good fortune had come to him from Demetrius, Jonathan went to Jerusalem and read the king’s letter in the hearing of the people and of those who guarded the citadel. When it had been read, the impious and the renegades in the citadel were badly frightened, since the king had given Jonathan leave to raise an army and to take back the hostages; and Jonathan gave each one back to his own parents. So Jonathan made his home in Jerusalem, renewing the city and setting everything in order as he wished. He ordered the walls of the city to be rebuilt of squared stones, so that it would be safer against wars. When the guards of the garrisons in Judea saw this, they all abandoned them and fled to Antioch, except those in the city of Beth-zur and those in the citadel of Jerusalem; for most of these were impious Jews and renegades, and so they did not give up their posts. [a]

When Alexander learned of the promises Demetrius had made to Jonathan, and knew besides his courage and all he had done in fighting the Macedonians, and again what he himself had suffered at the hands of Demetrius and of Bacchides, Demetrius’s general, he told his friends that at present he could find no better ally than Jonathan. He was brave in war, and he had a hatred of his own for Demetrius, having suffered much harm from him and done him much in return. If, then, they thought it right to make him their friend against Demetrius, there would never be a more useful time than now to invite him into an alliance. So when he and his friends had resolved to send to Jonathan, he wrote him this letter: “King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greeting. We have long heard of your courage and your loyalty, and for this reason we have sent to you about friendship and alliance. We appoint you today high priest of the Jews, and you are to be called my friend. I have also sent you as gifts a purple robe and a golden crown, and I ask you, now that we have honored you, to be the same toward us.”

When Jonathan had received the letter, he put on the priestly robe at the coming of the Feast of Tabernacles, four years after the death of his brother Judas, for no high priest had been appointed during all that time. He gathered a large force and had a great quantity of arms forged. This grieved Demetrius deeply when he learned of it, and made him blame himself for his slowness, because he had not forestalled Alexander and won Jonathan over with kindness himself, but had left Alexander the opportunity to do it. So he too wrote a letter to Jonathan and to the people, to this effect: “King Demetrius to Jonathan and to the nation of the Jews, greeting. Since you have kept up your friendship toward us, and when my enemies tried to win you over you did not join them, I praise this loyalty of yours and urge you to remain as you are, and you will receive repayment and favors from us. For I will release you from most of the tributes and levies you used to pay to the kings before me and to me, and I now remit the tributes you have always paid. Besides this, I excuse you from paying for the salt and for the crowns you used to present to us; and in place of the third of the grain and the half of the fruit of the trees, I give up to you from this day the share that falls to me. And the tax that was owed me for each head of those who live in Judea and in the three districts that adjoin Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and Perea, I give up to you from now on for all time. It is my will that the city of Jerusalem be holy and a place of refuge, and free from the tithe and from dues as far as its borders. I entrust the citadel to your high priest Jonathan, to place in it as a garrison whatever men he finds loyal and friendly, so that they may guard it for us. I set free the Jews who have been taken captive and are slaves in our kingdom. I order that the Jews’ beasts of burden not be seized for service; and let the Sabbaths and every festival, and the three days before each festival, be free of dues. In the same way I set free the Jews living in my kingdom and order that they be left unmolested. To those who wish to serve in my army I give leave, and let this be allowed up to thirty thousand; wherever they go, they will receive what my own army receives. Some of them I will place in the garrisons, some in the guard around my person, and I will make some of them officers over those at my court. I also give them leave to use the laws of their fathers and to keep them. It is my will that the three districts adjoining Judea be subject to them, and that the high priest see to it that not a single Jew has any other temple to worship at but the one in Jerusalem. I give from my own revenues, for the expense of the sacrifices, a hundred and fifty thousand each year, and it is my will that whatever money is left over be yours. The ten thousand drachmas that the kings used to take from the temple I give up to you, because they belong to the priests who minister in the temple. Whoever flees to the temple in Jerusalem or to the places that belong to it, whether they owe money to the king or for any other reason, let them be released, and let their property be safe. I also give leave to renew the temple and rebuild it, the cost of this to come from my own revenues; and I allow the walls of the city to be built and high towers to be raised, and all this to be done at my expense. And if there is any fortress that would serve the Jews’ country by being made strong, let that too be built at my expense.” [d]

That is what Demetrius wrote to the Jews, promising and granting these things. King Alexander gathered a great force of mercenaries and of the soldiers from Syria who had come over to him, and marched against Demetrius. When the battle was joined, Demetrius’s left wing put those facing it to flight, pursued them a long way, killed many of them, and plundered their camp; but the right wing, where Demetrius happened to be, was beaten. All the rest fled. Demetrius fought nobly and killed a good many of the enemy, but in pursuing the others he drove his horse into a deep bog that was hard to get out of, and there, when his horse fell, he could not escape and was killed. For when the enemy saw what had happened to him, they turned back, surrounded Demetrius, and all hurled their javelins at him. On foot, he fought them off bravely, but at last, having received many wounds and being unable to hold out any longer, he fell. Such was the end that overtook Demetrius, after he had reigned eleven years, as we have shown elsewhere. [h]