1In the one hundred and sixtieth year, Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, went up and captured Ptolemais. They welcomed him, and he reigned there.
2And King Demetrius heard of it, and he gathered a very large army and went out to meet him in battle.
3And Demetrius sent letters to Jonathan with peaceful words, in order to exalt him.
4For he said, “Let us be the first to make peace with them, before he makes an alliance with Alexander against us.”
5For he will remember all the wrongs that we committed against him, and against his brothers, and against his nation.
6So he gave him authority to gather forces, to manufacture weapons, and to be his ally; and he ordered the hostages in the citadel to be handed over to him.
7And Jonathan came to Jerusalem and read the letters in the hearing of all the people and of those from the citadel.
8And they were greatly afraid when they heard that the king had given him authority to gather forces.
9And the men from the citadel handed the hostages over to Jonathan, and he returned them to their parents.
10And Jonathan dwelt in Jerusalem, and he began to build and restore the city.
11And he told the workers to build the walls and to fortify Mount Zion all around with hewn stones, and they did so.
12And the foreigners who were in the strongholds that Bacchides had built fled.
13Each one abandoned his post and went away to his own land.
14But in Beth-zur some of those who had forsaken the law and the commandments were left behind, for it served as a place of refuge for them.
15And King Alexander heard of the promises that Demetrius had sent to Jonathan. They also told him about the wars and the valiant deeds that he and his brothers had done, and the hardships they had endured.
16And he said, “Will we find another man like this? Come now, let us make him our friend and ally.”
17And he wrote a letter and sent it to him with the following words:
18King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings.
19We have heard about you, that you are a mighty man of valor and are worthy to be our friend.
20And now, we have this day appointed you high priest of your nation and designated you to be called “Friend of the King”—and they sent him a purple robe and a golden crown—and we have appointed you to support our cause and to maintain friendship with us.
21So Jonathan put on the holy vestment in the seventh month of the one hundred and sixtieth year, at the Festival of Booths. And he gathered forces and manufactured many weapons.
22When Demetrius heard of these things, he was grieved and said,
23“What have we done? Alexander has acted before us in securing the friendship of the Jews for his support.”
24“I too will write to them words of appeal and of high honor and of gifts, so that they may be on my side to help me.”
25And he sent to them the following message: “King Demetrius to the nation of the Jews, greetings.”
26“Since you have kept your covenants with us and have remained in our friendship and have not gone over to our enemies, we have heard of it and are glad.”
27“And now, continue to keep faith with us, and we will repay you with good things for what you do on our behalf.”
28“And we will grant you many exemptions and give you gifts.”
29“And now I release you and exempt all the Jews from the tributes, from the salt tax, and from the crown taxes.”
30“As for the third of the grain harvest and the half of the fruit of the trees which is my due, I remit from this day onward the right to collect it from the land of Judah and from the three districts that are added to it from Samaria and Galilee, from this day and for all time.”
31And let Jerusalem be holy and exempt, along with its territories, its tithes, and its taxes.
32I also relinquish control of the Akra in Jerusalem, and I grant to the high priest that he may station in it men whom he himself shall choose to guard it.
33And every Jewish person taken captive from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom I release to be free, without payment. And let all officials remit the taxes, even those on their cattle.
34And all the feasts, sabbaths, new moons, and appointed days—and the three days before a feast and the three days after a feast—let all these be days of exemption and release for all the Jews in my entire kingdom.
35And no one shall have authority to prosecute or trouble any of them concerning any matter.
36And let some of the Jews be enrolled in the king’s forces, up to thirty thousand men, and they shall be given pay, as is due to all the king’s forces.
37And some of them shall be stationed in the king’s great strongholds, and from these some shall be appointed to positions of trust in the kingdom. And their commanders and officers shall be from among them, and they shall live by their own laws, just as the king has commanded for the land of Judah.
38And the three districts that were added to Judea from the country of Samaria, let them be annexed to Judea, so that they may be reckoned as under one ruler and not be subject to any authority other than that of the high priest.
39I have given Ptolemais and its adjoining territory as a gift to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, for the necessary expenses of the sanctuary.
40And I myself grant fifteen thousand shekels of silver annually from the king’s accounts, from the appropriate sources.
41And all the surplus from the revenues that was not paid over, as it was in former years, shall from now on be given for the work of the house.
42Furthermore, the five thousand shekels of silver that were taken annually from the revenues of the sanctuary, according to the account of former years—these also are remitted, because they belong to the priests who minister.
43And whoever takes refuge in the temple in Jerusalem or in any of its precincts, owing royal debts or any other matter, let them be released, along with all their possessions in my kingdom.
44And for the building and renovating of the structures of the sanctuary, the expense shall also be provided from the king’s account.
45And for building the walls of Jerusalem and fortifying them on all sides, the expense shall be provided from the king’s account, as well as for building walls in Judea.
46But when Jonathan and the people heard these words, they did not believe or accept them, because they remembered the great evil he had done in Israel and how severely he had afflicted them.
47And they favored Alexander, because he had been the first to make peaceful overtures, and they allied themselves with him continually.
48And King Alexander gathered a large army and encamped opposite Demetrius.
49And the two kings joined battle, and the army of Demetrius fled. Alexander pursued him and prevailed against them.
50And Alexander pressed the battle fiercely until the sun set, and Demetrius fell on that day.
51Then Alexander sent envoys to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, with this message:
52Since I have returned to my kingdom, sat on the throne of my fathers, taken control of the government, crushed Demetrius, and gained mastery of our country—
53and since I joined battle with him, and he and his army were crushed by us, and we have sat on the throne of his kingdom—
54now let us establish a friendship with each other. Give me your daughter as a wife, and I will become your son-in-law, and I will give to you and to her gifts worthy of you.
55And King Ptolemy answered, saying: “Happy is the day on which you returned to the land of your fathers and sat on the throne of their kingdom.”
56And now I will do for you what you have written. But come to meet me at Ptolemais, so that we may see each other, and I will make you my son-in-law, just as you have said.
57So Ptolemy set out from Egypt, he and his daughter Cleopatra, and came to Ptolemais in the one hundred and sixty-second year.
58King Alexander met him there, and Ptolemy gave him his daughter Cleopatra and celebrated her wedding in Ptolemais with great pomp, as is the custom for kings.
59And King Alexander wrote to Jonathan to come and meet him.
60So he went in splendor to Ptolemais and met the two kings. He gave them and their friends silver and gold and many gifts, and he found favor in their sight.
61And pestilent men from Israel, lawless men, gathered against him to bring a complaint against him, but the king paid no attention to them.
62And the king gave the command, and he stripped Jonathan of his garments and clothed him in purple; and they did so.
63And the king seated him with himself and said to his officials, “Go out with him into the middle of the city and proclaim that no one is to bring a complaint against this man concerning any matter, and let no one trouble him about any affair.”
64And it happened that when his accusers saw his honor, just as the proclamation was made, and saw him clothed in fine linen, they all fled.
65And the king honored him and enrolled him among the First Friends, and he appointed him general and provincial governor.
66And Jonathan returned to Jerusalem with peace and gladness.
67And in the one hundred sixty-fifth year, Demetrius son of Demetrius came from Crete into the land of his fathers.
68And King Alexander heard of it, and he was greatly distressed and returned to Antioch.
69And Demetrius appointed Apollonius, who was governor of Coele-Syria, and he gathered a large force and encamped in Jamnia. And he sent to Jonathan the high priest, saying:
70“You alone rise up against us, and I have become a laughingstock and a reproach because of you. Why do you exercise your authority against us in the mountains?”
71“Now then, if you trust in your forces, come down to us in the plain, and let us test each other there, for the power of the cities is with me.”
72“Ask and learn who I am and who the others are who help us. And they will say, “You cannot stand your ground before us, because your fathers were twice routed in their own land.””
73“And now you will not be able to withstand the cavalry and such a force as this in the plain, where there is no stone or pebble, nor any place to flee.”
74But when Jonathan heard the words of Apollonius, he was stirred in his spirit. He chose ten thousand men and went out from Jerusalem, and Simon his brother met him to help him.
75And he encamped against Joppa, but the men from the city shut him out, because Apollonius’s garrison was in Joppa; so they attacked it.
76And becoming afraid, the men from the city opened the gates, and Jonathan took possession of Joppa.
77And Apollonius heard of it, and he drew up three thousand cavalry and a large force. He went toward Azotus as if passing through, but at the same time he advanced into the plain, because he had a multitude of cavalry and trusted in it.
78And Jonathan pursued him to Azotus, and the armies joined battle behind him.
79Now Apollonius had left a thousand cavalry secretly behind them.
80And Jonathan knew that there was an ambush behind him. And they surrounded his army and shot arrows at the people from morning until evening.
81But the people stood firm, as Jonathan had commanded, and the enemy’s horses grew weary.
82And Simon drew out his force and engaged the phalanx—for the cavalry was exhausted—and they were crushed by him and fled.
83And the cavalry scattered across the plain, and they fled to Azotus and entered Beth-dagon, their idol temple, to save themselves.
84And Jonathan set fire to Azotus and the cities around it and took their spoil; and the temple of Dagon and its temple he burned with fire.
85And those who had fallen by the sword, together with those who were burned, amounted to eight thousand men.
86And Jonathan departed from there and encamped at Ashkelon, and the men of the city came out to meet him with great honor.
87And Jonathan and his men returned to Jerusalem with much spoil.
88And when King Alexander heard these reports, he proceeded to honor Jonathan further.
89And he sent him a golden buckle, as is the custom to give to the Kinsmen of the kings, and he gave him Accaron and all its territories as a possession.
Open in the interactive reader →