1King Ptolemy Philopator, to the commanders throughout Egypt and to all those appointed over affairs: greetings and good health.
2We ourselves are well, and our children also, with the great god directing our affairs for us, just as we desire.
3Some of our friends, pressing upon us rather insistently out of malice, persuaded us to gather the Jewish communities under our kingdom to be punished with the strange penalties fit for apostates.
4They alleged that our affairs would never be stable because of the hostility these people have toward the other nations, until this was accomplished.
5And they, having brought them down as prisoners with abuse, like slaves—or rather, like traitors—attempted to destroy them without any inquiry or examination, filled with a cruelty more savage than Scythian custom.
6But we, having threatened them very harshly for these things, in accordance with the clemency we have toward all people, and scarcely granting them their lives; and having recognized that the heavenly God surely protects the Jews, always fighting alongside them as a father for his sons,
7and having taken into account the steadfast goodwill they have as friends toward us and our ancestors, we have justly acquitted them of every kind of charge whatsoever.
8And we have commanded that everyone is to return to their own homes, with no one harming them at all in any way, or reproaching them for the irrational things that have happened.
9For know that if we devise any evil against them, or grieve them at all, we will have not a man, but the Most High God, master of all power, opposed to us for the avenging of these deeds, always and in every way, inescapably. Farewell.
10But when they received this letter, they were not eager to depart immediately, but requested of the king that those from the Jewish race who had willfully transgressed against the holy God and the law of God might receive through them the punishment they deserved.
11They argued that those who transgressed the divine commands for the sake of their belly would never be well-disposed, not even to the king’s commands.
12And he, acknowledging that they spoke the truth and commending them, gave them full permission to destroy those who had transgressed the law of God in every place under his kingdom, openly and without any need for royal authorization or oversight.
13Then their priests and the whole multitude, acclaiming him as was fitting and shouting out “Hallelujah,” departed with joy.
14And they began to kill any of their polluted countrymen they happened upon along the way, putting them to death and making a public example of them.
15On that day they killed over three hundred men, and they made it a day of joyful celebration, having subdued the profane.
16But they themselves, who had held fast to God even to the point of death and had obtained complete salvation and deliverance, departed from the city. They were crowned with all kinds of fragrant flowers, with gladness and shouting, giving thanks with praises and melodious hymns to the holy God of their fathers, the Savior of Israel.
17When they arrived at Ptolemais, which is called “Rose-bearing” because of a special feature of the place, the fleet waited for them for seven days, according to their common decision.
18There they held a banquet of deliverance, since the king had generously supplied each of them with everything for the journey until they reached their own homes.
19Having been brought home in peace with fitting thanksgivings, they likewise established there also that they should celebrate these days as a joyous festival for the duration of their sojourning.
20They consecrated these days with a pillar and established a place of prayer at the site of the banquet. Then they departed unharmed, free, and overjoyed, kept safe by the king’s command by land, sea, and river, each to his own...
21...as before, having authority over their enemies with glory and fear, and with none of their possessions being extorted from them at all.
22And they all recovered all their own property from the registration list, so that those who held any of it returned it to them with the greatest fear, as the great God had performed mighty deeds perfectly for their salvation.
23Blessed is the deliverer of Israel for all time. Amen.
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