2Maccabees:5

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* About the same time Antiochus prepared his second voyage into Egypt : * And then it happened , that through all the city , for the space almost of forty days , there were seen horsemen running in the air , in cloth of gold , and armed with lances , like a band of soldiers , * And troops of horsemen in array , encountering and running one against another , with shaking of shields , and multitude of pikes , and drawing of swords , and casting of darts , and glittering of golden ornaments , and harness of all sorts . * Wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turn to good . * Now when there was gone forth a false rumour , as though Antiochus had been dead , Jason took at the least a thousand men , and suddenly made an assault upon the city ; and they that were upon the walls being put back , and the city at length taken , Menelaus fled into the castle : * But Jason slew his own citizens without mercy , not considering that to get the day of them of his own nation would be a most unhappy day for him ; but thinking they had been his enemies , and not his countrymen , whom he conquered . * Howbeit for all this he obtained not the principality , but at the last received shame for the reward of his treason , and fled again into the country of the Ammonites . * In the end therefore he had an unhappy return , being accused before Aretas the king of the Arabians , fleeing from city to city , pursued of all men , hated as a forsaker of the laws , and being had in abomination as an open enemy of his country and countrymen , he was cast out into Egypt . * Thus he that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land , retiring to the Lacedemonians , and thinking there to find succour by reason of his kindred : * And he that had cast out many unburied had none to mourn for him , nor any solemn funerals at all , nor sepulchre with his fathers . * Now when this that was done came to the king 's car , he thought that Judea had revolted : whereupon removing out of Egypt in a furious mind , he took the city by force of arms , * And commanded his men of war not to spare such as they met , and to slay such as went up upon the houses . * Thus there was killing of young and old , making away of men , women , and children , slaying of virgins and infants . * And there were destroyed within the space of three whole days fourscore thousand , whereof forty thousand were slain in the conflict ; and no fewer sold than slain . * Yet was he not content with this , but presumed to go into the most holy temple of all the world ; Menelaus , that traitor to the laws , and to his own country , being his guide : * And taking the holy vessels with polluted hands , and with profane hands pulling down the things that were dedicated by other kings to the augmentation and glory and honour of the place , he gave them away . * And so haughty was Antiochus in mind , that he considered not that the Lord was angry for a while for the sins of them that dwelt in the city , and therefore his eye was not upon the place . * For had they not been formerly wrapped in many sins , this man , as soon as he had come , had forthwith been scourged , and put back from his presumption , as Heliodorus was , whom Seleucus the king sent to view the treasury . * Nevertheless God did not choose the people for the place 's sake , but the place far the people 's sake . * And therefore the place itself , that was partaker with them of the adversity that happened to the nation , did afterward communicate in the benefits sent from the Lord : and as it was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty , so again , the great Lord being reconciled , it was set up with all glory . * So when Antiochus had carried out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents , he departed in all haste unto Antiochia , weening in his pride to make the land navigable , and the sea passable by foot : such was the haughtiness of his mind . * And he left governors to vex the nation : at Jerusalem , Philip , for his country a Phrygian , and for manners more barbarous than he that set him there ; * And at Garizim , Andronicus ; and besides , Menelaus , who worse than all the rest bare an heavy hand over the citizens , having a malicious mind against his countrymen the Jews . * He sent also that detestable ringleader Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand , commanding him to slay all those that were in their best age , and to sell the women and the younger sort : * Who coming to Jerusalem , and pretending peace , did forbear till the holy day of the sabbath , when taking the Jews keeping holy day , he commanded his men to arm themselves . * And so he slew all them that were gone to the celebrating of the sabbath , and running through the city with weapons slew great multitudes . * But Judas Maccabeus with nine others , or thereabout , withdrew himself into the wilderness , and lived in the mountains after the manner of beasts , with his company , who fed on herbs continually , lest they should be partakers of the pollution .

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