Page:KJV 1772 Oxford Edition, vol. 2.djvu/196

Apocrypha. 39 And upon the day following, II as the use had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of them that were stain, and to bury them with their kins men in their fathers' graves.

40 Now under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbid- « Deut. 7. den the Jews by * the law. Then every they were flain.
 * 5, *6' man saw that this was the cause wherefore

41 All men therefore praising the Lord, the righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hid,

42 Betook themselves unto prayer, and belbught him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance. Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the peo ple to keep themselves from sin, forsomuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were flain.

43. And. when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms or silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection :

44 For if he had not hoped that they that were flain should have risen, again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.

45 And also in- that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.

N the hundred forty and ninth year it X was told Judas, that Antiochus Eupator was coming with a great power intojudea,

2 And with him.1 Lysias his protector, and ruler of his affairs, having either of them a Grecian power of footmen, an hundred and ten thousand, and horsemen five thousand and three hundred, and ele phants two- and twenty, and three hun dred chariots armed with hooks.

3 Menelaus also jpined himself with them, and with great dissimulation encou raged Antiochus, not for the safeguard of the country, but because he thought to have been made governor.

4 But the King of kings moved Antio- chus' mind against this wicked wretch, and Lysias informed the king that this man was the cause of all mischief, so that/ the king commanded to bring him unto Berea, and to put him to death> as the manner is in that place.

5 Now there was- in mat place a tower of fifty cubits high, full of ames, and it had* a round instrument, which on every side hanged down into the ashes.

6 And whosoever was condemned of sacrilege, or had committed any other grievous crime, there did all men. thrust- im unto death.

7 Such a death it happened that wicked man to die, not having so much as burial, in the earth ; and that most justly :

8 For inasmuch as he had committed many sins about the altar,, whose fire and ashes were holy, .he received his death in ashes.

9 Now the king came with a barbarous and haughty mind to do far worse to tho Jews, than had been done in his father's time. .

10 Which things -when Judas perceived,. he commanded the multitude to call upon. the Lord night and day, that if ever at any other time, he would nowalso help them,... being at the point to be put from their, law, from their country, and from the holy temple :.

11 And that he would not softer the people, that || had even now been but a {^s'aat ittle refreshed, to be in subjection to the ^2** Dlasphemous nations.:.

12 So when they had all done this toge-^ ther, and besought the merciful Lord with weeping and fasting, and lying flat upon. the ground three days long, Judas, having., exhorted them, commanded they should. be. in a readinesev

13 And Judas,- being apart with the el ders, determined, before the king's host - should enter into Judea, and get the city,. to go forth and try the matter in fight by the help of the Lord.

14 So when he had committed a/Mo the U Creator of the world, and exhorted his soldiers to fight manfully, even untodeath, for the laws, the temple, the city, the country, and the commonwealth, he camp ed by Modin :

15 And having given the watchword to < them that were about him, Victory is of God with the most valiant and choice young men he went in into the king's. tent by night, and flew in the camp about four thousand men, and the chiefest of the .elephants, with all that were upon him..