Page:Philip Birnbaum - ha-Siddur ha-Shalem (The Daily Prayer Book,1949).pdf/743

718 Isaac and Jacob, do not hand me over to this heathen; for if he kills me, he will boast in the temple of Dagon that his god has handed me over to him.” He advanced three steps toward Nicanor, thrust the dagger into his heart, and flung him fatally wounded into the court of the Temple. “My God,” Yoḥanan prayed, “do not count it a sin that I killed this heathen in the sanctuary; punish thus all the foes who came with him to persecute Judea and Jerusalem.” On that day Yoḥanan set out and fought the enemy, inflicting heavy slaughter on them, The number of those who were slain by him on that day totaled seven thousand. Upon returning, he erected a column with the inscription: “Maccabee, Destroyer of Tyrants.”

When king Antiochus heard that his governor Nicanor had been slain, he was bitterly distressed. He sent for wicked Bagris, the deceiver of his people, and told him: “Do you not know, have you not heard, what the Israelites did to me? They massacred my troops and ransacked my camps! Can you now be sure of your wealth? Will your homes remain yours? Come, let us move against them and abolish the covenant which their God made with them: sabbath, new moon festivals and circumcision.” Thereupon wicked Bagris and his hosts invaded Jerusalem, murdering the population and proclaiming an absolute decree against sabbath, new moon festivals and circumcision. So drastic was the king's edict that when a man was discovered to have circumcised his son, he and his wife were hanged along with the child. A woman gave birth to a son after her husband’s death and had him circumcised when he was eight days old. With the child in her arms, she went up on top