2 Maccabees 15

¹ Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the neighbourhood of Samaria, so he decided to attackthem, at no risk to himself, on the day of rest.

² Those Jews who had been compel ed to follow him, said, 'Do not massacre them in such a savage,barbarous way. Respect the day on which the All-seeing has conferred a special holiness.'

³ At this the triple-dyed scoundrel asked if there were in heaven a sovereign who had ordered thekeeping of the Sabbath day.

⁴ When they answered, 'The living Lord himself, the Heavenly Sovereign, has ordered the observanceof the seventh day,'

⁵ he retorted, 'And I, as sovereign on earth, order you to take up arms and do the king's business.' Foral that, he did not manage to carry out his wicked plan.

⁶ While Nicanor, in his unlimited boastfulness and pride, was planning to erect a general trophy with thespoils taken from Judas and his men,

⁷ Maccabaeus remained firm in his confident conviction that the Lord would stand by him.

⁸ He urged his men not to be dismayed by the foreigners' attacks but, keeping in mind the help that hadcome to them from Heaven in the past, to be confident that this time too victory would be theirs with the help ofthe Almighty.

⁹ He put fresh heart into them by citing the Law and the Prophets and, by stirring up memories of thebattles they had already won, he fil ed them with new enthusiasm.

¹⁰ Having thus aroused their courage, he ended his exhortation by demonstrating the treachery of theforeigners and how they had violated their oaths.

¹¹ Having armed each one of them not so much with the safety given by shield and lance as with thatconfidence which springs from noble language, he encouraged them al by describing to them a convincingdream -- a vision, as it were.

¹² What he had seen was this: Onias, the former high priest, that paragon of men, modest of bearingand gentle of manners, suitably eloquent and trained from boyhood in the practice of every virtue -- Onias wasstretching out his hands and praying for the whole Jewish community.

¹³ Next, there appeared a man equal y remarkable for his great age and dignity and invested with amarvel ous and impressive air of majesty.

¹⁴ Onias began to speak: 'This is a man', he said, 'who loves his brothers and prays much for thepeople and the holy city-Jeremiah, the prophet of God.'

¹⁵ Jeremiah then stretched out his right hand and presented Judas with a golden sword, saying as hegave it,

¹⁶ 'Take this holy sword as a gift from God; with it you wil shatter the enemy.'

¹⁷ Encouraged by the noble words of Judas, which had the power to inspire valour and give the youngthe spirit of mature men, they decided not to entrench themselves in a camp, but bravely to take the offensiveand, in hand-to-hand fighting, to commit the result to the fortune of war, since the city, their holy religion and theTemple were in danger.

¹⁸ Their concern for their wives and children, their brothers and relatives, had shrunk to minuteimportance; their chief and greatest fear was for the consecrated Temple.

¹⁹ Those left behind in the city felt a similar anxiety, alarmed as they were about the forthcomingencounter in the open country.

²⁰ Everyone now awaited the coming issue. The enemy had already concentrated their forces andstood formed up in order of battle, with the elephants drawn up in a strategic position and the cavalry disposedon the wings.

²¹ Maccabaeus took note of these masses confronting him, the glittering array of armour and the fierceaspect of the elephants; then, raising his hands to heaven, he called on the Lord who works miracles, in theknowledge that it is not by force of arms but as he sees fit to decide, that victory is granted by him to such asdeserve it.

²² His prayer was worded thus: 'You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judaea,and he destroyed no less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army;

²³ now, once again, Sovereign of heaven, send a good angel before us to spread terror and dismay.

²⁴ May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they have come with blasphemy ontheir lips to attack your holy people.' And on these words he finished.

²⁵ Nicanor and his men advanced to the sound of trumpets and war songs,

²⁶ but the men of Judas closed with the enemy uttering invocations and prayers.

²⁷ Fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they cut down at least thirty-fivethousand men and were greatly cheered by this manifestation of God.

²⁸ When the engagement was over and they were withdrawing in triumph, they recognised Nicanor,lying dead in ful armour.

²⁹ With shouting and confusion all around, they blessed the sovereign Master in their ancestral tongue.

³⁰ He who, as protagonist, had devoted himself, body and soul, to his fel ow-citizens, and hadpreserved the love he felt even in youth for those of his own race, gave orders for Nicanor's head to be cut off,with his arm up to the shoulder, and taken to Jerusalem.

³¹ When he arrived there himself, he cal ed his countrymen together, stationed the priests in front of thealtar and then sent for the people from the Citadel.

³² He showed them the head of the abominable Nicanor, and the hand which this infamous man hadstretched out so insolently against the holy House of the Almighty.

³³ Then, cutting out godless Nicanor's tongue, he gave orders for it to be fed piecemeal to the birds,and for the salary of his folly to be hung up in front of the Temple.

³⁴ At this, everyone sent blessings heavenwards to the glorious Lord, saying, 'Blessed be he who haspreserved his holy place from pol ution!'

³⁵ He hung Nicanor's head from the Citadel, a clear and evident sign to al of the help of the Lord.

³⁶ They al decreed by public vote never to let that day go by unobserved, but to celebrate thethirteenth day of the twelfth month, cal ed Adar in Aramaic, the eve of what is called the Day of Mordecai.

³⁷ So ends the episode of Nicanor, and as, since then, the city has remained in the possession of theHebrews, I shal bring my own work to an end here too.

³⁸ If it is wel composed and to the point, that is just what I wanted. If it is worthless and mediocre, thatis al I could manage.

³⁹ Just as it is injurious to drink wine by itself, or again water alone, whereas wine mixed with water ispleasant and produces a delightful sense of wel -being, so skil in presenting the incidents is what delights theunderstanding of those who read the book. And here I close.