Secondus Machabaeorum 12

VULGATA	NEW JERUSALEM
1 His factis pactionibus, Lysias pergebat ad regem, Judæi autem agriculturæ operam dabant.	1 These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to theirfarming.
2 Sed hi qui resederant, Timotheus, et Apollonius Gennæi filius, sed et Hieronymus, et Demophon super hos, et Nicanor Cypriarches, non sinebant eos in silentio agere et quiete.	2 Among the local generals, Timotheus and Apol onius son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus andDemophon, and Nicanor the Cypriarch as wel , would not allow the Jews to live in peace and quiet.
3 Joppitæ vero tale quoddam flagitium perpetrarunt : rogaverunt Judæos cum quibus habitabant, ascendere scaphas quas paraverant, cum uxoribus et filiis, quasi nullis inimicitiis inter eos subjacentibus.	3 The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked crime: they invited the Jews living among themto go aboard some boats they had lying ready, taking their wives and children. There was no hint of any intentionto harm them;
4 Secundum commune itaque decretum civitatis, et ipsis acquiescentibus, pacisque causa nihil suspectum habentibus : cum in altum processissent, submerserunt non minus ducentos.	4 there had been a public vote by the citizens, and the Jews accepted, as wel they might, beingpeaceable people with no reason to suspect anything. But once out in the open sea they were al sent to thebottom, a company of at least two hundred.
5 Quam crudelitatem Judas in suæ gentis homines factam ut cognovit, præcepit viris qui erant cum ipso : et invocato justo judice Deo,	5 When Judas heard of the cruel fate of his countrymen, he issued his orders to his men
6 venit adversus interfectores fratrum, et portum quidem noctu succendit, scaphas exussit, eos autem qui ab igne refugerant, gladio peremit.	6 and after invoking God, the just judge, he attacked his brothers' murderers. Under cover of dark heset fire to the port, burned the boats and put to the sword everyone who had taken refuge there.
7 Et cum hæc ita egisset, discessit quasi iterum reversurus, et universos Joppitas eradicaturus.	7 As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the wholecommunity of Joppa.
8 Sed cum cognovisset et eos qui erant Jamniæ, velle pari modo facere habitantibus secum Judæis,	8 But hearing that the people of Jamnia were planning to treat their resident Jews in the same way,
9 Jamnitis quoque nocte supervenit, et portum cum navibus succendit : ita ut lumen ignis appareret Jerosolymis a stadiis ducentis quadraginta.	9 he made a night attack on the Jamnites and fired the port with its fleet; the glow of the flames wasseen as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.
10 Inde cum jam abiissent novem stadiis, et iter facerent ad Timotheum, commiserunt cum eo Arabes quinque millia viri, et equites quingenti.	10 When they had left the town barely a mile behind them in their advance on Timotheus, Judas wasattacked by an Arab force of at least five thousand foot soldiers, with five hundred cavalry.
11 Cumque pugna valida fieret, et auxilio Dei prospere cessisset, residui Arabes victi petebant a Juda dextram sibi dari, promittentes se pascua daturos, et in ceteris profuturos.	11 A fierce engagement fol owed, and with God's help Judas' men won the day; the defeated nomadsbegged Judas to offer them the right hand of friendship, and promised to surrender their herds and makethemselves general y useful to him.
12 Judas autem arbitratus vere in multis eos utiles, promisit pacem : dextrisque acceptis, discessere ad tabernacula sua.	12 Realising that they might indeed prove valuable in many ways, Judas consented to make peace withthem and after an exchange of pledges the Arabs withdrew to their tents.
13 Aggressus est autem et civitatem quamdam firmam pontibus murisque circumseptam, quæ a turbis habitabatur gentium promiscuarum : cui nomen Casphin.	13 Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races;its name was Caspin.
14 Hi vero qui intus erant, confidentes in stabilitate murorum et apparatu alimoniarum, remissius agebant, maledictis lacessentes Judam et blasphemantes, ac loquentes quæ fas non est.	14 Confident in the strength of their wal s and their stock of provisions, the besieged adopted aninsolent attitude to Judas and his men, reinforcing their insults with blasphemies and profanity.
15 Machabæus autem, invocato magno mundi Principe, qui sine arietibus et machinis temporibus Jesu præcipitavit Jericho, irruit ferociter muris :	15 But Judas and his men invoked the great Sovereign of the world who without battering-ram or siege-engine had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua; they then made a fierce assault on the wall.
16 et capta civitate per Domini voluntatem, innumerabiles cædes fecit, ita ut adjacens stagnum stadiorum duorum latitudinis sanguine interfectorum fluere videretur.	16 By God's wil , having captured the town, they made such indescribable slaughter that the nearbylake, a quarter of a mile across, seemed fil ed to overflowing with blood.
17 Inde discesserunt stadia septingenta quinquaginta, et venerunt in Characa ad eos, qui dicuntur Tubianæi, Judæos :	17 Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known asTubians.
18 et Timotheum quidem in illis locis non comprehenderunt, nulloque negotio perfecto regressus est, relicto in quodam loco firmissimo præsidio.	18 They did not find Timotheus himself in that neighbourhood; he had already left the district, havingachieved nothing apart from leaving a very strong garrison at one point.
19 Dositheus autem et Sosipater, qui erant duces cum Machabæo, peremerunt a Timotheo relictos in præsidio, decem millia viros.	19 Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the Maccabaean generals, marched out and destroyed the forceTimotheus had left behind in the fortress, amounting to more than ten thousand men.
20 At Machabæus, ordinatis circum se sex millibus, et constitutis per cohortes, adversus Timotheum processit, habentem secum centum viginti millia peditum, equitumque duo millia quingentos.	20 Maccabaeus himself divided his army into cohorts to which he assigned commanders, and thenhurried in pursuit of Timotheus, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twothousand five hundred cavalry.
21 Cognito autem Judæ adventu, Timotheus præmisit mulieres et filios, et reliquum apparatum, in præsidium quod Carnion dicitur : erat enim inexpugnabile, et accessu difficile propter locorum angustias.	21 Timotheus' first move on learning of Judas' advance was to send away the women and children andthe rest of the baggage train to the place called the Carnaim, since it was an impregnable position, difficult ofaccess owing to the narrowness of al the approaches.
22 Cumque cohors Judæ prima apparuisset, timor hostibus incussus est ex præsentia Dei, qui universa conspicit : et in fugam versi sunt alius ab alio, ita ut magis a suis dejicerentur, et gladiorum suorum ictibus debilitarentur.	22 Judas' cohort came into sight first. The enemy, seized with fright and panic-stricken by themanifestation of the Al -seeing, began to flee, one running this way, one running that, often wounding oneanother in consequence and running on the points of one another's swords.
23 Judas autem vehementer instabat puniens profanos, et prostravit ex eis triginta millia virorum.	23 Judas pursued them with a wil , cutting the sinners to pieces and kil ing something like thirtythousand men.
24 Ipse vero Timotheus incidit in partes Dosithei et Sosipatris : et multis precibus postulabat ut vivus dimitteretur, eo quod multorum ex Judæis parentes haberet ac fratres, quos morte ejus decipi eveniret.	24 Timotheus himself, having fal en into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, verycraftily pleaded with them to let him go with his life, on the grounds that he had the relatives and even thebrothers of many of them in his power, and that these could otherwise expect short shrift.
25 Et cum fidem dedisset restituturum se eos secundum constitutum, illæsum eum dimiserunt propter fratrum salutem.	25 When at long last he convinced them that he would honour his promise and return these people safeand sound, they let him go for the sake of saving their brothers.
26 Judas autem egressus est ad Carnion, interfectis viginti quinque millibus.	26 Reaching the Carnaim and the Atargateion, Judas slaughtered twenty-five thousand men.
27 Post horum fugam et necem, movit exercitum ad Ephron civitatem munitam, in qua multitudo diversarum gentium habitabat : et robusti juvenes pro muris consistentes fortiter repugnabant : in hac autem machinæ multæ et telorum erat apparatus.	27 Having defeated and destroyed them, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town, whereLysanias was living. Stalwart young men drawn up outside the walls offered vigorous resistance, while insidethere were quantities of war-engines and missiles in reserve.
28 Sed cum Omnipotentem invocassent, qui potestate sua vires hostium confringit, ceperunt civitatem : et ex eis qui intus erant, viginti quinque millia prostraverunt.	28 But the Jews, having invoked the Sovereign who by his power shatters enemies' defences, gainedcontrol of the town and cut down nearly twenty-five thousand of the people inside.
29 Inde ad civitatem Scytharum abierunt, quæ ab Jerosolymis sexcentis stadiis aberat.	29 Moving off from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis,
30 Contestantibus autem his, qui apud Scythopolitas erant, Judæis, quod benigne ab eis haberentur, etiam temporibus infelicitatis quod modeste secum egerint :	30 seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But as the Jews who had settled there assured Judas that thepeople of Scythopolis had always treated them wel and had been particularly kind to them when times were attheir worst,
31 gratias agentes eis, et exhortati etiam de cetero erga genus suum benignos esse, venerunt Jerosolymam die solemni septimanarum instante.	31 he and his men thanked them and urged them to extend the same friendship to his race in the future.They reached Jerusalem shortly before the feast of Weeks.
32 Et post Pentecosten abierunt contra Gorgiam præpositum Idumææ.	32 After Pentecost, as it is cal ed, they marched against Gorgias, the general commanding Idumaea.
33 Exivit autem cum peditibus tribus millibus, et equitibus quadringentis.	33 He came out at the head of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry;
34 Quibus congressis, contigit paucos ruere Judæorum.	34 in the course of the ensuing battle a few Jews lost their lives.
35 Dositheus vero quidam de Bacenoris eques, vir fortis, Gorgiam tenebat : et, cum vellet illum capere vivum, eques quidam de Thracibus irruit in eum, humerumque ejus amputavit : atque ita Gorgias effugit in Maresa.	35 A man called Dositheus, a horseman of the Tubian contingent, a valiant man, overpowered Gorgiasand, gripping him by the cloak, was forcibly dragging him along, intending to take the accursed man alive, butone of the Thracian cavalry, hurling himself on Dositheus, slashed his shoulder, and Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
36 At illis qui cum Esdrim erant diutius pugnantibus et fatigatis, invocavit Judas Dominum adjutorem et ducem belli fieri :	36 Meanwhile, since Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted, Judascal ed on the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle.
37 incipiens voce patria, et cum hymnis clamorem extollens, fugam Gorgiæ militibus incussit.	37 Then, chanting the battle cry and hymns at the top of his voice in his ancestral tongue, by a surpriseattack he routed Gorgias' troops.
38 Judas autem collecto exercitu venit in civitatem Odollam : et cum septima dies superveniret, secundum consuetudinem purificati, in eodem loco sabbatum egerunt.	38 Judas then ral ied his army and moved on to the town of Adul am where, as it was the seventh day ofthe week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
39 Et sequenti die venit cum suis Judas, ut corpora prostratorum tolleret, et cum parentibus poneret in sepulchris paternis.	39 Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of thefal en taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs.
40 Invenerunt autem sub tunicis interfectorum de donariis idolorum quæ apud Jamniam fuerunt, a quibus lex prohibet Judæos : omnibus ergo manifestum factum est, ob hanc causam eos corruisse.	40 But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols ofJamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost theirlives.
41 Omnes itaque benedixerunt justum judicium Domini, qui occulta fecerat manifesta :	41 Al then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light,
42 atque ita ad preces conversi, rogaverunt ut id quod factum erat delictum oblivioni traderetur. At vero fortissimus Judas hortabatur populum conservare se sine peccato, sub oculis videntes quæ facta sunt pro peccatis eorum qui prostrati sunt.	42 and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next,the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from al sin, having seen with their own eyes theeffects of the sin of those who had fal en;
43 Et facta collatione, duodecim millia drachmas argenti misit Jerosolymam offerri pro peccatis mortuorum sacrificium, bene et religiose de resurrectione cogitans	43 after this he took a col ection from them individual y, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas,and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by hisbelief in the resurrection.
44 (nisi enim eos qui ceciderant resurrecturos speraret, superfluum videretur et vanum orare pro mortuis),	44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to prayfor the dead,
45 et quia considerabat quod hi qui cum pietate dormitionem acceperant, optimam haberent repositam gratiam.	45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, thethought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might bereleased from their sin.
46 Sancta ergo et salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur.