II MACCABEES CHAPTER 1 - 5

2 MACCABEES

The second book of Maccabees claims to be a summary of a larger work by Jason of Cyrene, yet deals specifically with the events between 180 and 161 B.C.E. The central figure is Judas Maccabeus. Its historical scope is thus much more limited than that of 1 Maccabees. On the other hand, it presents some later controversial aspects of religion, specifically, prayer for the dead, merit of martyrdom, intercession of saints, and resurrection, all typically Pharisaical doctrines, and with the exception of the last, much opposed by the Protestant reformation. The book thus stands at the pivotal point of theological controversy between Rome and the Reformation.

The spiritual value of the book remains, however, as strong as the first book, in affirming the abiding importance of divine law and the Sabbath.

2 MACCABEES 1

1 The Jewish brothers in the town
Jerusalem and those in crown
Of Judah, to their Jewish kin
In Egypt, greetings, peace within.
2 May Ælohim do good to you,
And may He mind his pact in view
Of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
His faithful servants come to shake up.
3 May He give all of you a heart
To worship Him and do His part
With courage and a willing mind.
4 May He open your heart not blind
To His law and His commandments,
And may He bring peace in your tents.
5 May He hear your prayers and reply
Not leaving you in time to die.
6 We are now praying for you here.

In times past such descriptions were not found.
No one prayed for another on the ground
And none asked to be entered in the sound
Of supplication in the holy round.
But times have changed, and all men are distressed
And all are seeking something of the best,
And all are waiting that the poor, oppressed
Might be delivered and justice addressed.
So since the time of noble Maccabee
Every letter and parting in degree
Is hailed with on petition of the free:
My brother, sister, mind and pray for me.
Beloved, I pray for many when they ask
And others when they neglect that fair task.

7 In reign of Demetrius’ fear,
In one hundred sixty-ninth year,
We Jews wrote to you, in the great
Distress which came upon us late
In those years after Jason and
His mates rebelled from holy land
And kingdom 8 and they burned the gate
And shed innocent blood in hate.
We prayed to YHWH and we were heard,
And we offered sacrifice stirred
And grain offering, and we lit high
The lamps and set out the loaves nigh.
9 And now see that you keep the feast
Of booths in Chislev’s month at least,
In one hundred eighty-eighth year.
10 Those in Jerusalem and near
In Judah and the elders and
Judas, to Aristobulus,
Who is of the family’s bus
Of priests anointed, teacher of
Ptolemy the king, and in love
To the Jews in Egypt, greeting
And good health and good everything.
11 Having been saved by Ælohim
Out of grave dangers, it would seem,
We thank Him greatly that He took
Our side against the king to look.
12 He drove out those who would attack
The holy city at our back.
13 For when the chief reached Persia by
A band that looked beyond our try,
They were cut up in Nanea’s temple
By a deception and a stemple
The priests of Nanea employed.
14 Under pretext that he enjoyed
The hope of marriage, Antiochus
Came with his mates there and to rock us
Of the treasures of the town for
A dowry of his kept in store.

Oh Antiochus is looked up to by
The populace, though every king is sly.
He struts and gluts and tells the gullible
How wonderful he is and they are full.
Oh Antiochus falls in love or not,
But wants to marry to keep up his plot,
And so he tries to steal a bit of clot
To pay his dowry in the temple lot.
The honest man is forced to pay his bills
With earnings of his own and not the swills
Of plunder taken from the other man.
But kings enjoy another kind of plan
Just like the chiefs of companies today
Skim off the cream and leave the curds and whey.

15 When the priests of the temple of
Nanea had set out above
The treasures and Antiochus
Had come with a few men in bus
Inside the sacred temple wall,
They closed the temple doors as soon
As he came in to seek his boon.
16 They opened up a secret door
In the ceiling and threw a store
Of stones and struck the chieftain down,
Along with his men of renown,
Cut off their legs and arms and head,
And threw them to the crowd outspread.
17 Blessed in every way be our God,
Who has brought judgment on the sod
Of those behaving wickedly.
18 Since on Chislev twenty-five we
Celebrate temple’s purity,
We thought it good to notify
You that you might now give a try
At keeping feast of booths and feast
Of fire established and increased
When Nehemiah built the wall
Of the temple and altar’s call
To offer sacrifices all.
19 For when our fathers were in way
Of being led captive in sway
To Persia, the pious of priests
Of that time took some fire for feasts
From the altar and secretly
Hid it in the hollow’s degree
Of a dry cistern, where they took
Precautions that no one would look
There. 20 But after many years passed,
When it pleased Ælohim at last,
Nehemiah, commissioned by
The king of Persia, sent thereby
Descendants of the priests who’d hidden
The fire to take it out as bidden.
And when they reported to us
That they’d not found the igneous
But a thick liquid, he told them
To dip it out and bring the gem.
21 And when the sacrifices came,
Nehemiah ordered for flame
The priests should sprinkle on the wood
The liquid residue they could.

I wonder, my Beloved, was secret scent
Of fire and water in the cool air went
To make of earth Your footstool once more rent
By love and faith upon the goodly brood.
I do not know what time and priest had stewed
In secret arts forbidden to the shrewd.
I only read with wonder all the words
That speak on behalf of the beasts and birds
Who worshipped all the days when temple sherds
Lay used and abused under light of sun.
I only read the script when it is done
And seek the passages where things are won.
Beloved, grant me the living fire to taste
Beside the pool of Kauthar with all haste.

22 After some time the clouds dispersed
And the sun in its glory versed
Shone out and then a great fire burst
Up so all marvelled at the worst.
23 And while the sacrifice was burning,
The priests offered the prayers concerning
The priests and everyone there learning.
Jonathan led, the rest responded,
As had done Nehemiah fronded.
24 This was the prayer: “O YHWH, Lord God,
Creator of all things in pod,
Who are awe-inspiring and strong
And just and merciful along,
Who alone are King and are kind,
25 “Who alone are bountiful, who
Alone are just, almighty, true
And eternal, and who rescue
Israel from every wicked way,
Who did choose our ancestors’ sway
And consecrated them that day,
26 “Accept this sacrifice for all
Your people Israel in this hall
And keep Your heritage and make
It holy for Your holy sake.
27 “Gather our scattered people, set
Free those who are still slaves and met
Among the Gentiles, look on those
Who are rejected and in throes
Despised, and let the Gentiles know
That You are our God on the go.
28 “Afflict those who oppress and are
Insolent in their pride for star.
29 “Plant your folk in Your holy place,
As Moses said before Your face.”

Jonathan’s prayer is spoken like a friend
Who speaks to You with a kind ear to lend.
Three camps there seem to be in time of prayer:
The ones who mumble jumble on the air
And call it moving of the Holy Ghost,
And those who say their own words without boast,
And those who stick to the warm liturgy
Repeating what for ages has decree.
Beloved, no doubt my own prayers are a streak
So often couched in sonnet-like bird-beak,
With couplets drawn out like ghazel to seek
Your loving heart where I need never speak.
Beloved, let prayer be silence or the din,
But open up Your heart and let me in.

30 Then the priests sang the ancient hymns.
31 And when the offering seraphims
Had consumed, Nehemiah ordered
That the liquid that was left quartered
Should be poured out upon large stones.
32 When this was done, a fire atones
But when the altar light shone back,
The flame extinguished its attack.
33 The thing they saw they told the king
Of the Persians that in the wings
Where the exiled priests had secreted
The fire, came liquid undefeated
With which Nehemiah and friends
Had burned with sacrificial ends,
34 The king investigated it,
And made it as sacred as fit.
35 And with those persons whom the king
Favoured he exchanged many a thing.
36 And Nehemiah and his friends
Called this “nephthar,” the which name tends
To recall purifying ends,
But most folk call it naphtha’s bends.

From Nehemiah’s day it seems the Persians
Have worshipped oil without any aversions.
Naphtha’s the way we get the finest gas
To help quickly to move recumbent ass.
The sacred fire of covenant at last
Is brought to light transfigured in the gassed.
To worship You, Beloved, it seems it’s best
To pour benzene upon the logs at rest
Upon the altar of the blazing heart
And watch the flames jump in and do their part.
Some mystics contemplate the inner mind
And relish all the things within they find,
While others know the way to beat the brass
Is something pungent smelling, something crass.

2 MACCABEES 2

1 In records prophet Jeremiah
Told the captives to take some fire
With them on deportation’s pyre,
2 And the prophet when he had given
The law instructed them to live in
Captivity and not forget
The commandments of YHWH, nor yet
Be led astray in thought when they
See gold and silver statues’ way
And their adornment of great pay.
3 And he went on to reaffirm
How the law should in every term
Remain in their heart and be firm.
4 The writing also said the prophet
Heard in oracle not to scoff at
That the ark and the tent should follow
With him out on the mountain hallow
Where Moses had gone up and seen
Inheritance of Ælohim.
5 And Jeremiah came and found
A cave, and he brought there tent bound
And the ark and the altar of
Incense, and he sealed up above
The entrance. 6 Some of those who went
After him came as they were sent
To mark the way, but could not find it.
7 When Jeremiah heard behind it,
He chided them and said “The place
Shall be unknown without a trace
Till Ælohim gather in grace
His folk again and in His grace.
8 “And then YHWH will disclose these things,
And the glory of YHWH and rings
Of cloud will appear, as they came
In Moses time in shade and flame
And as Solomon asked the place
Should be consecrated in trace.”

The truth is hidden in each human heart,
But only the few know the mining art
That will uncover the gem and the cart.
The prophet at the orders of Your hand
Has hidden treasure in each pilgrim band
And sent them out to live in every land.
The truth is hidden, yes, but few may know
The guidance to its holy, happy glow.
Beloved, be my guide in the way I go,
And let me find within my heart the light
Of incense on the altar in my night.
I see the ringing wrong, perceive the right,
But still I beg the leading path and way
Upon the gilded finishings of day.

9 It was also made clear that being
Possessed of wisdom in his seeing
That Solomon sacrificed dear
For dedication of the gear
And finishing the temple here.
10 Just as when Moses prayed to YHWH,
And fire came down from heaven in view
Consuming every sacrifice,
So also Solomon prayed twice,
And fire came down consuming all
The burnt offerings upon the stall.
11 And Moses said, “They were consumed
Because the sin offering of doomed
Had not been eaten.” 12 Solomon
Also kept the eight days when done.
13 The same things are reported in
The records and in memoirs bin
Of Nehemiah, and also
That he made a library glow
And gathered all the books in show
About the kings and prophets so,
And writings of David, and briefs
Of kings about votive reliefs.
14 In the same way Judas also
Collected all the books to go
That had been lost because of war
Which had arisen on our shore,
And we still have them all in store.

The light of inspiration that fell on
Moses and Solomon in rosy dawn
And fueled the altar and the temple drawn
Remains secreted in the sacred books
That Nehemiah placed in hidden nooks
And Judas in his day saved from the crooks
That rose to destroy Israel by their hooks.
The light of inspiration still a-pace
In a world spread before Your divine face
Is what my heart and soul thirst for in race,
Beloved, so open them to me in grace.
The writings of the Prophet David sound
Within my heart and fall upon my ground
And lead me to Your throne in wavering trace.

15 So if you have need of them, send
People to get them for your end.
16 Since, therefore, we’re about to keep
The purification in heap,
We write to you. Will you therefore
Please keep the days as once before?
17 It is Ælohim who has saved
All His folk, and returned enslaved
Inheritance to all, and still
The kingship and priesthood to fill
With consecration on the hill,
18 As He has promised through the law.
For we have hope in Ælohim
That He will soon have mercy draw
Upon us and as it may seem
Will gather us from everywhere
Under heaven into His share
Of holiness, for he has saved
Us from great evils and engraved
This place with purity and staved.
19 Judas Maccabeus’ history
And that of his brothers’ decree,
Purification of the great
Temple, and dedication late
Of the altar, 20 as well as wars
On Antiochus Epiphanes
And his son Eupator for grannies,
21 And the appearances which came
From heaven to those who strove in fame
For Judaism, so that though
Few in number they seized the row
Of the whole land and then pursued
The Gentile hordes both vile and rude,
22 And re-established house of fame
The temple throughout the world’s claim
And freed the city and restored
The laws cast down, and so the Lord
With great mercy showed grace on them,
23 All this written by Jason of
Cyrene in five books of love
We hope to write here in one book
For everyone to take a look.

The central issue of this book’s revealed
To be the house of God, rebuilt and sealed,
The edifice on the mountain to show
That You are God alone of all the row.
The temple is the place where sacrifice
And incense covered stench of blood with nice
Odours for those who prayed a while before
The curtained entrance and the brazen door.
Beloved, the book of my heart too is done
In golden letters on the tables won,
And while the prayers and offerings of my breath
Are counted out from birth until my death,
I turn to You and seek Your will alone
As I come tripping, dancing at Your throne.

24 Since many people want to know,
And there’s so much to read on row,
25 We’ve aimed to please those who would read,
To make it easy for the speed
Of those who wish to memorize,
To profit readers every size.
26 For us who’ve engaged here to cut
It is no light matter in gut,
But calls for sweat and loss of sleep,
27 Just as it’s not easy to keep
A banquet and seek others’ joy.
But to get others’ thanks in toy
We’ll gladly endure the hard toil,
28 Leaving responsibility
For exact details in the fee
To the compiler, while the coil
Of our effort’s to make outline
Of the condensation just fine.
29 For as the master builder of
A new house must be concerned of
The whole construction, while the one
Who undertakes its painting run
And decoration has to think
Only what’s suitable for brink
Of its adornment, such in my
Judgment is the case with our try.
30 It is the duty of the first
Historian to keep the burst
Of discussing each side of things
And trouble with details and rings.
31 But he who recasts narrative
Ought to strive for brevity’s sieve
And leave off long distractionings.
32 At this point therefore let us start
Our narrative, adding from heart
Only so much to what’s been said,
For it’s a foolish thing in spread
To lengthen the preface while cutting
Short the history itself abutting.

Beloved, I add to these words introducing
The narrative, though they are only juicing
Excuses for the brevity and song.
I make no such excuses for my wrong.
My hymn to You has every right to be
Between the writings of the minstrelsy,
And the first human duty on the brink
Of the soul’s gross existence is to drink
From poet’s draught and lift a wayward voice
Sometimes to sorrow and sometimes rejoice.
Beloved, let editors of book long since
Researched, expounded and left with a wince
Have their own glory, You and I shall come
Into our meeting place and have a hum.

2 MACCABEES 3

1 The holy city was in peace
And lawfulness on the increase
Because of Onias the high
Priest, who loved righteousness thereby
Hating what wicked people try.
2 It happened that even the kings
Respected the Holy Place things
And made the temple shine with gifts
In splendour to extent that lifts
All the expenses that arose
From sacrifices, the king chose
To pay for, even Seleucus
King of Asia without a fuss.
3 But then Simon of Bilgah’s clan,
The treasurer of temple span,
Made quarrel with the high priest for
The city markets and their score.
4 A man named Simon, of the tribe
Of Benjamin, who without bribe
Had been made chief of temple, had
A disagreement, and one bad,
With the high priest about the way
The city market ought to play,
5 When he could not get upper hand
Over Onias in command
He went to Apollonius
Who was a man come from Tarsus,
And who at that time was the chief
Of Coelesyria and reef
Phoenicia. 6 He told him that
Treasure in Jerusalem’s vat
Was full of untold sums of money,
So it could not be counted funny,
And that they did not then belong
To the sacrifice budget strong,
But could be under the control
Of the king if a valiant soul.
7 Apollonius met the king,
And told him of the money thing.
The king chose Heliodorus,
Who was chargé d’affaires in fuss,
And sent him with commands to take
The money that lay there in wake.

It’s always rumours of great wealth seduces
The men to war who had in peace held truces.
The hidden arms and gold at Waco’s brink
Is what caused US government to stink.
Simon, the king and Apollonius
Join hands conspiring with Heliodorus
To get the gold. If not the naphtha gold
Is the next thing that’s on the market sold
And makes like nothing else the blood run cold.
Beloved, the way to riches is well paved
With the intentions of all those enslaved
By their corruption and the lust to rule
All other men, though each may be a fool.
Even Your sanctuary’s such a school.

8 Heliodorus at once set out
On his journey, with all the clout
To inspect Coelesyrian towns
And those on the Phoenician downs,
But really there to carry out
The king’s hopes for gold without doubt.
9 When he got to Jerusalem
And had been kindly given hem
By the high priest there in the city,
He told what had been said and why
He had come and asked him thereby
If it was true that on the sly
There was a treasure for the guy.
10 The high priest said that there were sums
Collected for the widows’ hums
And orphans, 11 and also some coin
Of Hyrcanus, Tobias’ son,
Man of high position to join,
In all four hundred talents of
Silver and two hundred of gold.
To such lengths had gone without love
Impious Simon in lies told.
12 He said no wrong thing must be done
To those folk who trust in the gun
Of the holy place and the room
Inviolate honoured for doom
Throughout the world by everyone.
13 But Heliodorus, because
Of the king’s commands had in claws,
Said that the money anyway
Should be forfeit to the king’s pay.
14 So he set a day and went in
To oversee the funds in bin.
The whole town was distressed for sin.

Do not frown on the heathen king that sent
To temple treasury where the folk lent
Their wealth for safety to replenish load
Of office and of kingdom by the goad.
The Christian church wherever she is found
With hand in pocket of the less renowned
Is always greedy too, and more so when
The pocket’s that of widows and poor men.
The Lutherans in Finland always took
For the rich parsons the widows last nook,
The last cow and the last shirt on the back
Of the tenth son without a cent to stack.
Right to tax the inheritance is sure
When the church and the king are the best cure.

15 The priests prostrated themselves near
The altar in their priestly gear
And called toward heaven upon him who
Had given the law about the due,
That he should keep them safe for those
Who had deposited their rows.
16 The sight of the high priest would wound
The very heart, his face lampooned
With pallor since his soul was grieved.
17 A trembling terror unreprieved
Swept over the man for the pain
That touched his heart was not one vain.
18 Folk rushed out in crowds to appeal
Since holy place was under heel.
19 Women arranged in sackcloth bent
Their way through every street they went.
Some maidens kept indoors ran to
The gates and walls, to get a view
Some others came at windows too.
20 And holding up their hands to heaven,
They all prayed aloud without leaven.
21 The whole folk were in pity’s wake
Prostrating themselves for the sake
Of the high priest in anguished stake.

The priest is holy and sweet when the power
Is not within his hands a blessed hour.
Ed Elwall said a true thing when he spoke
Against the pensions and the moneyed yoke
That clergymen bear when they’re paid to speak
Your word to those in pew who come to seek.
So Onias by fickle fanned of fate
Is free of greed and holy in his state,
And bows and weeps with poor upon the street
Jerusalem twists out beneath their feet.
Beloved, I’d rather sing the charming songs
Of beauty in your courts, but earthly wrongs
Meet me in sacred text where’re I turn,
And even in the city where I learn.

22 While they called on Almighty YHWH
That he would keep what had been due
Entrusted safe for those who brought
It to the safety’s temple lot,
23 Heliodorus went on with
What was determined by the myth.
24 When he came to the treasury
With his soldiers in infantry,
Right then the Lord of spirits and
The Almighty made such a stand
That all who had been in command
To go boldly with him were caught
Before the power Ælohim brought
And fainted for terror unsought.
25 They saw appearance of a horse
With a fierce rider and perforce
It rushed on Heliodorus
And struck him with its front hoofs’ fuss.
The rider was armoured in gold
And carried golden weapons cold.
26 Two youths also appeared to him,
Very strong, handsome in their vim,
Arrayed in glory, and who stood
Beside him giving strokes of wood
Upon his back hard as they could.
27 Straightway he fell down on the ground
With darkness on him like a swound,
Till his men took him up and put
Him on a stretcher head and foot
28 And carried him away, this man
Who’d just come in the treasure’s span
With a great retinue and all
His bodyguards could only fall
Helpless, and so they recognized
The sovereign power of Ælohim.

It’s no surprise, Beloved, this story’s found
Within the canon of Your word once bound
By church father and council on the ground
That ancient people wrote and kept it sound.
It’s no surprise to find this story here
Simply because it is a tale of fear
In which the moneyed few are cut to size
And stricken to the earth before Your eyes.
Such an event’s so rare it must reside
In annals read for generations’ pride.
If You performed such acts each day, then they
Could be forgotten by the canon’s sway.
But as it is justice is such rare bird
That when it shows, it stays within Your Word.

29 While he lay prostrate and despised,
Speechless before what it would seem
Of hopeless destruction of God,
30 They praised YHWH who upon the sod
Had worked a miracle to save
His own place and house from the brave.
The temple, which a little space
Was full of fear became a place
Of joy and gladness now the Lord
Almighty had appeared adored.
31 Some of Heliodorus’ friends
Quickly asked that Onias lends
His prayers to beg the Most High to
Grant life to the wicked one who
Was at death’s door. 32 And the high priest,
Fearing the king might have increased
Suspicions of revolt at least
On the Jews part against his sent
Heliodorus, was well bent
To offer sacrifice for him
And pray he might be well and trim.
33 While the high priest offered atonement,
The same youths appeared to the moanment
Of Heliodorus arrayed
In the same clothing of parade,
And they stood saying, “Gratitude
Is due Onias and his brood,
The high priest, for because of him
YHWH’s granted you your life and trim.
34 “And see that you, who’ve been scourged by
The heaven, report to all men why
The power of Ælohim is great.”
They said that and then left the state.
35 Heliodorus offered up
Sacrifice to YHWH and like tup
Made promises to his life’s Saviour,
And having changed his own behaviour,
He said good-by to Onias,
And went to tell the king his pass.

You are indeed a wiser bloke than I,
Beloved, sitting there in the frozen sky.
I would have left ambassador to die
And in that act called vengeance on the head
Of innocent and children in their bed.
When representatives of power and state
Collapse upon the cobblestones of fate
There’s always some to pay among the poor
Rejoicing for the reprieve that’s less sure.
You chose wisely to let the fellow live
And return to the king and there to give
Report of visions that cut through his skull
And left him spent and helpless in the dull.
I see the gulf between wise and the sieve.

36 And he bore testimony to
All men of the deeds of the true
Ælohim, which he’d seen himself.
37 When the king asked his servant elf
Heliodorus what kind of
Man would be good to send for shove
A second time back to the town
Jersualem, he said with frown,
38 “If you have any enemy
Or traitor against regency,
Send him there, for he will return
Well beaten if alive to learn,
For there’s surely in that awed place
The power of the gods in their race.
39 For he who has His dwelling place
In heaven watches o’er that place
Himself and gives it help, and He
Strikes and destroys for injury.”
40 This was the outcome of the time
Heliodorus came to climb
And the treasure was kept from spree.

I told You, my Beloved, the king would not
Be impressed even with a divine plot,
And searches out a way to do the same
That You foiled once already in his game.
It was not You who intervened in store,
But that the messenger was weak on shore.
If You gave tit for tat each time tat sounded,
The kings and presidents when hit and rounded
Would recognize the hand that held the whip
And turn about both armoured tank and ship.
But when You only come once in an age,
They fail to see You on the sacred page,
Reverting to vain hope’s psychology
To spend another life on robbery.

2 MACCABEES 4

1 That Simon who had liked about
The money and raised up a shout
Against his own land and his folk,
Slandered Onias, in a croak
Saying that it was he who’d brought
Heliodorus in the plot
And was the real cause of all
The misfortunes that came to fall.
2 He called a traitor and a plotter
The very one who in the grotto
Was benefactor of the town,
Protector of men from the frown
Of king and civil servant and
A zealot for divine command.
3 When his hatred progressed to such
A pitch that even murders touch
Where in the hands of Simon’s men
Send out by him once and again,
4 Onias knew the stakes were great
And that Apollonius mate
And son of Menestheus and
Ruler of Coelesyria’s strand
And Phoenicia, was stirring up
The hate of Simon like a tup.
5 So he went to advise the king,
Not in an accusation’s wing,
But in view of the common weal
Of civilized as well as heel.
6 For he saw that without the king’s
Attention public things in stings
Could never be in peace as long
As Simon sang his foolish song.

It may well be that Onias’ was right,
A good man and a just before the fight.
But a good man alone before the crowd
Of evil-doers in the king’s court loud
Is likely to accomplish just one thing:
His own downfall before the eye of king.
But Onias was in position to
Try his best in the things he had to do.
The law of life is divine and it’s true:
The just must act justly and wisely too,
Despite the certainty that is in view.
The coltsfoot pushes through the pavement and
Comes first to bloom in spring, though it will stand
In no leaf on the crumbled asphalt’s pew.

7 When Seleucus had died and Antiochus
Called Epiphanes come to rock us
Came in the kingdom, and Jason
Onias’ brother wicked won
The high priesthood by deceit done.
8 He promised the king secretly
Three hundred sixty talents free
Of siller and from other stocks
Eighty more talents for his flocks.
9 Besides this he promised to pay
A hundred and fifty in way
If he could found gymnasium
And a college of youth in sum
To run naked in it and scribe
Jerusalem’s folk in the tribe
Of Antioch. 10 The king said yes,
And Jason took high priest’s address,
At once he changed the way of life
Of his folk to the Grecian fife.
11 He set aside mandates royal
Giving Jews their rights wherewithal,
Granted through John the father of
Eupolemus, who hand in glove
Went to make alliance with Rome,
And he suppressed law from the home
And brought new ways contrary to
The Torah law and what is true.
12 Straight off he made gymnasium
Right under the fortress, by gum,
And got the best of youths to wear
Hellenistic kind of headgear.

In every time and place today the stress
And tension between the law I confess
And the culture and climate of the mess
Of peoples and stations the world around
Is something to note, Belovèd, I’m bound.
Does taking part in local culture make
Idolator or lawless one? Forsake
The divine law and idle ditties take?
Or is it not enough to obey just
What’s in the ten commandments in the gust
Of different time and place from Moses’ thrust?
Does wearing a Greek hat destroy the law?
If so, then having a Greek name in paw
Might also try the spirits hand and claw.

13 They went to such extremes to be
Grecian and take on customs free
Because Jason was ungodly
And no high priest at all really,
14 So the priests were no longer faithful
In serving at the altar wraithful.
Despising the temple, neglecting
The sacrifices and electing
To take part in the lawless way
Of wrestling in arena’s sway
And following the discus’ call,
15 Disdaining the prized honours all
Of their ancestors to accept
The forms of Greek prestige adept.
16 That’s why disaster fell on them
And those who thought those ways a gem
That were invented by the Greeks
And wished to imitate such geeks,
They became enemies at last
And they came to punish them fast.
17 For it is no light thing to show
Irreverence to the divine go,
A fact what happened will make know.

The nakedness itself is hardly brought
To light here, but the very games they taught,
The interest in the doing and the sight,
These are the things they did that were not right.
You have a people prepared to Your law
In every time and place to live in awe,
Who disregard Your love and will when they
Step on the stage to sing, the field to play.
The race-car and the rock-swing and the way
Fashion and entertainment fill the day
Are evidence of fine idolatry.
But in the quick end friend is enemy,
The stroke of taste and interest turns to slay,
Mammon and You cannot both serve to pay.

18 When the Olympic games were held
At Tyre and the king there beheld,
19 The vile Jason sent messengers,
Antiochian citizens,
Jerusalem sons as occurs,
To bring three hundred silver drams
For sacrifice to Hercules.
Those who carried the money’s ease,
Though thought it best not to spend it
In idol sacrifice to wit,
So turned it to another task,
20 That is for fabricating mask
Of trireme ships for battle-ask.

So battle ships in days of Jason had
Three tiers of rowers rowing to be sad.
That is a kind of payment made in due
To idols and so the carriers true
Were not dishonest when they made the change.
Battle ships or sacrifices in range
Both satisfy the false gods at the gate.
The messengers made no god have to wait.
Beloved, the flashing oars pound out the sound
Of prayers to gods of war and on the ground
To goddesses of grand fertility
Producing cannon fodder for the free.
Let Hercules lift up an head and smile
At messengers and messenger-like guile.

21 When Apollonius the son
Of Menestheus was sent when done
To Egypt for the coronation
Of Philometor king of nation,
Antiochus learned Philometor
Had become hostile and not sweeter,
So he meant to protect himself.
After Joppa he followed elf
East to Jerusalem as meter.
22 He was welcomed graciously by
Jason and the city with cry,
Brought in with torches and not shy.
Then he marched to Phoenicia.
23 After three years Jason sent claw,
One Menelaus, the brother of
Simon already met above,
To take the money to the king
And finalize there everything.
24 But he presented such a face
To the king that he won the race
To be high priest then for himself,
Putting three hundred more on shelf
Of silver talents than Jason.

Beloved, the government that You support
Behind each tank and bomb and frazzled fort
Is bought with one deceit upon another,
And every governor sells his grandmother.
Where there is power to be had there is power
To be bought in a single, trembling hour,
And with the buying fail the just and true
To sit in judgement on the fallen rue.
Beloved, I see You hand invisible
Shrouded in care to keep the eye from pull,
And know that in the end You rule the day,
But what I fear is the night now is sway
Is too much for the widow at the sink,
Is too much for the righteous on the brink.

25 With the king’s orders he went back,
No priestly quality in sack,
But temper of a tyrant’s crack
And rage of a wild beast to stack.
26 So Jason, who betrayed his brother
Was so betrayed by still another,
And fled to Ammon in the lack.
27 And Menelaus held office then,
But he did not pay with a yen
The money promised to the king
For what he got in post and ring.
28 When Sostratus the fortress chief
Requested payment for relief,
As was his job, the two of them
Were called by the king to condemn.
29 Menelaus left his own brother
Lysimachus to be another
Interim high priest, Sostratus
Left Crates chief of Cyprian bus.

I take great courage when I see the priest
Is just another crook like any beast.
If such went on two thousand years ago
And the world stands here still to see the show,
Then I have faith corruption here and now
Is not enough to destroy holy cow.
Fire water creases brain and eye and sound
In every judgement here upon the ground,
And justice has departed in the wind
And found now more with clawed and furred and finned.
But still You stand above the court and kirk
And see the simpered smile as well as smirk,
And bide the time when all shall once return
To great reward or else to stay and burn.

30 Just then the folk of Tarsus and
Of Mallus rebelled in a band,
Because their cities in remand
Had been gifted to Antiochis,
The concubine of king and caucus.
31 The king went quickly to take care,
And left Andronicus to bear
The weight of the kingdom in share.
32 But Menelaus stole temple gold
And gave the vessels yet unsold
To Andronicus, while the best
Had been sent to Tyre and the rest.

Let this be lesson lost on every church
Reformed or deformed in the level lurch,
That property must in a generation
Be transferred by the robbers in the nation
To tyrants to buy more of their oppression
While still pretending to keep court in session.
Though Menelaus once stole the temple gold,
He was not last on earth both bought and sold.
The pulpit is the place where pulp is told
And lobbies justified by divine will
To trample in the dust and on the hill.
Beloved, the weight of kingdom to all men
Is more than they can bear and yet again
Keep their integrity and write the bill.

33 When Onias found out about
These things he publicly gave out
The news from his refuge at Daphne
Near Antioch to say what graft be.
34 So Menelaus spoke in the ear
Of Andronicus to appear
And kill Onias for his tear.
Andronicus came to Onias,
Betrayed him with sworn pledges pious,
And shook hands on it, and persuaded
Him over his suspicions waded,
To come out from his hiding place,
With no regard for justice’ face,
He slaughtered him without a trace.
35 That’s why not only Jews but others
Were displeased at the unjust brothers
To murder a man without grace.
36 When the king returned from the place
Of Cilicia, the Jews within
The town appealed to him to win
About the murder of Onias,
And the Greeks too would not deny us.
37 Therefore Antiochus was grieved
At heart and he wept unreprieved
Because of the behaviour seen
So well in the dead man and keen.
38 He was mad at Andronicus,
And tore from him the purple muss
And led him through the town until
They came to where they stopped to kill
Onias, and there he dispatched
The bloodthirsty fellow unlatched.
So YHWH revenged him with desert
Where he fell down dead and inert.

The ones who think that Antiochus is
The Little Horn come to set up his biz
Upon the holy hill, should think again.
Corrupt leaders of Jews invited men
Into the sanctuary and its treasure.
Blaming the king alone is without measure.
The king’s corrupt indeed, and he will live
To commit such atrocities that give
The lie to his tears now, but still I know
He was corrupted partly by the show
Of men who claimed to know Your law and go
According to the faith ancestors taught.
Such are all men and women who are bought
By their own will, unlike those who were caught.

39 When many evil acts had been
Perpetrated in way of sin
By Lysimachus with the help
Of Menelaus, and like brown kelp
Rumours had spread, the populace
Came against Lysimachus’ face,
Since many golden pots were missing,
Stolen by one or two men kissing.
40 And since the crowds became aroused,
Lysimachus among caroused
Armed about three thousand and went
In an unjust attack and sent
Under the leadership of one
Auranus, a man who had won
Both years and folly under sun.
41 But when the Jews became aware
Of Lysimachus being there,
Some picked up stones, some blocks of wood,
And others took ashes as could,
And threw them wildly at the men
Of Lysimachus out again.
42 They wounded many, and killed some,
And put them all to flight and hum,
The temple robber himself they
Killed close beside the treasury’s way.

The people always rise against the way
Their rulers cloud with evil light of day,
But when they rise they do not do enough,
And what they do is too late in the rough.
Assassination of the criminal
Civil servant will only cast a pall
Over the earth unjust down to the dust.
It takes a greater act, a greater gust.
Jesus and Husseyn thought another try
Would work and so they both stepped out to die,
But that backfired, since they were turned into
Fertility gods for the faithful few.
Adherence to Your law alone will do,
And wait for Your hand to come stir the brew.

43 Charge was brought against Menelaus
About this incident to douse.
44 When the king came to Tyre, three men
Sent by the senate brought again
The case before him. 45 Menelaus,
Already beaten like a mouse,
Promised a lot of money to
Ptolemy Dorymenes’ son
To win over the king for brew.
46 That’s why Ptolemy, for a bun,
Spoke in the king’s ear and aside
When they were eating cakes to hide,
And got him to change his mind’s ride.
47 Menelaus, the cause of the bad
He acquitted of charges sad,
And killed the innocent lot that
Would have been freed before the mat
Of Scythians had they been tried.
48 So those who stood up for the town,
The villages and holy crown
Of vessels suffered an unjust
Penalty and they bit the dust.
49 Therefore even the Tyrians,
Showing their hatred of such plans,
Held obsequies both great and grand.
50 But Menelaus, by evil hand
Of those who held the power in band,
Remained in office, and he grew
More wicked as his time withdrew,
The chief in mischief of the crew
Against his fellows in their pew.

Whenever populace comes out to fight
With sticks and stones and dust against the might
Of the usurper and elected right,
The rulers end their quarrels in a jiff
And exchange money to make top lip stiff,
And squelch the righteous poor and sink their skiff.
The rate of violence is always turned
Against the poor oppressed who never earned.
Beloved, show me a better way to go,
Politely insubordinate in show
Before the arguments of church and state,
Before the sweet devotions of the mate
Of Virgin Mary laid before the view
Of ghostly visitants in nightly crew.

2 MACCABEES 5

1 About this time Antiochus
Made second invasion and fuss
In Egypt. 2 And it happened that
Over all the city and flat,
For almost forty days, there came
Gold-clad horsemen charging through flame
Of air, in companies well armed
With lances and drawn swords unharmed,
3 And troops of horsemen were drawn up,
Attacking back and forth like tup,
Waving their shields and spears and such,
With flash of gold and armour much.
4 So all men prayed the apparition
Might be a good omen’s position.
5 When a false rumour arose that
Antiochus was dead who sat,
Jason and one thousand men made
An attack on the city raid.
When the soldiers upon the wall
Were beaten for the city’s fall,
Menelaus hid in fortress stall.
6 But Jason kept on slaughtering
His fellow citizens in ring,
Not thinking that success is dear
When bought at cost of death and fear
Of one’s own kin, but thinking just
That he was gaining victory dust
Over his enemies and not
Over his fellow Jews in plot.
7 He did not gain control at all
But only disgrace from the fall,
And fled into Ammonite stall.

Why not call Jason little horn, since he
Attacked the holy city in a spree?
Attacks from within the folk chosen are
Far deadlier than those of northern star,
Far deeper in their cuts than can be made
By worshipper of Hercules displayed.
The slaughter of the populace may be
The quickest way to wealth and infamy,
But to despise the command of the Lord
Is just to fall at end upon the sword.
Beloved, let Jason take his desert way
And sit in glory on the gory prey,
I wait instead, I wait for judgement day
As life turns inward and the hair turns grey.

8 He met at last a horrid end.
Aretas Arab chief to fend
Off rumours accusing his friend
Made him flee then from town to town,
Persued by all men and the crown,
Hated as rebel against law,
Abhorred for lifting arm and claw
Against his own land and his state,
He was cast ashore then of late
In Egypt, 9 and the one who drove
Many from their own land and stove
In exile, died himself abroad,
Having start to go for laud
To the Lacedaemonians’ sod
In hopes of refuge among kin.
10 The one who had thrown others in
The bin came to lie on the sand
With none to mourn for him at last,
Or any grave, but was outcast.

The judgement falls indeed on every man,
On the usurper and the worthy can,
And all meet death at last and in that meeting
Find that the banquet has another seating
When truth comes to the wall and shadows fall,
And fail the honours and the goatly bleating.
Beloved, I raise my eyes to banners tall
Raised over parapet upon the wall,
And touch the hope of light Jerusalem
Casts over all the blight of earthly hem.
Beloved, I raise an arm against the trust
That You reward the righteous in the dust,
Demanding now the template and the bowl,
Knowing the planting is the harvest goal.

11 When news of what had come to stand
Reached the king, he thought that the land
Of Judea was in revolt.
So in his rage he went to bolt
From Egypt and attacked the town.
12 He ordered soldiers to cut down
All they met and kill those who went
Into the houses to prevent.
13 Then there was slaughter, young and old,
Destruction of youths, women told,
And children, babes and virgins sold.
14 Within the total of three days
Eighty thousand lay in the haze
Of that destruction, in the fight
Forty thousand, and in their sight
As many sold as slaves and killed.
15 Antiochus, since no one stilled,
Dared even to go in the room
Of the most holy to his doom,
Led by wicked Menelaus there,
Who was a traitor to the fair
Laws and his country everywhere.

The beastly king is truly little horn
Come tramping vineyard, olive tree and corn,
Suspicion that a movement on the ground
Is the revival of rebellion sound.
It is no wonder that Josephus crowed
That Antiochus bore unworthy load
Of horn upon a head and iron goad.
And yet the world is full of artifice
And hundreds of kings hurry in to kiss
The crown of violence, abomination.
In all this one’s hardly a new elation.
Beloved, the fear of kings is greater than
The fear of subjects written to a man.
Kings quake and thrust to survive if they can.

16 He took the holy pots in hands
Polluted and profaned in bands
And brushed aside the offerings that
The kings before him placed on mat
To honour with glory that place.
17 Antiochus with joyful face
Did not realize how mad YHWH
Was for a time at Israel’s crew
Because of the town’s sins in view,
And for that reason disregarded
The holy place, judgement retarded.
18 But if it had not happened that
They were caught up in sinful vat,
This man would have been whipped and turned
Back from his rash act as he earned
As soon as he came out to do,
Just as Heliodorus too,
Whom Seleucus the king sent to
Inspect the treasury for due.
19 But YHWH did not come choose the nation
For the sake of holy place’ station,
But the place for the nation’s sake.
20 Therefore the place itself in wake
Shared the misfortunes that partake
Of the folk and after that too
Benefit in benefits due,
And what the Almighty in wrath
Left desolate, also in path
Of restoration was restored
In all its glory by the Lord.

Theology’s a thing to understand.
The king thought that You had been under-manned,
Succumbing to the power of royal hand
Because he had the stealth to come pollute
The temple precincts with a heavy boot.
The God who cannot save His own house is
Only a shadow of His former fizz.
This argument is finely met to hear
The temple shared in punishment and gear
Of those who for a moment felt the blast
Of divine anger on their loved souls cast.
Beloved, both thoughts seem near insane to me
Despite the clear logic that sets them free.
Amazed I wait alone eternity.

21 So Antiochus carried off
Eighteen hundred talents to scoff
At the temple, and hurried out
To Antioch, thinking for clout
That he could sail on land and walk
On water, he was such hot stock.
22 And he left governors to lay
Affliction on the people’s sway
Within Jerusalem, Philip,
By birth a Phrygian with lip
More barbarous than he who set
Him in his station poorly met,
23 And at Gerizim, Andronicus,
Besides this Menelaus, to strike us
Worse than the others did before.
In hate toward the Jewish score,
24 Antiochus sent Apollonius,
Captain of the Mysians to phony us
With an army of twenty-two
Thousand, and ordered him in view
To kill all grown men and to sell
Women and boys as slaves as well.
25 When he got to Jerusalem,
He pretended by stratagem
To be at peace and cunningly
Waited till holy Sabbath’s fee,
Then seeing Jews were not at work
He ordered soldiers out of shirk
To march past with their arms and dirk.
26 He killed with the sword all those who
Came out to see the soldiers’ crew,
Then rushed into the city too
With his armed men and killed a lot
Of people in his wicked plot.
27 But Judas Maccabeus, with
Maybe nine others, without smith
Fled to the desert and hid there
Alive like beasts in mountain lair
On what grew wild and so not share
In the pollution of the air.

Let this be lesson to my waiting soul.
The one who smiles and gestures at the toll,
Pretending to be benign in the seat
Of governing is waiting in deceit,
The grimace of a cruel plan to grind
The Sabbath-keeper out of sight and mind.
As Apollonius once marched in style,
Applauded by the just and good a while,
So now the ones elected by the straight
And narrow meet the gun behind the gate.
Beloved, I trust You only on the throne,
And on all other rulers cast a stone,
An accusation worried to the bone,
That You are just and good, and You alone.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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