Now Simon was visiting the cities that were in the country, and taking care for the good ordering of them; and he went down to Jericho, himself and Mattathias and Judas his sons, in the hundred and seventy and seventh year, in the eleventh month: and the son of Abubus received them deceitfully into the little stronghold that is called Dok, which he had built, and made them a great banquet, and hid men there. And when Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his men rose up, and took their arms, and came in upon Simon into the banqueting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and certain of his servants. And he committed a great iniquity, and recompensed evil for good. And Ptolemy wrote these things, and sent to the king, that he should send him forces to aid him, and should deliver him their country and the cities. And he sent others to Gazara to make away with John: and unto the captains of thousands he sent letters to come unto him, that he might give them silver and gold and gifts. And others he sent to take possession of Jerusalem, and the mount of the temple.
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And one ran before to Gazara, and told John that his father and brethren were perished, "and he hath sent to slay thee also." And when he heard, he was sore amazed; and he laid hands on the men that came to destroy him, and slew them; for he perceived that they were seeking to destroy him.
(This ends the story of a brave and successful attempt to win liberty for a downtrodden nation. "More than thirty years had pa.s.sed since Mattathias openly resisted the religious persecution of his nation. In the faithful and skillful hands of his sons the crusade inaugurated by him had been singularly successful. One by one they had fallen in the sacred cause which he had committed to them. But they had not shed their blood in vain. The valor of the Maccabees had rehabilitated the Jewish nation. Not only was the old spirit of independence thoroughly aroused, but there was also developed a new consciousness of the worth of their revealed religion. As the most thrilling epoch in Jewish history, and that which shaped the last phase of Jewish belief prior to the advent of our Lord, the age of the Maccabees has a peculiar interest for the student of history."--_W. Fairweather in Hastings"
Dictionary of the Bible_.
The dynasty of the Maccabees continued until the time of our Lord, but the n.o.ble blood of the heroes degenerated until the brilliant but cruel and evil-minded Herod the Great, by the murder of his own sons, ended the famous line of the Maccabees.)
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[Ill.u.s.tration]
JERUSALEM: LOOKING ALONG THE NORTHERN WALL.
The large building on the right is the new hospice for Russian pilgrims. Modern Jerusalem is growing rapidly in this direction to north and west on the high land. The road seen is a new one winding around the city and over the Mount of Olives to Jericho.
[End ill.u.s.tration]
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NOTES
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NOTES
TALES OF THE FAR-OFF DAYS.
_Shinar_. A part of the great plain of Babylon (the Babel of the story). On this plain great towers of bricks, once temples of the G.o.ds, are found. This story seems to be told about one of these great towers.
RUTH.
_Moab_ lies across the Dead Sea from Judah. One can see its hills from the heights about Bethlehem, and to this day grain is brought across from its fields and sold in Jerusalem.
_Kinsman_. In the East the duty of caring for the family was very sacredly held. If a person was injured, he must be avenged by his kinsman. If he became poor, his kinsman must aid him. If he was obliged to sell land, his kinsman should buy it if he could, so that it need not go out of the family. According to one set of Hebrew laws, should a married man die without children, it was the duty of a kinsman to marry his widow, as Boaz did Ruth.
DEBORAH.
All the story of Deborah falls in the northern part of Israel. Zebulon and Naphtali were in the Northern hills, which in the New Testament time were called Galilee, where Jesus lived. The river Kishon flowed through a plain just to the south of the hills, in the {488} territory of Asher. Dan and Asher also lay in the Northern hills, and Issachar south of Naphtali and Zebulon. Gilead and Machir were across the Jordan from Issachar. The people in the south of Palestine were not concerned in this war. It brought out the heroism of a few of the people of Israel, but the rest were either too cowardly or too far away to take part in it.
_Shamgar_. One of the judges preceding Deborah.
ESTHER.
_Ahasuerus_, the king who is called Xerxes in Greek, and who invaded Greece. The heroic little nation of the Greeks conquered his great army, and he went back to his huge empire of Persia with no gain or glory. He was luxurious and selfish. The picture of him in this story is like that given everywhere else. He was only great because he ruled a great kingdom, and he was not n.o.ble in any way.
_Shushan_, the capital of ancient Persia, then the center of the power and commerce of the world, as the capital of the greatest nation always was. During the Bible times the great empires were Babylon, a.s.syria, then Babylon again, Persia, Greece, Rome. During much of the time the second great power of the world was Egypt.
_Tebeth_, a month corresponding to parts of December and January. The Jewish year began in the early spring, and Tebeth was the tenth month.
_Purim_, a feast kept before the New Testament time. Later, when the Jews were hated and shamefully abused by Christians, Purim was a favorite feast, because it gave great opportunity for the Jews to express their contempt for their oppressors. It was always a noisy and joyful feast. The book of Esther was read in the synagogues, and whenever the name of Haman was p.r.o.nounced in the reading, the boys rapped on the floors and benches, making a great noise. It came, as the story of Esther tells, in the middle of Adar, which is in February and March.
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JUDITH.
_Apocrypha_. The name given to a collection of books of various kinds, long used as a part of the Old Testament, and still so regarded by the Catholic church. They were not held to be sacred by the Jews, but were by the early church. They contain histories, tales, books of wisdom and good advice. Some of the histories, like that of the Maccabees in this volume, are excellent and keep close to truth, but some of the tales, while stories of great interest, do not pretend to be exact statements of fact. Such is this story of Judith.
All of them, however, are written to show some character of heroism or goodness. This story of Judith is a stirring tale of bravery. Bravery is something that men and women, boys and girls, all need to learn.
_Holofernes_, called a general of Nebuchadnezzar in the story. A king named Orophernes was the friend of a later king who was an enemy of the Jews. This may be the origin of the name.
_Asher_, a tribe of Israel living in Northern Palestine.
_Dotaea_, the Dothan of the Old Testament.
_Geba_, a common name of towns in Palestine. It means "hill." This Geba was about three miles north of Samaria.
_Scythopolis_. The Bethshan of the Old Testament, about three miles from the river Jordan.
_Bethulia_. A town near Dothan, the site not known. It may be that, in an original form of the story, some other place was named, possibly Samaria or Jerusalem.
_Children of Esau_. Edomites, who were long at sharp enmity with the Jews.
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STORIES OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA.
_Cherith_, thought by some to be the Wady Kelt, one of the deep narrow valleys between Jerusalem and the Jordan, where the land is uninhabited, all a ma.s.s of rock and steep mountain and desert.
_Zarephath_, a village on a promontory by the sh.o.r.e, about eight miles south of Zidon.