What details distinguish the restoration, tower campaign and Gazara siege?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The chapter records restored worship and annual observance, a separately narrated bribery punishment and the defeat of Timotheus, retaining the edition’s identity distinction.

Chapter breakdown

Machabeus and his company recover temple and city under the Lord’s protection, remove heathen street altars and idol temples, purify the temple and make another altar. Taking fire from fiery stones, they offer sacrifices after two years and restore incense, lamps and loaves of proposition. Prostrate prayer asks not to fall again into such evils, or if they sin, to be chastised more gently rather than delivered to barbarians and blasphemers. Cleansing occurs on Casleu twenty-five, the very day strangers had polluted it. Eight joyful days resemble Tabernacles, recalling that feast recently spent in mountains and dens like wild beasts. They carry boughs, green branches and palms for the giver of success and decree annual observance by the whole Jewish nation. Ivy, a flint identification and an added forever wording are not supplied.

After closing the account of Antiochus the Illustrious, the author turns to his son Eupator’s wars. On accession he appoints Lysias, general of Phenicia’s and Syria’s army, over realm affairs. Ptolemee Macer determines to treat Jews justly and peaceably because of their injuries. His friends accuse him to Eupator. He is repeatedly called a traitor for leaving Cyprus, entrusted by Philometor, joining Antiochus the Illustrious and also revolting from him. He ends his life by poison. Courtiers’ envy and his inability to bear disgrace are not supplied motives.

Gorgias, governor of the holds, brings strangers and frequently fights the Jews. Jews occupying advantageous holds receive those expelled from Jerusalem and attempt war. The note identifies these as religious deserters and national enemies allied with Idumeans or Edomites, troubling their countrymen from the strongholds; it does not name Amorites. After prayer, Machabeus’s company strongly attacks Idumean holds, takes them and kills no fewer than twenty thousand. Some flee into well-provisioned strong towers. Machabeus leaves Simon, Joseph and Zacheus with enough men to besiege them while he attends more urgent expeditions.

Some with Simon covetously accept seventy thousand didrachmas from men in the towers and let some escape. Informed, Machabeus assembles the people’s rulers, accuses them of selling their brethren by releasing adversaries and executes the traitors. He takes two towers and kills more than twenty thousand in the two holds. The first attack and later two-hold figures are retained separately, without changing the monetary unit to drachmas or declaring a universal punishment rule.

Previously defeated Timotheus gathers foreign troops and Asian horsemen to take Judea. As he approaches, Machabeus’s company prays with earth on their heads and haircloth at their loins, prostrate at the altar’s foot for mercy and opposition to their adversaries as the law says. After prayer they take arms, move farther from the city and rest near the enemy. Battle begins at sunrise, the narrator contrasting their valor and the Lord’s assurance with the opponents’ rage. In the engagement five comely men on horses with golden bridles appear from heaven to the enemies, conducting the Jews. Two hold Machabeus between them and cover him with their arms, preserving him; darts and fireballs strike enemies, who fall in blindness and distress. Lightning and heavenly armor are not specified, nor is the casting silently assigned only to the other three. Twenty thousand five hundred and six hundred horsemen are killed.

Timotheus flees to Gazara under governor Chereas. Machabeus’s company besieges it for four days while defenders trust the place and blaspheme. On the fifth day twenty young men, inflamed by the blasphemy, climb the wall courageously. Others follow and set fire to towers and gates to burn the blasphemers alive. The fortress is pillaged for two days. Timotheus is found hidden in an unspecified place and killed, along with his brother Chereas and Apollophanes; Apollophanes is not called Chereas’s brother. The note distinguishes this Timotheus from the one in First Machabees five and the following chapter. The victors bless the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving for great deeds in Israel and victory.

The story inside

Worship resumes with a request for gentler correction if future sin occurs. Eupator’s accession and Macer’s death precede hostile stronghold operations. A bribery report interrupts a delegated siege; the later Timotheus engagement and Gazara assault have their own sequence and figures.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The bribe is seventy thousand didrachmas; the two phases of twenty-thousand casualties are not collapsed.
2
The apparition casts darts and fireballs, not specified lightning.
3
The killed Timotheus is explicitly distinguished by the edition from another commander bearing that name.

Test your recall

Whose brother does the chapter call Chereas?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 109324–109412
10:1. But Machabeus, and they that were with him, by the protection of the Lord, recovered the temple and the city again. 10:2. But he threw down the altars which the heathens had set up in the streets, as also the temples of the idols. 10:3. And having purified the temple, they made another altar: and taking fire out of the fiery stones, they offered sacrifices after two years, and set forth incense, and lamps, and the loaves of proposition. 10:4. And when they had done these things, they besought the Lord, lying prostrate on the ground, that they might no more fall into such evils; but if they should at any time sin, that they might be chastised by him more gently, and not be delivered up to barbarians and blasphemous men. 10:5. Now upon the same day that the temple had been polluted by the strangers on the very same day it was cleansed again; to wit, on the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu. 10:6. And they kept eight days with joy, after the manner of the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before they had kept the feast of the tabernacles when they were in the mountains, and in dens like wild beasts. 10:7. Therefore they now carried boughs and green branches and palms, for him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. 10:8. And they ordained by a common statute, and decree, that all the nation of the Jews should keep those days every year. 10:9. And this was the end of Antiochus, that was called the Illustrious. 10:10. But now we will repeat the acts of Eupator, the son of that wicked Antiochus, abridging the account of the evils that happened in the wars. 10:11. For when he was come to the crown, he appointed over the affairs of his realm one Lysias, general of the army of Phenicia and Syria. 10:12. For Ptolemee, that was called Macer, was determined to be strictly just to the Jews and especially by reason of the wrong that had been done them, and to deal peaceably with them. 10:13. But being accused for this to Eupator by his friends, and being oftentimes called traitor, because he had left Cyprus, which Philometor had committed to him, and coming over to Antiochus the Illustrious, had revolted also from him, he put an end to his life by poison. 10:14. But Gorgias, who was governor of the holds, taking with him the strangers, often fought against the Jews. 10:15. And the Jews that occupied the most commodious holds, received those that were driven out of Jerusalem, and attempted to make war. The Jews, etc.... He speaks of them that had fallen from their religion, and were enemies of their country, who joining with the Idumeans or Edomites, kept possession of the strong holds, and from thence annoyed their countrymen. 10:16. Then they that were with Machabeus, beseeching the Lord by prayers to be their helper, made a strong attack upon the strong holds of the Idumeans: 10:17. And assaulting them with great force, won the holds, killed them that came in the way, and slew altogether no fewer than twenty thousand. 10:18. And whereas some were fled into very strong towers, having all manner of provision to sustain a siege, 10:19. Machabeus left Simon and Joseph, and Zacheus, and them that were with them, in sufficient number to besiege them, and departed to those expeditions which urged more. 10:20. Now they that were with Simon, being led with covetousness, were persuaded for the sake of money by some that were in the towers: and taking seventy thousand didrachmas, let some of them escape. 10:21. But when it was told Machabeus what was done, he assembled the rulers of the people, and accused those men that they had sold their brethren for money, having let their adversaries escape. 10:22. So he put these traitors to death, and forthwith took the two towers. 10:23. And having good success in arms, and all things he took in hand, he slew more than twenty thousand in the two holds.
Lines 109414–109475
10:24. But Timotheus, who before had been overcome by the Jews, having called together a multitude of foreign troops, and assembled horsemen out of Asia, came as though he would take Judea by force of arms. 10:25. But Machabeus, and they that were with him, when he drew near, prayed to the Lord, sprinkling earth upon their heads, and girding their loins with haircloth, 10:26. And lying prostrate at the foot of the altar, besought him to be merciful to them, and to be an enemy to their enemies, and an adversary to their adversaries, as the law saith. 10:27. And so after prayer taking their arms, they went forth further from the city, and when they were come very near the enemies they rested. 10:28. But as soon as the sun was risen both sides joined battle: the one part having, with their valour, the Lord for a surety of victory, and success: but the other side making their rage their leader in battle. 10:29. But when they were in the heat of the engagement, there appeared to the enemies from heaven five men upon horses, comely, with golden bridles, conducting the Jews: 10:30. Two of them took Machabeus between them, and covered him on every side with their arms, and kept him safe; but cast darts and fireballs against the enemy, so that they fell down, being both confounded with blindness, and filled with trouble. 10:31. And there were slain twenty thousand five hundred, and six hundred horsemen. 10:32. But Timotheus fled into Gazara, a strong hold where Chereas was governor. 10:33. Then Machabeus, and they that were with him cheerfully laid siege to the fortress four days. 10:34. But they that were within, trusting to the strength of the place, blasphemed exceedingly, and cast forth abominable words. 10:35. But when the fifth day appeared, twenty young men of them that were with Machabeus, inflamed in their minds, because of the blasphemy, approached manfully to the wall, and pushing forward with fierce courage, got up upon it: 10:36. Moreover, others also getting up after them, went to set fire to the towers and the gates, and to burn the blasphemers alive. 10:37. And having for two days together pillaged and sacked the fortress, they killed Timotheus, who was found hid in a certain place: they slew also his brother Chereas, and Apollophanes. Timotheus.... This man, who was killed at the taking of Gazara, is different from that Timotheus who is mentioned in the fifth chapter of the first book of Machabees, and of whom there is mention in the following chapter. 10:38. And when this was done, they blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving, who had done great things in Israel, and given them the victory.