towers of great height against the incursions of enemies; and set guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura, that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies. CHAP. VIII. How Judas subdued the nations round about; and how Simon beat the people of Tyre and Ptolemais; and how Judas overcame Timotheus, and forced him to fly away, and did many other things, after Joseph and Azarias had been beaten. § 1. WHEN these things were over, the nations round about the Jews were very uneasy at the revival of their power, and rose up together, and destroyed many of them, as gaining advantage over them by laying snares for them, and making secret conspiracies against them. Judas made perpetual expeditions against these men, and endeavoured to restrain them from those incursions, and to prevent the mischiefs they did to the Jews. So he fell upon the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, at Acrabattene, and slew a great many of them, and took their spoils. He also shut up the sons of Bean, that laid wait for the Jews; and he sat down about them, and besieged them, and burnt their towers, and destroyed the men [that were in them.] After this he went thence in haste against the Ammonites, who had a great and a numerous army; of which Timotheus was the commander. And when he had subdued them, he seized on the city Jazer, and took their wives and their children captives, and burnt the city, and then returned into Judea. But when the neighbouring nations understood that he was returned, they got together in great numbers, in the land of Gilead, and came against those Jews that were at their borders, who then fled to the garrison of Dathema; and sent to Judas to inform him that Timotheus was endeavouring to take the place whither they were fled. And as these epistles were reading, there came other messengers out of Galilee, who informed him that the inhabitants of Ptolemais, and of Tyre and Sidon, and strangers of Galilee, were gotten together. 2. Accordingly Judas, upon considering what was fit to be done, with relation to the necessity both these cases required, gave order that Simon his brother should take three thousand chosen men, and go to the assistance of the Jews in Galilee, while he and another of his brothers, Jonathan, made haste into the land of Gilead, with eight thousand soldiers. And he left Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, to be over the rest of the forces; and charged them to keep Judea very carefully, and to fight no battles with any persons whomsoever until his return. Accordingly Simon went into Galilee, and fought the enemy, and put them to flight, and pursued them to the very gates of Ptolemais, and slew about three thousand of them; and took the spoils of those that were slain, and those Jews whom they had made captives, with their baggage; and then returned home. 3. Now as for Judas Maccabeus, and his brother Jonathan, they passed over the river Jordan; and when they had gone three days journey, they light upon the Nabateans, who came to meet them peaceably, and who told them how the affairs of those in the land of Gilead stood; and how many of them were in distress, and driven into garrisons, and into the cities of Galilee: and exhorted him to make haste to go against the foreigners, and to endeavour to save his own countrymen out of their hands. To this exhortation Judas hearkened, and returned into the wilderness; and in the first place fell upon the inhabitants of Bosor, and took the city, and beat the inhabitants, and destroyed all the males, and all that were able to fight, and burnt the city. Nor did he stop even when night came on, but he journeyed in it to the garrison where the Jews happened to be then shut up, and where Timotheus lay round the place with his army: And Judas came upon the city in the morning; and when he found that the enemy were making an assault upon the walls, and that some of them brought ladders, on which they might get upon those walls, and that others brought engines [to batter them,] he bid the trumpeter to sound his trumpet, and he encouraged his soldiers cheerfully to undergo dangers for the sake of their brethren and kindred; he also parted his army into three bodies, and fell upon the backs of their enemies. But when Timotheus's men perceived that it was Maccabeus that was upon them, of both whose courage and good success in war they had formerly had sufficient experience, they were put to flight; but Judas followed them with his army, and slew about eight thousand of them. He then turned aside to a city of the foreigners called Malle, and took it, and slew all the males, and burnt the city itself. He then removed from thence, and overthrew Caspeom and Bosor, and many other cities of the land of Gilead. 4. But not long after this Timotheus prepared a great army, and took many others as auxiliaries; and induced some of the Arabians, by the promise of rewards, to go with him in this expedition, and came with his army beyond the brook, over against the city Raphon: And he encouraged his sol diers, if it came to a battle with the Jews, to fight courageously, and to hinder their passing over the brook; for he said to them before-hand, That "if they come over it, we shall "be beaten." And when Judas heard that Timotheus prepared himself to fight, he took all his own army, and went in haste against Timotheus his enemy; and when he had passed over the brook, he fell upon his enemies, and some of them met him, whom he slew, and others of them he so terrified, that he compelled them to throw down their arms, and fly; and some of these escaped, but some of them fled to what was called the temple at Carnaim, and hoped thereby to preserve themselves; but Judas took the city, and slew them, and burnt the temple, and so used several ways of destroying his enemies. 5. When he had done this, he gathered the Jews together, with their children and wives, and the substance that belonged to them, and was going to bring them back into Judea : But as soon as he was come to a certain city, whose name was Ephron, that lay upon the road, (and it was not possible for him to go any other way, so he was not willing to go back again,) he then sent to the inhabitants, and desired that they would open their gates and permit them to go on their way through the city, for they had stopped up the gates with stones, and cut off their passage through it. And when the inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this proposal, he encouraged those that were with him, and encompassed the city round, and besieged it, and lying round it by day and by night, took the city, and slew every male in it, and burnt it all down, and so obtained a way through it; and the multitude of those that were slain was so great that they went over the dead bodies. So they came over Jordan, and arrived at the great plain, over-against which, is situate the city Bethshan, which is called by the Greeks* Scythopolis. And going away hastily from thence, they came into Judea, singing psalms and hymnus as they went, and indulging such tokens of mirth as are usual in triumphs upon victory. They also offered thank-offerings, both for their good success, and for the preservation of their army, for† not one of the Jews was slain in these battles. * The reason why Bethshan was called Scythopolis, is well known from Herodotus, B. I. p. 105. and Syncellus, p. 214. that the Scythians, when they overran Asia, in the days of Josiah, seized on this city, and kept it as long as they continued in Asia, from which time it retained the name of Scythopolis, or the city of the Scythians. This most providential preservation of all the religious Jews in this expedition, which was according to the will of God, is observable often among God's people, the Jews; and somewhat very like it in the changes of the four monar 6. But as to Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, whom Judas left generals [of the rest of the forces] at the same time when Simon was in Galilee, fighting against the people of Ptolemais, and Judas himself, and his brother Jonathan, were in the land of Gilead, did these men also affect the glory of being courageous generals in war, in order whereto they took the army that was under their command, and came to Jamnia. There Gorgias, the general of the forces of Jamnia, met them; and upon joining battle with him, they lost* two thousand of their ariny, and fled away, and were pursued to the very borders of Judea. And this misfortune befel them by their disobedience to what injunctions Judas had given them, "Not to fight with any one before his return." For besides the rest of Judas's sagacious counsels, one may well wonder at this concerning the misfortune that befel the forces commanded by Joseph and Azarias, which he understood would happen, if they broke any of the injunctions he had given them. But Judas and his brethren, did not leave off fighting with the Idumeans, but pressed upon them on all sides, and took from them the city of Hebron, and demolished all its fortifications, and set its towers on fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners, and the city Marissa. They came also to Ashdod, and took it, and laid it waste, and took away a great deal of the spoils and prey that were in it, and returned to Judea. CHAP. IX. Concerning the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. How Antiochus Eupator fought against Judas, and besieged him in the temple, and afterwards made peace with him, and departed. Of Alcimus and Onias. 1. ABOUT this time it was that king Antiochus, as he was going over the upper countries, heard that there was a very rich city in Persia, called Elymais; and therein a very rich temple of Diana, and that it was full of all sorts of donations dedicated to it; as also weapons and breast-plates, which, upon inquiry, he found had been left there by Alexander, chies, which were also providential. See Prideaux at the years 331, 333, and 334. * Here is another great instance of providence, that when, even at the very time that Simon and Judas, and Jonathan, were so miraculously preserved, and blessed, in the just defence of their laws and religion, these other generals of the Jews who went to fight for honour, in a vain-glorious way, and without any commission from God, or the family he had raised up to deliver them, were miserably disappointed and defeated. See 1 Maccab. v. 61, 62. the son of Philip, king of Macedonia. And being incited by these motives, he went in haste to Elymais, and assaulted it, and besieged it. But as those that were in it were not terrified at his assault, nor at his siege, but opposed him very courageously, he was beaten off his hopes; for they drove him away from the city, and went out and pursued after him, insomuch that he fled away as far as Babylon, and lost a great many of his army. And when he was grieving for this disappointment, some persons told him of the defeat of his commanders whom he had left behind him to fight against Judea, and what strength the Jews had already gotten: When this concern about these affairs was added to the former, he was confounded, and by the anxiety he was in fell into a distemper, which, as it lasted a great while, and as his pains increased upon him, so he at length perceived he should die in a little time; so he called his friends to him, and told them, that his distemper was severe upon him; and confessed withal, that this calamity was sent upon him for the miseries he had brought upon the Jewish nation, while he plundered their temple, and contemned their God; and when he had said this, he gave up the ghost, Whence one may wonder at Polybius of Megalopolis, who, though otherwise a good man, yet saith, That "Antiochus died because he had a purpose to plunder the temple of Diana in Persia;" for the* purposing to do a thing, but not actually doing it, is not worthy of punishment. But if Polybius could think, that Antiochus thus lost his life on that account, it is much more probable that this king died on account of his sacrilegious plundering of the temple at Jerusalem. But we will not contend about this matter with those who may think, that the cause assigned by this Polybius of Megalopolis, is nearer the truth than that assigned by us. 2. However, Antiochus before he died, called for Philip, who was one of his companions, and made him the guardian of his kingdom; and gave him his diadem, and his garment, and his ring, and charged him to carry them, and deliver them to his son Antiochus; and desired him to take care of his education, and to preserve the kingdom for him.† This *Since St. Paul, a Pharisee, confesses, that he had not known concupiscence, or desires, to be sinful, had not the tenth commandment said, Thou shalt not covet, Rom. vii. 7. the case seems to have been much the same with our Josephus, who was of the same sect, that he had not a deep sense of the greatness of any sins that proceeded no farther than the intention. However, since Josephus speaks here properly of the punishment of death, which is not inflicted by any law either of God or man for the bare intention, his words need not be strained to mean, that sins intended, but not executed, were no sins at all. + No wonder that Josephus here describes Antiochus Eupator as young, and |