1 Maccabees [Hammers] 14

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¹And in the hundred and seventy and second year king Demetrius gathered his forces together, and went into Media Middle-land, to get him help, that he might fight against Tryphon.

²And Arsaces, the king of Persia Descendants of Loving-kindness and Media Middle-land, heard that Demetrius was come into his borders, and he sent one of his princes to take him alive:

³and he went and struck the army of Demetrius, and took him, and brought him to Arsaces; and he put him in ward.

⁴And the land had rest all the days of Simeon Hearing: and he sought the good of his nation; and his authority and his glory was well-pleasing to them all his days.

⁵And amid all his glory he took Joppa for a haven, and made it an entrance for the isles of the sea;

⁶and he enlarged the borders of his nation, and got possession of the country;

⁷and he gathered together a great number of captives, and got the dominion of Gazara, and Bethsura, and the citadel, and he took away the multitude of its uncleanness; and there was none that resisted him.

⁸And they tilled their land in peace, and the land gave her increase, and the trees of the plains their fruit.

⁹The ancient men sat in the streets, they communed all of them together of good things, and the young men put on glorious and warlike apparel.

¹⁰He provided food for the cities, and furnished them with all manner of munition, until the name of his glory was named to the end of the earth.

¹¹He made peace in the land, and Israel God prevails rejoiced with great joy:

¹²and they sat each man under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid:

¹³and there ceased in the land any that fought against them: and the kings were discomfited in those days.

¹⁴And he strengthened all those of his people that were brought low: the law he searched out, and every lawless and wicked person he took away.

¹⁵He glorified the sanctuary, and the utensils of the temple he multiplied.

¹⁶And it was heard at Rome Town of flowing waters that Jonathan was dead, and even to Sparta, and they were exceeding sorry.

¹⁷But as soon as they heard that his brother Simeon Hearing was made high priest in his stead, and ruled the country, and the cities therein,

¹⁸they wrote to him on tables of bronze, to renew with him the friendship and the confederacy which they had confirmed with Judas Praised and Jonathan his brethren;

¹⁹and they were read before the congregation at Jerusalem City of peace.

²⁰And this is the copy of the letters which the Spartans sent: The rulers of the Spartans, and the city, to Simeon Hearing the high priest, and to the elders, and the priests, and the residue of the people of the Jews Praisers, our brethren, greeting:

²¹The ambassadors that were sent to our people made report to us of your glory and honor: and we were glad for their coming,

²²and we did register the things that were spoken by them in the public records after this manner: Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, the Jews Praisers’ ambassadors, came to us to renew the friendship they had with us.

²³And it pleased the people to entertain the men honorably, and to put the copy of their words in the public records, to the end that the people of the Spartans might have a memorial thereof: moreover they wrote a copy of these things to Simeon Hearing the high priest.

²⁴After this Simeon Hearing sent Numenius to Rome Town of flowing waters with a great shield of gold of a thousand pound weight, in order to confirm the confederacy with them.

²⁵But when the people heard these things, they said, What thanks shall we give to Simeon Hearing and his sons?

²⁶for he and his brethren and the house of his father have made themselves strong, and have chased away in fight the enemies of Israel God prevails from them, and confirmed liberty to Israel God prevails.

²⁷And they wrote on tables of bronze, and set them upon pillars in mount Sion: and this is the copy of the writing: On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the hundred and seventy and second year, and this is the third year of Simeon Hearing the high priest,

²⁸in Asaramel, in a great congregation of priests and people and princes of the nation, and of the elders of the country, was it notified to us:

²⁹In as much as oftentimes there have been wars in the country, but Simeon Hearing the son of Mattathias Gift of Yah, the son of the sons of Joarib, and his brethren, put themselves in jeopardy, and withstood the enemies of their nation, that their sanctuary and the law might be established, and glorified their nation with great glory:

³⁰and Jonathan assembled their nation together, and became their high priest, and was gathered to his people:

³¹and their enemies purposed to invade their country, that they might destroy their country utterly, and stretch forth their hands against their sanctuary:

³²then rose up Simeon Hearing, and fought for his nation, and spent much of his own substance, and armed the valiant men of his nation, and gave them wages:

³³and he fortified the cities of Judea, and Bethsura that lies upon the borders of Judea, where the arms of the enemies were aforetime, and set there a garrison of Jews Praisers:

³⁴and he fortified Joppa which is upon the sea, and Gazara which is upon the borders of Azotus, wherein the enemies lived aforetime, and placed Jews Praisers there, and set therein all things convenient for the reparation thereof:

³⁵and the people saw the trusting faith in action of Simeon Hearing, and the glory which he thought to bring to his nation, and they made him their leader and high priest, because he had done all these things, and for the justice and the trusting faith which he kept to his nation, and for that he sought by all means to exalt his people:

³⁶and in his days things prospered in his hands, so that the Gentiles were taken away out of their country, and they also that were in the city of David Beloved, they that were in Jerusalem City of peace, who had made themselves a citadel, out of which they issued, and polluted all things round about the sanctuary, and did great hurt to its purity;

³⁷and he placed Jews Praisers therein, and fortified it for the safety of the country and the city, and made high the walls of Jerusalem City of peace:

³⁸and king Demetrius confirmed to him the high priesthood according to these things,

³⁹and made him one of his Friends, and honored him with great honor;

⁴⁰for he had heard say, that the Jews Praisers had been called by the Romans People from Town of flowing waters friends and confederates and brethren, and that they had met the ambassadors of Simeon Hearing honorably;

⁴¹and that the Jews Praisers and the priests were well pleased that Simeon Hearing should be their leader and high priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet;

⁴²and that he should be captain over them, and should take charge of the sanctuary, to set them over their works, and over the country, and over the arms, and over the strongholds; and that he should take charge of the sanctuary,

⁴³and that he should be obeyed by all, and that all instruments in the country should be written in his name, and that he should be clothed in purple, and wear gold;

⁴⁴and that it should not be lawful for any of the people or of the priests to set at nothing any of these things, or to gainsay the words that he should speak, or to gather an assembly in the country without him, or to be clothed in purple, or wear a buckle of gold;

⁴⁵but whoever should do otherwise, or set at nothing any of these things, he should be liable to punishment.

⁴⁶All the people consented to ordain for Simeon Hearing that he should do according to these words;

⁴⁷and Simeon Hearing accepted hereof, and consented to be high priest, and to be captain and governor of the Jews Praisers and of the priests, and to be protector of all.

⁴⁸And they commanded to put this writing on tables of bronze, and to set them up within the precinct of the sanctuary in a conspicuous place;

⁴⁹and moreover to put the copies thereof in the treasury, to the end that Simeon Hearing and his sons might have them.