THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 2
CONCERNING THE SUCCESSORS OF JUDAS, WHO WERE
JONATHAN AND SIMON, AND JOHN HYRCANUS.
1. WHEN
Jonathan, who was Judas’s brother, succeeded him, he
behaved himself with great circumspection in other
respects, with relation to his own people; and he
corroborated his authority by preserving his
friendship with the Romans. He also made a league with
Antiochus the son. Yet was not all this sufficient for
his security; for the tyrant Trypho, who was guardian
to Antiochus’s son, laid a plot against him; and
besides that, endeavored to take off his friends, and
caught Jonathan by a wile, as he was going to
Ptolemais to Antiochus, with a few persons in his
company, and put him in bonds, and then made an
expedition against the Jews; but when he was afterward
driven away by Simon, who was Jonathan’s brother, and
was enraged at his defeat, he put Jonathan to death.
2. However, Simon managed the public affairs after
a courageous manner, and took Gazara, and Joppa, and
Jamnia, which were cities in his neighborhood. He also
got the garrison under, and demolished the citadel. He
was afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against
Trypho, whom he besieged in Dora, before he went on
his expedition against the Medes; yet could not he
make the king ashamed of his ambition, though he had
assisted him in killing Trypho; for it was not long
ere Antiochus sent Cendebeus his general with an army
to lay waste Judea, and to subdue Simon; yet he,
though he was now in years, conducted the war as if he
were a much younger man. He also sent his sons with a
band of strong men against Antiochus, while he took
part of the army himself with him, and fell upon him
from another quarter. He also laid a great many men in
ambush in many places of the mountains, and was
superior in all his attacks upon them; and when he had
been conqueror after so glorious a manner, he was made
high priest, and also freed the Jews from the dominion
of the Macedonians, after one hundred and seventy
years of the empire [of Seleucus].
3. This Simon also had a plot laid against him, and
was slain at a feast byhis son-in-law Ptolemy, who put
his wife and two sons into prison, andsent some
persons to kill John, who was also called Hyrcanus. 2
But when the young man was informed of their coming
beforehand, he made haste to get to the city, as
having a very great confidence in the people there,
both on account of the memory of the glorious actions
of his father, and of the hatred they could not but
bear to the injustice of Ptolemy. Ptolemy also made an
attempt to get into the city by another gate; but was
repelled by the people, who had just then admitted of
Hyrcanus; so he retired presently to one of the
fortresses that were about Jericho, which was called
Dagon. Now when Hyrcanus had received the high
priesthood, which his father had held before, and had
offered sacrifice to God, he made great haste to
attack Ptolemy, that he might afford relief to his
mother and brethren.
4. So he laid siege to the fortress, and was
superior to Ptolemy in other respects, but was
overcome by him as to the just affection [he had for
his relations]; for when Ptolemy was distressed, he
brought forth his mother, and his brethren, and set
them upon the wall, and beat them with rods in every
body’s sight, and threatened, that unless he would go
away immediately, he would throw them down headlong;
at which sight Hyrcanus’s commiseration and concern
were too hard for his anger. But his mother was not
dismayed, neither at the stripes she received, nor at
the death with which she was threatened; but stretched
out her hands, and prayed her son not to be moved with
the injuries that she suffered to spare the wretch;
since it was to her better to die by the means of
Ptolemy, than to live ever so long, provided he might
be punished for the injuries he done to their family.
Now John’s case was this: When he considered the
courage of his mother, and heard her entreaty, he set
about his attacks; but when he saw her beaten, and
torn to pieces with the stripes, he grew feeble, and
was entirely overcome by his affections. And as the
siege was delayed by this means, the year of rest came
on, upon which the Jews rest every seventh year as
they do on every seventh day. On this year, therefore,
Ptolemy was freed from being besieged, and slew the
brethren of John,
with their mother, and fled to Zeno, who was also
called Cotylas, who was tyrant of Philadelphia.
5. And now Antiochus was so angry at what he had
suffered from Simon, that he made an expedition into
Judea, and sat down before Jerusalem and besieged
Hyrcanus; but Hyrcanus opened the sepulcher of David,
who was the richest of all kings, and took thence
about three thousand talents in money, and induced
Antiochus, by the promise of three thousand talents,
to raise the siege. Moreover, he was the first of the
Jews that had money enough, and began to hire foreign
auxiliaries also.
6. However, at another time, when Antiochus was
gone upon an expedition against the Medes, and so gave
Hyrcanus an opportunity of being revenged upon him, he
immediately made an attack upon the cities of Syria,
as thinking, what proved to be the case with them,
that he should find them empty of God troops. So he
took Medaba and Samea, with the towns in their
neighborhood, as also Shechem, and Gerizzim; and
besides these, [he subdued] the nation of the Cutheans,
who dwelt round about that temple which was built in
imitation of the temple at Jerusalem; he also took a
great many other cities of Idumea, with Adoreon and
Marissa.
7. He also proceeded as far as Samaria, where is
now the city Sebaste, which was built by Herod the
king, and encompassed it all round with a wall, and
set his sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus, over the
siege; who pushed it on so hard, that a famine so far
prevailed within the city, that they were forced to
eat what never was esteemed food. They also invited
Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, to come to their
assistance; whereupon he got ready, and complied with
their invitation, but was beaten by Aristobulus and
Antigonus; and indeed he was pursued as far as
Scythopolis by these brethren, and fled away from
them. So they returned back to Samaria, and shut the
multitude again within the wall; and when they had
taken the city, they demolished it, and made slaves of
its inhabitants. And as they had still great success
in their undertakings, they did not suffer their zeal
to cool, but marched with an army as far as
Scythopolis, and made an incursion upon it, and laid
waste all the country that lay within Mount Carmel.
8. But then these successes of John and of his sons
made them be envied, and occasioned a sedition in the
country; and many there were who got
together, and would not be at rest till they brake
out into open war, in which war they were beaten. So
John lived the rest of his life very happily, and
administered the government after a most extraordinary
manner, and this for thirty-three entire years
together. He died, leaving five sons behind him. He
was certainly a very happy man, and afforded no
occasion to have any complaint made of fortune on his
account. He it was who alone had three of the most
desirable things in the world, — the government of his
nation, and the high priesthood, and the gift of
prophecy. For the Deity conversed with him, and he was
not ignorant of any thing that was to come afterward;
insomuch that he foresaw and foretold that his two
eldest sons would not continue masters of the
government; and it will highly deserve our narration
to describe their catastrophe, and how far inferior
these men were to their father in felicity.
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