History of the Jews, Vol. 1 (of 6)

As soon as the crime had been committed, the murderer sent messengers to the Syrian king, asking for troops to assist him in his ambitious designs. He also despatched soldiers to Gazara to assassinate John, and to Jerusalem to take possession of the city and the Temple. But Ptolemy was not to reap the expected reward of his treachery. A friend, who had managed to escape from the fortress of Dok, hurried to Gazara, and warned John of the impending danger, and as soon as the assassins reached the city they received the due punishment of their crime. John was likewise successful in reaching Jerusalem before Ptolemy, and had little difficulty in persuading the people to stand by him. The expected help from Antiochus also failed, doubtless because that king was engaged in warlike operations elsewhere, so that Ptolemy was obliged to shut himself up in his own fortress. Here he kept his mother-in-law imprisoned as a hostage, and prepared to defend himself against the attacks which would probably be made upon him.

Thus perished Simon, the last of the Hasmonæan brothers, not one of whom had died a natural death, one and all having lost their lives in the service of their country and their faith. Judah and Eleazar were killed upon the field of battle, whilst John, Jonathan, and Simon, less fortunate than their brothers, succumbed to the cruel treachery of the enemies of their people.

END OF VOL. I

1

In Hebrew the word Abir means bull, mighty, and hence God. It is connected with the Egyptian abr (a bull), from which Apis is derived. Conf. Jeremiah xlvi. 15.

2

Levit. xvii. 7. The sending of the scape-goat to Azazel marked the abomination in which this lascivious cult was held.

3

Conf. Ezekiel xxiii. 7, 8.

4

Micah vi. 4, mentions also Miriam, with her brothers, as a deliverer.

5

The situation of Sinai is not to be sought in the so-called Sinaitic peninsula, but near the land of Edom, on the confines of which was the desert of Paran. Neither Jebel Musa, with the adjacent peaks of Jebel Catherine and Ras-es-Sufsafeh, nor Mount Jerbal, was the true Sinai. See "Monatsschrift," by Fränkel-Graetz, 1878, p. 337.

6

Joshua x. 12, 13.

7

Deut. viii. 7–9.

8

Deut. xxxiii. 13, 14.

9

Amos iv. 13.

10

Judges vi. 13.

11

Judges iii. 8 and 10 must be read "king of Edom" (אדום) instead of Aram (ארם).

12

Judges xi. 7.

13

Genesis xlix. 16, 17.

14

See Psalm lxxviii. 60–64; Jeremiah vii. 12.

15

Jeremiah xv. 1; Psalms xcix. 6.

16

I Samuel xiv. 12.

17

I Samuel xiv. 45.

18

I Samuel xv. 12 to 33. In the 32d verse read mar mar hammaveth.

19

I Samuel xv. 28.

20

Amos vi. 4–6.