CHAPTER X.
REIGNS OF JONATHAN, SIMON,
AND JOHN HYRCANUS.
Treachery of Tryphon—Judea Free—Asmonean Monument—Murder of Simon.
A period of extreme distress succeeded the death of Judas. The sky had not appeared darker over Judea even during the bloody persecution of [Antiochus Epiphanes]. Whereupon all the wisest amongst the Jews flocked to the standard of Jonathan, the youngest of the five sons of Mattathias, and made him their captain and leader, in the place of his noble brother.
In the next year Alcimus, the traitorous high priest, who had been restored to power by Bacchides, was cut off in the midst of his crimes. In his anxiety to preserve the favour of his heathen protectors, he had given orders that, in the temple, the wall of partition should be broken down which divided the court of the Gentiles from that which Jews only might enter. But he was not suffered to complete his impious work: the Almighty suddenly smote him with palsy, and summoned him to his awful account.
The death of this wicked [high priest] removed one great difficulty from the path of Jonathan. In his time Syria was convulsed with civil wars, from the competitors who struggled together for its crown. In the wild storm which raged around him, Jonathan guided the affairs of Judea as a wise and experienced pilot steers his vessel through rocks and shoals. While contending monarchs rose and fell, even from their disputes the skilful ruler won advantages for his country. Jonathan, by the grant of a prince named Alexander, who was at that time opposing Demetrius, assumed the office of high priest with the full consent of the Jewish people, 152 b.c. From this period, till the time of Herod, the dignity became hereditary in the Asmonean family. Jonathan was now enabled to proceed with his various improvements and repairs, restoring justice throughout the land, and reforming, to the best of his power, that which was amiss both in church and in state.
HIGH PRIEST.