The hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail,
Let the heathen be judged by thee.
Set a ruler over them, O Lord,
Let the nations know that they are but men!—Ps. ix.
Priests, warriors, and citizens listened to the psalm in silent veneration. The aged man who wore the insignia of the high-priest’s office looked at times with moistened eyes upon the car in which his sons were seated, as if the remembrance of his own youthful heroism revived in his mind, and as if he would have said, “My Aristobulus, my Antigonus, sons of Mattathias, noble Maccabees, perform deeds in Israel, like those of the brethren Judas and Jonathan!”
When the psalm was ended, he approached his sons: they descended from their chariot and hastened to throw themselves into the arms of their father, who embraced and blessed them. The music began again; the triumphal procession arranged itself and advanced through the city, which resounded on every side with songs of congratulation. The maidens with their tabrets and psalteries headed the procession: they were followed by a multitude of victims for the sacrifice, adorned with flowers, branches and fillets, designed to be offered as a thank-offering on the morrow. Then came the prisoners in fetters, and the huge elephants which had been taken from the Syrians. Each of these animals bore a wooden tower upon his shoulders, in which were thirty-two warriors, besides the Ethiopian who guided him.[[40]]
After these came the high-priest with the Sanhedrim, the priests, the Levites, and the temple-music. The two sons of Hyrcanus, on their car, formed the centre of the procession, and after them came the military music of flutes, horns, [aduffes], and trumpets. [The army] itself followed, adorned with branches of laurel and palm. First came the heavy-armed infantry with shields and lances, in companies of hundreds and thousands. They had no upper garment, and their under garment, which was girt up short, was of various form and colour, as the fancy of each individual dictated; but all had a sword hanging at their girdle; their feet and arms were protected by metal greaves and arm-pieces, the body was covered with a coat of mail, the head with a helmet, and over the back hung the large shield. The light-armed infantry followed in like manner, but with less cumbrous defensive weapons, and slings, bows, and darts for offence. The cavalry were few in number and lightly armed: the Jewish state had never maintained any large force of this description. The [military engines] followed, of which the Israelites had learnt the use from the Phœnicians and Syrians; catapults, bows which were bent by machinery and threw beams of wood to a great distance; balistæ, levers with one arm which hurled masses of stone of many hundred weight into a fortress; battering rams, consisting of the trunks of trees, armed at the extremity with an iron head of a ram, swung in chains, which were set in motion by warriors who stood beneath a moveable pent-house, and thus driven with great force against the walls. The people, crowding behind, closed the whole procession. When they arrived at the castle of Baris, the youthful warriors entered their father’s palace, and the army dispersed itself through the city.
Helon had beheld with pride this display of the martial power of his nation. War and its pomp and circumstance had hitherto possessed little interest for him, who, from his youth, had been devoted to the peaceful pursuits of science, and had now turned all his desires to the priesthood; yet, on this occasion, an ardour was excited in him which he had never felt before. These troops were the conquerors of the Samaritans, that apostate people, who had opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem with such bitter hostility, and been a thorn in the side of the people of Israel. At the same time memory recurred to the manifestations of God’s power in behalf of his people in earlier times, to the triumphs of Uzziah and David, to the songs of the virgins in honour of him and of Saul, of the daughter of Jeptha, of Deborah, and Miriam. What youth is there whose bosom does not glow at the sight of a victorious army of his countrymen?
While the city was filled with tumultuous rejoicings, Helon drew aside a relation of Iddo, who had served in the war, and led him home, questioning him respecting all the events of the campaign. The rejoicings of the inhabitants continued till the evening. But suddenly the trumpets were heard to sound, to announce the appearance of the [new moon]. The high-priest and the Sanhedrim had scarcely attended the warriors home, when they had to assemble in their hall in the temple, and fix the commencement of the festival. They were accustomed always to meet here on the evening of the new moon. Men were stationed on all the heights and watch-towers, who, as soon as they perceived the new moon, hastened to announce it to the Sanhedrim; on this the high-priest said, “The new moon is hallowed,” and the Sanhedrim replied, “It is hallowed.” Fires were then kindled upon all the hills, or messengers sent to different parts, and on the following day the people celebrated the feast of the new moon.