He then destroyed all the beautiful decorations of the House of God, robbed the noble edifice of all its treasures, and impiously polluted the holy of holies. And to further satiate his cruel revenge, he sacrificed a sow on the altar of burnt offerings, and scattered its fragments over every part of the Temple. The tyrant then departed, leaving the city of Jerusalem overwhelmed in sorrow and in mourning. The streets were strewed with the dying and the dead. The cries and lamentations of the orphan and the widow deplored the loss of their natural protectors and their property, which the tyrant carried away with him to enrich his unholy possessions.
Some time after, Antiochus sent his general Appollonius to collect the annual tribute to which the Jews were subject, and at the same time commanded him at the head of a thousand men, to attack the city of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, while the people were all engaged in their religious worship in the Temple.
Appollonius fully executed the mandate of his cruel master. He slew the priests and the Levites while at their sacred duties, together with numbers of the private citizens; led the women and children into captivity; destroyed all their houses; built a castle near the Temple, and placed a troop of men as guards to watch and annoy those few Jews who still remained in the city.
Not yet satisfied, the cruel tyrant issued a decree throughout all his dominions to suppress every religion excepting the worship of the idols, he himself had set up, and to which alone he paid his adoration. He forbade the Jews to perform the initiatory rite on their male children, and prevented them from offering any more sacrifices in the Temple to the God of Israel. He then set up an image upon the altar, and sacrificed to it, and called it the Temple of Jupiter Olympus. He compelled the people to offer up the flesh of swine, and other unclean beasts, and even to eat of them. He forced the Jews to profane the sabbath, and cruelly persecuted all such who did not strictly conform to his wishes; rendering the position of the poor Jews pitiable in the extreme, and probably unequalled by any other nation in the annals of the world. Antiochus then ordered all the books of the law, and other books used for worship, to be destroyed; and to effectually carry out his cruel edict, officers were appointed to search every house, and every person was examined on oath as to the possession of any Hebrew books or tablets. By this means not a copy of the law was to be seen among the poor Jews. Notwithstanding all these persecutions, there were found numbers of the people who defied the power of the merciless king; and putting their trust in the God of Israel, would not defile themselves with the idolatrous worship then imposed on them, and break the law of God. Sad to relate, that daily and hourly these people who adhered to their religion, were put to the sword and other torments, to compel them to act in obedience to the king's orders. Their love for their religion was greater than the pleasures of this world, and in support of that religion they sacrificed their own lives and those of their wives and children.
In the next and following chapters we shall inform our readers of the manner in which the Lord raised up champions in Israel, who valiantly and bravely resented the injuries inflicted on their countrymen, and zealously fought the battles of the Lord; the success which ensued, together with the total defeat of their enemies, and the punishment which awaited the tyrant Antiochus and his army.
CHAPTER VII.[ToC]
Of the state of the Jewish Nation in the days of Mattathias the Priest, the father of the valiant Maccabees.