1 Maccabees 1:41-50

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Installation of Gentile Cults

⁴¹ Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people ⁴² and that all should give up their particular customs. All the nations accepted the command of the king.^{(A) 43} Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. ⁴⁴ And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, ⁴⁵ to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and festivals,^{(B) 46} to defile the sanctuary and the holy ones, ⁴⁷ to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals,^{(C) 48} and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane ⁴⁹ so that they would forget the law and change all the ordinances. ⁵⁰ He added,^[a] “And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.”^(D)