1 Maccabees 6:1-13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 6
1 (A)As King Antiochus passed through the eastern provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city, Elam,[a] famous for its wealth in silver and gold, 2 and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by the first king of the Greeks, Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon. 3 He went therefore and tried to capture and loot the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to the people of the city 4 who rose up in battle against him. So he fled and in great dismay withdrew from there to return to Babylon.
5 While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies that had gone into the land of Judah had been routed; 6 that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back; that the people of Judah had grown strong by reason of the arms, wealth, and abundant spoils taken from the armies they had cut down; 7 that they had pulled down the abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.(B)
8 When the king heard this news, he was astonished and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed. 9 There he remained many days, assailed by waves of grief, for he thought he was going to die. 10 So he called in all his Friends and said to them: “Sleep has departed from my eyes, and my heart sinks from anxiety. 11 I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’ 12 But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. 13 I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”
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