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On the anniversary of the day on which the temple had been profaned by the foreigners, that is, the twenty-fifth of the same month Kislev, the purification of the temple took place. The Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the feast of Booths, remembering how, a little while before, they had spent the feast of Booths living like wild animals in the mountains and in caves. Carrying rods entwined with leaves,[a] beautiful branches and palms, they sang hymns of grateful praise to him who had successfully brought about the purification of his own place.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:7 Rods entwined with leaves: the wreathed wands (thyrsoi) carried in processions honoring Dionysus (6:7) were apparently not regarded as distinctively pagan.