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2 Maccabees 5:11-13
New Catholic Bible
2 Maccabees 5:11-13
New Catholic Bible
11 Antiochus IV Epiphanes Ravages the Temple.[a] When news of what had happened reached the king, he came to the conclusion that Judea was in revolt. He therefore set out from Egypt, raging like a wild beast, and took the city by storm. 12 He then ordered his soldiers to cut down mercilessly everyone they met and to slay those who fled to their houses. 13 There was the massacre of young and old, the extermination of women and children, and the slaughter of young girls and infants.
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- 2 Maccabees 5:11 Obstructed in Egypt by the Romans (see Dan 11:27-30), the Syrian king retaliates against the Jews. The number of the victims is inflated, and the author exaggerates the event as well: he adds to the massacre the pillage that preceded it by a year (169 B.C.). What is important is solely the lesson that he draws from it: Israel has brought misfortune upon itself by sinning against God.
