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The high priest Joakim, who was in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the people of Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which faces Esdraelon opposite the plain near Dothan,
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Prayer and Penance
So the Israelites did as they had been ordered by the high priest Joakim and the council of the whole people of Israel, in session at Jerusalem.
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The high priest Joakim and all the priests who stood before the Lord and ministered to the Lord, with sackcloth around their loins, offered the daily burnt offerings, the votive offerings, and freewill offerings of the people.
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The Israelites Celebrate Their Victory
Then the high priest Joakim and the council of the Israelites who lived in Jerusalem came to witness the good things that the Lord had done for Israel and to see Judith and to wish her well.
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Simon Son of Onias
The leader of his brothers and the pride of his people was the high priest, Simon son of Onias, who in his life repaired the house and in his time fortified the temple.
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Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
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Then there came to him all the renegade and godless men of Israel; they were led by Alcimus, who wanted to be high priest.
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He sent him, and with him he sent the ungodly Alcimus, whom he made high priest, and he commanded him to take vengeance on the Israelites.
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Alcimus struggled to maintain his high priesthood,
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Jonathan Becomes High Priest
“King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings.
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And so we have appointed you today to be the high priest of your nation; you are to be called the king’s Friend, and you are to take our side and keep friendship with us.” He also sent him a purple robe and a golden crown.
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I release also my control of the citadel in Jerusalem and give it to the high priest, so that he may station in it men of his own choice to guard it.
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“As for the three districts that have been added to Judea from the country of Samaria, let them be annexed to Judea so that they may be considered to be under one ruler and obey no other authority than the high priest.
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And Demetrius appointed Apollonius the governor of Coelesyria, and he assembled a large force and encamped against Jamnia. Then he sent the following message to the high priest Jonathan:
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He confirmed him in the high priesthood and in as many other honors as he had formerly had and caused him to be reckoned among his First Friends.
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Then the young Antiochus wrote to Jonathan, saying, “I confirm you in the high priesthood and set you over the four districts and make you one of the king’s Friends.”
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So they went to Rome and entered the senate chamber and said, “The high priest Jonathan and the Jewish nation have sent us to renew the former friendship and alliance with them.”
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“The high priest Jonathan, the council of the nation, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people to their brothers the Spartans, greetings.
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Already in time past a letter was sent to the high priest Onias from Arius, who was king among you, stating that you are our brothers, as the appended copy shows.
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“King Arius of the Spartans, to the high priest Onias, greetings.
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“King Demetrius to Simon, the high priest and friend of kings, and to the elders and nation of the Jews, greetings.
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and the people began to write in their documents and contracts, “In the first year of Simon the great high priest and commander and leader of the Jews.”
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When they heard that his brother Simon had become high priest in his stead and that he was ruling over the country and the towns in it,
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This is a copy of the letter that the Spartans sent: “The rulers and the city of the Spartans to the high priest Simon and to the elders and the priests and the rest of the Jewish people, our brothers, greetings.
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It has pleased our people to receive these men with honor and to put a copy of their words in the public archives, so that the people of the Spartans may have a record of them. And they have sent a copy of this to the high priest Simon.’ ”
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So they made a record on bronze tablets and put it on pillars on Mount Zion. This is a copy of what they wrote: “On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the one hundred seventy-second year, which is the third year of the great high priest Simon,
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Jonathan rallied the nation, became their high priest, and was gathered to his people.
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“The people saw Simon’s faithfulness and the glory that he had resolved to win for his nation, and they made him their leader and high priest because he had done all these things and because of the justice and loyalty that he had maintained toward his nation. He sought in every way to exalt his people.
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“In view of these things King Demetrius confirmed him in the high priesthood,
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“The Jews and their priests have resolved that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise,
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So Simon accepted and agreed to be high priest, to be commander and ethnarch of the Jews and priests, and to be protector of them all.
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its contents were as follows: “King Antiochus to Simon the high priest and ethnarch and to the nation of the Jews, greetings.
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The envoys of the Jews have come to us as our friends and allies to renew our ancient friendship and alliance. They had been sent by the high priest Simon and by the Jewish people
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Therefore if any scoundrels have fled to you from their country, hand them over to the high priest Simon, so that he may punish them according to their law.”
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They also sent a copy of these things to the high priest Simon.
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for he was son-in-law of the high priest.
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are written in the annals of his high priesthood, from the time that he became high priest after his father.
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Arrival of Heliodorus in Jerusalem
While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were strictly observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness,
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But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Balgea, who had been made captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the administration of the city market.
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When he had arrived at Jerusalem and had been kindly welcomed by the high priest of the city, he told about the disclosure that had been made and stated why he had come, and he inquired whether this really was the situation.
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The high priest explained that there were some deposits belonging to widows and orphans
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To see the appearance of the high priest was to be wounded at heart, for his face and the change in his color disclosed the anguish of his soul.
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There was something pitiable in the prostration of the whole populace and the anxiety of the high priest in his great anguish.
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So the high priest, fearing that the king might get the notion that some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews with regard to Heliodorus, offered sacrifice for the man’s recovery.
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While the high priest was making the atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, “Be very grateful to the high priest Onias, since for his sake the Lord has granted you your life.
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Jason’s Reforms
When Seleucus died and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption,
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There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no true high priest,
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Menelaus Becomes High Priest
After a period of three years, Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously mentioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete the records of essential business.
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But he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.
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After receiving the king’s orders, he returned, possessing no qualification for the high priesthood but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild beast.
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Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.
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and to levy tribute on the temple as he did on the sacred places of the other nations and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year.
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Now a certain Alcimus, who had formerly been high priest but had willfully defiled himself in the days of separation, realized that there was no way for him to be safe or to have access again to the holy altar
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Therefore I have laid aside my ancestral glory—I mean the high priesthood—and have now come here,
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with orders to kill Judas and scatter his troops and to install Alcimus as high priest of the great temple.
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What he saw was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a noble and good man, of modest bearing and gentle manner, one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence, was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the Jews.
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And Nehemiah and Attharias told them not to share in the holy things until a high priest should appear wearing Urim and Thummim.
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son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phineas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the high priest.
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“I, King Artaxerxes, have commanded the treasurers of Syria and Phoenicia that whatever Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Most High God sends for, they shall take care to give him, up to a hundred talents of silver,
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When they said that this was not permitted because not even members of their own nation were allowed to enter, not even all of the priests, but only the high priest who was preeminent over all—and he only once a year—the king was by no means persuaded.
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The Prayer of the High Priest Simon
[[Then the high priest Simon, facing the sanctuary, bending his knees, and extending his hands with calm dignity, prayed as follows:]]
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Surely it was I who brought you through the sea and made safe highways for you where there was no road; I gave you Moses as leader and Aaron as priest;
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Now there was a certain Simon, a political opponent of the noble and good man Onias, who then held the high priesthood for life. When, despite bringing charges against him on behalf of the nation, he was unable to injure Onias, he fled the country with the purpose of betraying it.
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Moved by these words, although otherwise cautious lest King Seleucus suppose that Apollonius had been overcome by human treachery and not by divine justice, the high priest Onias prayed for him.
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who removed Onias from the priesthood and appointed Onias’s brother Jason as high priest.
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So the king appointed him high priest and ruler of the nation.