Ptolemy Philopator at the temple

The Jews had sent elders and members of the council to greet him, to bring gifts of friendship, and to congratulate him on recent events. As a result he was even more eager to come to them as soon as possible.

The Jews’ reaction

But the priests fell to the ground, still in their sacred robes. They filled the temple with crying and tears, praying to the supreme God to help them and to change the mind of the one who was wrongly imposing himself.

Ptolemy Philopator and the Alexandrian Jews

When he had returned to Egypt, he added to his evil deeds with the assistance of his drinking companions and friends, who were strangers to everything just.

None who refuse to sacrifice are to enter into their sanctuaries. In addition all the Jews are to be registered and their property cataloged. Those who object are to be taken by force and put to death.

Now some Jews, while pretending to detest the steps to be undertaken for the city’s religion, readily surrendered themselves to share in great fame through the association they would have with the king.

They remained hopeful of obtaining help, and they looked with contempt on those Jews who had deserted them. They considered those who gave in to be enemies of the Jewish nation, and no longer associated with them or offered them assistance.

Genocide, slander, and neighborly advocates

When the godless Philopator learned of this, he became so enraged that not only was he angry at those Jews in Alexandria but he also was very bitterly opposed to those living in the countryside. He gave an order that they should all be gathered together at once into one place and killed by the most brutal means possible.

While these plans were being put into action, some people plotted to injure the Jewish nation by circulating a hostile report against them on the pretext that the Jews were hindering others from practicing their own customs.

But the Jews were maintaining goodwill and unswerving loyalty toward the royal house.

Now even though the Jews’ good deeds on behalf of the nation were commonly talked about by everyone, those of other races didn’t take these into account.

Instead, they kept harping on the differences in worship and diet, and claimed that the Jewish people were loyal neither to the king nor to the authorities, but were hostile and strongly opposed to the royal administration. And so they placed significant blame on the Jews.

But the Greeks in the city, who hadn’t been injured in any way, saw the unexpected turmoil surrounding these people and the purposeless mobs that were forming. Although they didn’t have the power to offer assistance, for they lived under tyranny, they tried to encourage the Jews. They were grieved and assumed that these circumstances would change for the better,

Ptolemy Philopator’s decree

But the king took pride in his present success and disregarded the authority of the supreme God. Assuming that he would continue in the same plan without hindrance, he wrote this letter against the Jews:

Among other things, we made known to everyone our policy of amnesty toward their fellow Jews here because of our alliance with them and the countless matters sincerely entrusted to them from the beginning. We bravely decided to make a change, to consider them worthy of Alexandrian citizenship and to make them partners in the regular religious rites.

they not only rejected the priceless offer of citizenship but also showed their contempt, by what they said and by their silence, for those few Jews among them who favored us with honor. In every case they suspected, in keeping with their most shameful way of life, that we would swiftly reverse the policy.

We have given an order that as soon as this letter arrives, you are immediately to send to us those Jews who live among you, together with their wives and children, to suffer a certain and shameful death appropriate for enemies. Treat them harshly and abusively, and bind them on all sides in iron chains.

But whoever shelters any of the Jews, from an elderly person to a child to nursing infants, will be tortured, household and all, with the most horrible punishments.

Rounding up the Jews

Wherever this decree was read, a feast was arranged for the Gentiles at public expense with shouts of joy. Their deep, long-standing hatred was now openly being revealed.

But among the Jews, there were constant grief, lament, and crying. Everywhere their hearts were on fire as they groaned and bewailed the unexpected destruction that the king had suddenly inflicted on them.

They were being sent off together by the generals in every city in a merciless and cruel manner. At the sight of these unusual punishments, even some of the Jews’ enemies wept over their most miserable expulsion, for they saw their pitiable state and reflected on the uncertain outcome of life.

When this was done, the king heard that their fellow Jews were frequently going forth from the city in secret to express sympathy for the shameful misery of their kindred.

At the end of the forty days, the clerks reported to the king that they were no longer able to complete the task of drawing up a list of all the Jews because of their countless number.

But this happened by the invincible providence of the one who was giving the Jews help from heaven.

He ordered him to drug all the elephants—five hundred in number—with heaping handfuls of frankincense and much unmixed wine on the following day. When the abundant quantity of drink had driven them wild, Hermon was to bring them in so that the Jews might meet their doom.

When Ptolemy had given these commands, he went back to his partying, having gathered those of his friends and of the army who were especially hostile toward the Jews.