Yr. of Fl. 2111. Ante Chr. 237. Jews ha ritans. fufpicion of his having difpatched him by poifon, as he was indeed profligate enough for such a deed; and Simon II. had fucceeded his father Onias soon after in the priesthood at Jerufalem. This pontiff was of a quite different fpirit from his father; he was a man of great piety and Simon II. zeal, of fingular conduct and courage; all which were high-priest put to a fevere proof, before he had paffed the first year of his pontificate. He was moreover free from that for- His cha did avarice which had proved fo detrimental to the Jew- racƐter. ish state during his father's office; for, befides those dangers which his wife nephew had the address to avoid, they fuffered a conftant feries of evils from the Samaritans, ever fince these last came to be aware of the baseness of the Jewish pontiff. Nothing lefs indeed could be expected from that exafperated nation, who watched all opportunities to vent their malice, than that they should take raffed by the advantage of their weak government to enfnare and the Samaopprefs them. Accordingly Jofephus tells us, there was fcarce a year in which they did not make some incurfion, ravage the country, and carry away captives, during the whole time of that cowardly prieft *. But, to return to Judea Philopator: he had like to have loft Palestine by the treachery of Theodore, governor of Phoenicia, who had rebelled against him, and engaged to put that province, together with thofe of Judæa and Coelefyria, into Antiochus's hands, who had always looked upon them as difmembered from his own kingdom. The plot having been timely discovered, Antiochus openly invaded Galilee, Galilee intook a great many cities on both fides Jordan, particularly Antiochus. Philoteria, on the north fide of the fea of Tiberias, Bethfhan, or Scythopolis, on the fouth, and Ittabyrium, ftrongly fituated on Mount Tabor. From thence he fubdued all the land that had formerly belonged to the two tribes and half, on the other fide Jordan; but winter drawing near, he left five thousand men there under the command of Hippolochus and Kereas, two other revolters from Ptolemy, to keep the country in awe till next fpring. By Antiochus that time Ptolemy came with fuch a powerful army against defeated by him, that he defeated him in a fet battle, and forced him Philopator. out of those provinces; after which all the cities readily opened their gates, and fent their ambaffadors to make their fubmiffion and prefents to the conqueror. The Jews, always attached to the Egyptians, were some of the forwardeft to come and congratulate him upon his * Antiq. lib. xii, cap. 4. y Id. ibid. cap. 4. 3 Macc. i. 1, &fe late Saved by Ptolemy Philopator. vaded by His miraculous punishment, late fuccefs. They were kindly received by him, and, among other marks of his favour, he told them, that he defigned to go to Jerufalem, and offer facrifices to their God. He went thither accordingly; and, befides a great number of victims which he there offered, he made fome confiderable prefents to the temple; this munificence, however, afforded them but a fhort-lived joy, which was The temple foon after turned into the deepest mourning. The beauty profaned of the temple, and the fplendid order and decency of its by him. worship, unhappily raised in the king a curiofity of seeing the infide. Simon II. who then officiated as high-priest, failed not to represent to him the facred nature of the place; the entrance of which was by their law forbid not only to strangers, but even to the Jews themselves, who were not of the facerdotal order: he even ventured to denounce fome heavy punishment from God, in case he prefumed to profane the temple; whilft the priests were humbly furrounding him to obftruct his paffage, and the people, in the utmost confternation, fending up their cries to heaven to avert his defign. All this oppofition ferved only to inflame his curiofity. He forced his way through the outward courts, and was going on to enter into the holy place itself, when God fmote him with such a dread and terror of mind, as put a full ftop to his farther progrefs. He was carried out half dead by his attendants. But as foon as he retrieved the use of his fenfes, instead of adoring the powerful hand that had fmitten him, he breathed out the most dreadful threats, not only against those who had dared to oppose his will, but against the whole nation. He foon after departed from Jerufalem, full of the deepest refentment, the fad effects of which he was not long before he made them feel, by one of the moft dreadful perfecutions that unhappy nation had ever The perfe- fuffered. But it was happily stopped by the fingular incution fop- terpofition of Providence. We fhall give an account of this ped. wonderful change in the hiftory of Ptolemy; and all that we fhall obferve here is, that as their conftancy to their religion had obtained this miraculous deliverance, it drew as heavy a punishment on those who through fear had apoftatized from it. Ptolemy, now more than ever convinced, that the Jews were protected by a divine power; and that men, who could be thus faithful to their God, could never turn rebels to their prince; among other marks of his favour and high efteem, did, at their earnest request, grant them full power to inflict what punishment they thought fit on thofe few apoftates, who were foon after and refent ment a gainf the Jews. put put to death, to the number of three hundred, as a warning to future ages (H). Ante Chr. 2144. 204. Ptolemy Philopator died fome time after, and left the Yr. of Fl. kingdom to his fon, furnamed Epiphanes; who, being then but between four and five years old, gave a handle to his two competitors, Antiochus the Great, and Philip of Macedon, to join their forces to diveft the young monarch Ptolemy of his whole kingdom: the former was to invade the pro- Epiphanes, vinces of Palestine and Phoenicia, and the latter attack Egypt; and each was to keep all he conquered. On this occafion the wonted loyalty of the Jews failed them, fo that they took part with Antiochus, who made a quick progrefs in that province; but was again as quickly deprived of it by Scophas the Egyptian general, who reduced the Jews to their former obedience. This advantage, however, proved but fhort-lived, and the Syrian Antiochus's king foon recovered it all from him; and in this fecond generofity expedition the Jews did him fuch fignal fervices, that he to the refolved to spare no favour to fix them to his intereft; Jerus. for when Scophas had only the citadel of Jerufalem left, into which he had thrown a ftrong garrifon, they received the Syrian troops and elephants into that city, and affifted them with all their power to drive the Egyptians out of it; a task which was foon accomplished by their united ftrength. Antiochus, therefore, willing to gratify the Jewish nation for their fo freely engaging in his intereft against the Egyptians, fent a letter to Ptolemy, his then general, which has been preferved at large by Jofephus". In this, having related the great fervices which that people had done Grants to him, he acquaints Ptolemy, that he defigned to reftore their the city metropolis to its ancient fplendor, liberty, and privileges, and temple. and to recall all those Jews who had been driven out of it: z Antiq. lib. xii. cap. 3. that, out of his fingular refpect to the temple of their God, he granted unto them twenty thousand pieces of filver, towards the charges of victims, frankincense, wine, and oil; one thousand four hundred measures of fine wheat, and three hundred feventy-five measures of salt, towards their ufual oblations. He declared that the temple fhould be thoroughly repaired at his own coft; that they fhould enjoy the free exercise of their religion; that he would reftore the public fervice of the temple, and the priests, Levites, fingers, &c. to their usual functions; that no ftranger, or Jew, that was unpurified, should enter within the fept (I) of that facred place: and that no flesh of unclean beafts should be brought into Jerufalem, not even their skins; under the penalty of paying three privileges. thousand pieces of filver into the treasury of the temple. He farther granted an exemption from all taxes for three years to all the difperfed Jews that should come within a limited time to re-people that metropolis: and decreed that all who had been fold for flaves, within his dominion, fhould be immediately fet free. By all these extraordinary favours, Antiochus fo attached the Jews to his interest, that not only Judæa, but all the other neighbouring provinces, readily fubmitted to him; and that monarch, having in the space of one campaign fubdued and quieted them, returned to his capital, where he paffed the winter. and other Yr. of Fl. 2140. Ante Chr. 208. About three years after this event died the high-priest Simon II. and was fucceeded by his fon Onias III. a perfon of great piety, clemency, and worthy to have lived in better times than thofe of his pontificate proved, and deOnias III. ferving of a better end than he met with, as the fequel will fhew. In the eighth year of Onias III. the Jews loft their great friend and protector Antiochus, who was murdered by the people of Elymais, but found as kind a patron in his fon Seleucus for fome time. The Jews were then in fuch high efteem, that fovereign princes courted their friendship, and made magnificent prefents to the temple; and Seleucus furnished out of his own treasury all the expences of the facrifice. Judæa enjoyed profound peace, and their laws were obferved with great ftrictness under Seleucus Jucceeds Antiochus. His kind nefs to the Jervs. a Antiq. lib. xii. cap. 4, & 5. Eufeb. Chron. & Chron. Alexand. (2) Vide int. al, Lightfoote's Profpect of the Temple, cap. 17. their worthy high-priest, until a misunderstanding which happened between him and Simon a Benjamite, brought a series of evils on the Jewish state. A fatal breach be tween 0. nias and Simon. Yr. of Fl. 2172. Ante Chr. 176. Onias had then enjoyed the facerdotal dignity about fixteen years; and Simon had been made governor of the temple. Perhaps that place was devolved to him from Jofeph, the generous fon of Tobias, lately mentioned, whofe fon he is fupposed to have been; when an uproar happening in the city, caused this fatal breach betwixt those two great perfons in the eleventh year of Seleucus. The author doth not tell us upon what account this tumult was raised, and the conjectures of modern authors about it are scarce worth mentioning. But this conteft, whatever it was, grew to fuch a height, that Simon, finding he could not get the better of the strenuous pontiff, went away to Apollonius the fon of Thrafeas, who was then governor of Cœlefyria and Palestine, the only two provinces the Romans had left untaken from Seleucus, and acquainted him, that there were immenfe treasures laid up in the Simon's temple of Jerufalem, which might at his pleasure be feized treachery. upon for the king's ufe. The governor fent to inform Seleucus of this particular (K), who difpatched immediately Heliodorus to fetch them away to Antioch. Heliodorus, the better to conceal the purport of his com- Heliodorus miffion, pretended that he was ordered to go and view all sent to Jethe cities of Coelefyria and Phoenicia, and only to take Je- rufalem. rufalem in his way; but when he arrived in that city, where he was received by the Jews with fingular honours, he acquainted Onias with the orders he had received from the king, and made a more particular enquiry after those treasures. The high-prieft told him, that there was indeed fuch a treasure in the temple, though nothing fo large as he had been informed; that, befides thofe things that had been confecrated to God, the reft had been depofited there by, or for the widows and orphans, for their < Liv. lib. xxxv. & feq. Appian. 2 Maccab. iii. 1, & feq. in Syriac. & al. 2 Maccab. iii. per tot. (K) It is plain from this whole ftory, which is taken from the fecond book of the Maccabees, and confirmed by Jofephus, that Seleucus had enjoyed Palestine, Coelefyria, and Phoenicia, fome time before his death. How his fa ther got thefe provinces from fecurity, |