1 Maccabees 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Simon hears that Tryphon is coming against Judea, speaks to the people in Jerusalem, and is made their leader in place of Judas and Jonathan. He sends Tryphon a hundred talents and Jonathan's two sons, but Tryphon does not release Jonathan and later kills him near Bascama; Simon buries him at Modin and builds a monument there. Tryphon kills the young king Antiochus and takes the crown, Demetrius writes to Simon granting the nation freedom from taxes, and Simon takes Gazara and the tower in Jerusalem, settles men there who keep the law, and makes his son John commander of the armies.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • Simon heard that Tryphon had gathered a great army.
   • The report was that Tryphon's army was to come into the land of Judea.
   • The report was that Tryphon's army was to destroy the land of Judea.
2. 13:2
   • Simon saw that the people were trembling and afraid.
   • Simon went up to Jerusalem.
   • Simon gathered the people together.
3. 13:3
   • Simon exhorted the people.
   • Simon said the people themselves knew what great things he, his brothers, and his father's house had done for the laws and the sanctuary.
   • Simon spoke of the battles and the distresses they had seen.
4. 13:4
   • Simon said all his brothers had perished for Israel's sake.
   • Simon said he alone was left.
5. 13:5
   • Simon said it should be far from him to spare his own life in any time of affliction.
   • Simon said he was no better than his brothers.
6. 13:6
   • Simon said he would take vengeance for his nation.
   • Simon said he would take vengeance for the sanctuary.
   • Simon said he would take vengeance for their wives and children.
   • Simon said all the nations had gathered to destroy them out of hatred.
7. 13:7
   • The spirit of the people revived when they heard these words.
8. 13:8
   • The people answered with a loud voice.
   • The people said Simon was their leader in place of Judas and of Jonathan his brother.
9. 13:9
   • The people told Simon to fight their battles.
   • The people said they would do whatever Simon told them.
10. 13:10
    • Simon gathered all the fighting men.
    • Simon hurried to finish the walls of Jerusalem.
    • Simon fortified Jerusalem all around.
11. 13:11
    • Simon sent Jonathan son of Absalom to Joppa.
    • Simon sent a sufficient force with Jonathan son of Absalom.
    • Jonathan son of Absalom expelled those who were in Joppa.
    • Jonathan son of Absalom remained there in Joppa.
12. 13:12
    • Tryphon set out from Ptolemais with a great force.
    • Tryphon's purpose was to enter the land of Judea.
    • Jonathan was with Tryphon under guard.
13. 13:13
    • Simon encamped at Adida.
    • Adida faced the plain.
14. 13:14
    • Tryphon learned that Simon had risen up in place of his brother Jonathan.
    • Tryphon learned that Simon intended to join battle with him.
    • Tryphon sent envoys to Simon.
    • The envoys spoke a message from Tryphon.
15. 13:15
    • Tryphon said they were detaining Jonathan.
    • Tryphon said the detention was on account of money Jonathan owed to the royal treasury.
    • Tryphon said the debt arose from the offices Jonathan held.
16. 13:16
    • Tryphon told Simon to send a hundred talents of silver.
    • Tryphon told Simon to send two of Jonathan's sons as hostages.
    • Tryphon said the hostages were so that Jonathan, once released, would not revolt from them.
    • Tryphon said they would then release Jonathan.
17. 13:17
    • Simon knew that they were speaking to him deceitfully.
    • Simon sent the money and the children anyway.
    • Simon acted lest he incur great hatred from the people.
18. 13:18
    • The people might say that because Simon did not send the money and the children, Jonathan perished.
19. 13:19
    • Simon sent the children and the hundred talents.
    • Tryphon broke his word.
    • Tryphon did not release Jonathan.
20. 13:20
    • After this Tryphon came to invade the land and destroy it.
    • Tryphon went around by the road leading to Adora.
    • Simon and his army marched opposite him wherever he went.
21. 13:21
    • Those in the citadel sent envoys to Tryphon.
    • The envoys urged Tryphon to come to them through the wilderness.
    • The envoys asked Tryphon to send them food.
22. 13:22
    • Tryphon made all his cavalry ready to come.
    • That night there was a very heavy snow.
    • Tryphon did not come because of the snow.
    • Tryphon departed and went into the country of Gilead.
23. 13:23
    • When Tryphon came near Bascama he killed Jonathan.
    • Jonathan was buried there.
24. 13:24
    • Tryphon turned back.
    • Tryphon went away into his own land.
25. 13:25
    • Simon sent and took the bones of Jonathan his brother.
    • Simon buried Jonathan in Modin, the city of his fathers.
26. 13:26
    • All Israel made great lamentation for Jonathan.
    • They mourned him many days.
27. 13:27
    • Simon built a monument on the tomb of his father and his brothers.
    • Simon raised it high so it could be seen.
    • The monument was of polished stone behind and in front.
28. 13:28
    • Simon set up seven pyramids.
    • The pyramids were set one opposite another.
    • The pyramids were for his father, his mother, and his four brothers.
29. 13:29
    • Simon made elaborate devices for the pyramids.
    • Simon set great pillars around them.
    • Simon made suits of armor upon the pillars for a perpetual memorial.
    • Simon had ships carved beside the armor.
    • The carved ships were so that they could be seen by all who sail the sea.
30. 13:30
    • This is the tomb Simon made at Modin.
    • The tomb remains to this day.
31. 13:31
    • Tryphon acted deceitfully toward the young king Antiochus.
    • Tryphon killed Antiochus.
32. 13:32
    • Tryphon reigned in Antiochus's place.
    • Tryphon put on himself the crown of Asia.
    • Tryphon brought a great calamity upon the land.
33. 13:33
    • Simon built up the strongholds of Judea.
    • Simon walled them around with high towers, great walls, gates, and bars.
    • Simon stored food in the strongholds.
34. 13:34
    • Simon chose men and sent them to king Demetrius.
    • The request was that Demetrius grant the country a release from tribute.
    • The reason given was that all Tryphon's acts were plunder.
35. 13:35
    • King Demetrius sent to Simon in accordance with these words.
    • Demetrius answered Simon.
    • Demetrius wrote him a letter of this kind.
36. 13:36
    • The letter is from King Demetrius to Simon the high priest.
    • The letter addresses Simon as friend of kings.
    • The letter is addressed also to the elders and the nation of the Jews.
    • The letter sends greeting.
37. 13:37
    • Demetrius says they have received the golden crown that was sent.
    • Demetrius says they have received the palm branch that was sent.
    • Demetrius says they are ready to make a great and steadfast peace with them.
    • Demetrius says they are ready to write to the officers in charge to grant them releases from tribute.
38. 13:38
    • Demetrius says whatever they established with them stands.
    • Demetrius says the strongholds the Jews have built shall be their own.
39. 13:39
    • Demetrius forgives oversights and faults committed up to this day.
    • Demetrius forgives the crown tax they owed.
    • Demetrius says that if any other tribute was collected in Jerusalem, it shall be collected no longer.
40. 13:40
    • Demetrius says any among them fit to be enrolled in his court may be enrolled.
    • Demetrius says let there be peace between them.
41. 13:41
    • In the hundred and seventieth year the yoke of the nations was taken away from Israel.
42. 13:42
    • The people of Israel began to write in their documents and contracts.
    • They dated them in the first year of Simon, great high priest, captain and leader of the Jews.
43. 13:43
    • In those days Simon encamped against Gaza.
    • Simon surrounded it with camps.
    • Simon made a siege engine.
    • Simon brought the siege engine up to the city.
    • Simon struck one tower.
    • Simon captured that tower.
44. 13:44
    • Those in the siege engine leaped out into the city.
    • There was a great uproar in the city.
45. 13:45
    • The people of the city went up on the wall with their wives and children.
    • They had torn their clothes.
    • They cried with a loud voice.
    • They asked Simon to give them his right hand in peace.
46. 13:46
    • They said: do not deal with us according to our wickednesses.
    • They said: deal with us according to your mercy.
47. 13:47
    • Simon came to terms with them.
    • Simon did not fight against them.
    • Simon expelled them from the city.
    • Simon cleansed the houses in which the idols were.
    • Simon then entered the city singing hymns and blessing.
48. 13:48
    • Simon put all uncleanness out of the city.
    • Simon settled in it men who keep the law.
    • Simon fortified the city further.
    • Simon built a dwelling for himself in it.
49. 13:49
    • Those of the citadel in Jerusalem were prevented from going out into the country.
    • They were prevented from buying and selling.
    • They were extremely hungry.
    • A considerable number of them perished by famine.
50. 13:50
    • They cried out to Simon to receive his right hand in peace.
    • Simon gave it to them.
    • Simon expelled them from there.
    • Simon cleansed the citadel from its pollutions.
51. 13:51
    • Simon entered the citadel on the twenty-third day of the second month of the hundred and seventy-first year.
    • He entered with praise and palm branches.
    • He entered with harps, cymbals, and stringed instruments.
    • He entered with hymns and songs.
    • The reason was that a great enemy had been crushed out of Israel.
52. 13:52
    • Simon ordained that this day should be kept every year.
    • Simon further fortified the temple hill beside the citadel.
    • Simon dwelt there with his men.
53. 13:53
    • Simon saw that John his son was a man.
    • Simon made John commander of all the forces.
    • John dwelt in Gazara.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

Simon is the last surviving son of Mattathias, the priest whose family began the revolt against Seleucid rule about twenty-five years earlier; his brothers Judas Maccabeus and Jonathan had led before him. Tryphon was a Seleucid general who governed through a boy king and was working to take the throne himself. Judea is the territory around Jerusalem.

13:3

"The sanctuary" is the temple in Jerusalem. "My father's house" means the family line of Mattathias, not a building.

13:4

Mattathias had five sons. By this point Judas, Jonathan, Eleazar and John had all died in the fighting or been killed, leaving only Simon.

13:6

"The heathen" in the King James simply means the Gentiles, the non-Jewish peoples and kingdoms around Judea. It carries no sense of savagery; it is the ordinary word for foreign nations.

13:8

Judas and Jonathan were Simon's brothers. Judas led the people first, and then Jonathan. Judas had been killed, and now Tryphon held Jonathan prisoner.

13:10

Cities then had thick stone walls all around them. Strong walls kept enemy soldiers outside.

13:11

Joppa, modern Jaffa, was the harbor town on the Mediterranean about thirty-five miles from Jerusalem, Judea's only real outlet to the sea. Expelling its existing inhabitants and garrisoning it was how a ruler secured a port.

13:12

Ptolemais, modern Acre, was a coastal city north of Judea and a base for Seleucid forces. "In ward" in the King James means in custody, under guard.

13:13

Adida was a hill town on the edge of the foothills, overlooking the coastal plain and covering the road up to Jerusalem.

13:15

Jonathan had held royal appointments from the Seleucid kings, including the high priesthood and a governorship, and such offices came with revenue owed back to the crown. Tryphon is dressing up a kidnapping as a tax dispute.

13:16

A talent was a weight of silver of roughly seventy-five pounds, so a hundred talents was an enormous sum, comparable to a year's revenue from a whole district. Handing over sons as hostages was a normal guarantee of good behavior in treaties of the time.

13:19

"Dissembled" in the King James means acted falsely, hid what he really intended.

13:20

Adora was a town in Idumea, south of Hebron. Tryphon was swinging wide to the south to come at Judea from a direction Simon was not blocking.

13:21

"The tower" is the Akra, a fortress inside Jerusalem held since about 167 BC by a Seleucid garrison and their Jewish supporters. It sat in the city but was not under Jewish control, and supplying it from outside was the only way to keep it alive.

13:22

Snow falls in the hills of Judea and the highlands east of the Jordan only in deep winter, but when it comes it can close the passes. The detail fixes this campaign in the winter months.

13:23

Bascama was somewhere in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan River, which the King James spells "Galaad" from the Greek form. Its exact site is not known.

13:25

Modin was the family's home village in the foothills northwest of Jerusalem, where Mattathias had first refused to sacrifice and the revolt began.

13:26

Long ago people cried out loud together when someone died. It showed everyone how much they loved that person.

13:27

The monument is a tomb in the Greek style of the period: a raised structure faced with dressed stone, built to be seen from a distance rather than a simple cave burial.

13:28

These pyramids are pyramid-shaped stone markers, not Egyptian tombs. Six are accounted for by Mattathias, his wife and four sons; the seventh was presumably Simon's own, prepared in advance.

13:29

Hanging suits of armor on a monument was a Greek convention for a victory memorial. The carved ships most likely advertised Simon's control of the port at Joppa, and Modin stood on high ground within sight of shipping lanes.

13:31

The young king was Antiochus VI, a child whom Tryphon had put on the throne as a figurehead while ruling in his name.

13:32

"Asia" here does not mean the continent. Greek writers used it for the Seleucid kingdom, the empire based in Syria that stretched east from the Mediterranean.

13:33

The "bars" are the heavy beams dropped across gates on the inside to hold them shut. Storing food in a stronghold was what allowed it to survive a siege.

13:34

Demetrius II was the rival Seleucid king, fighting Tryphon for the throne, so he had reason to buy Jewish support. "Immunity" means exemption from tribute to the crown, which in practice meant independence.

13:36

"Friend of kings" was a formal rank at Hellenistic courts, conferred by the king, not a description of personal affection. The "elders" are the council of leading men at Jerusalem.

13:37

The King James reads "the scarlet robe," but the Greek says a palm branch, which is what the modern versions render. A golden crown and a golden palm branch were the customary honorific gifts sent to a king by a subject city or people.

13:39

The crown tax began as a voluntary gift of a gold crown to a king on his accession, then hardened into a regular levy collected whether anyone wanted to give it or not.

13:40

To be "enrolled" in the king's court meant being taken onto the royal payroll as an officer or guardsman, a position of standing and income. "Meet" in the King James means suitable or qualified.

13:41

The year is counted from the start of the Seleucid kingdom in 312 BC, so the hundred and seventieth year is about 142 BC. A "yoke" is the wooden harness laid across the necks of oxen, the standard image for foreign domination.

13:42

Dating legal documents by a ruler's year was the mark of a sovereign state. Switching from the Seleucid king's years to Simon's own was the practical declaration that Judea no longer answered to anyone else.

13:43

The King James prints "Gaza," but the Greek reads Gazara, the fortified town of Gezer inland on the road between Jerusalem and Joppa, not the Philistine city of Gaza on the coast. The "engine of war" was a wooden siege tower on wheels, rolled up against the wall with troops inside it.

13:45

Tearing one's clothes was the standard public gesture of grief or desperation. What the King James calls asking Simon "to grant them peace" is literally asking him to give them his right hand, the handclasp that sealed terms of surrender.

13:47

Cleansing the houses means removing the pagan images, altars and household shrines, which had to go before observant Jews could live in the buildings.

13:48

"Uncleanness" is ritual impurity as defined by the law of Moses, a matter of what may be touched, eaten or kept in a house, not of dirt.

13:49

The garrison in the Jerusalem citadel had held out for roughly a quarter of a century. Cutting off buying and selling starved it out without an assault.

13:51

The second month is Iyyar, so the date falls in the spring of about 141 BC. Palm branches were carried in victory processions throughout the Greek world. "Viols" is the King James translators' name for a Renaissance instrument that did not yet exist; the Greek word simply means stringed instruments.

13:52

Making a date an annual holiday was the same step Judas had taken for the rededication of the temple, the festival later called Hanukkah.

13:53

This is John Hyrcanus, who succeeded Simon and ruled for about thirty years. Greek copies differ here: some say John was "a man of valor," which the King James follows with "a valiant man," while others say only that he had become a man, that is, had reached adulthood.