1 Maccabees 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

King Demetrius goes into Media for help against Tryphon and is taken prisoner by a prince of Arsaces. The chapter then turns to Judea, which is at rest under Simon, and lists what he did for the land, its cities, and the sanctuary. Sparta and Rome renew their friendship with the Jews, and the people record on bronze tablets a decree naming Simon their leader and high priest forever, until a faithful prophet should arise, with the terms of his authority spelled out. Simon accepts the office, and copies of the decree are stored in the treasury.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • In the one hundred seventy-second year, King Demetrius gathered his forces together.
   • Demetrius went into Media.
   • Demetrius went to Media to get help for himself.
   • Demetrius sought help so that he might fight against Tryphon.
2. 14:2
   • Arsaces was king of Persia and Media.
   • Arsaces heard that Demetrius had entered within his borders.
   • Arsaces sent one of his princes to take Demetrius alive.
3. 14:3
   • The prince went and struck the army of Demetrius.
   • The prince seized Demetrius.
   • The prince brought Demetrius to Arsaces.
   • Arsaces put Demetrius under guard.
4. 14:4
   • The land was quiet all the days of Simon.
   • Simon sought the good of his nation.
   • Simon's authority pleased them all his days.
   • Simon's honour pleased them all his days.
5. 14:5
   • Simon had honour in all his acts.
   • Simon took Joppa for a harbour.
   • Simon made an entrance to the isles of the sea.
6. 14:6
   • Simon enlarged the borders of his nation.
   • Simon took possession of the country.
7. 14:7
   • Simon gathered together a great number of captives.
   • Simon gained dominion over Gazara.
   • Simon gained dominion over Bethsura.
   • Simon gained dominion over the citadel.
   • Simon removed the uncleannesses out of the citadel.
   • There was no one who resisted Simon.
8. 14:8
   • They tilled their ground in peace.
   • The land gave her increase.
   • The trees of the plains gave their fruit.
9. 14:9
   • The old men sat in the streets.
   • They all conversed together about good things.
   • The young men put on glorious apparel and warlike apparel.
10. 14:10
    • Simon provided food for the cities.
    • Simon furnished the cities with means of fortification.
    • The name of Simon's glory was renowned to the end of the earth.
11. 14:11
    • Simon made peace in the land.
    • Israel rejoiced with great joy.
12. 14:12
    • Every man sat under his vine and his fig tree.
    • There was no one to make them afraid.
13. 14:13
    • There was no one left in the land who fought against them.
    • The kings were crushed in those days.
14. 14:14
    • Simon strengthened all those of his people who were brought low.
    • Simon searched out the law.
    • Simon took away every lawless person and every wicked person.
15. 14:15
    • Simon glorified the sanctuary.
    • Simon multiplied the vessels of the sanctuary.
16. 14:16
    • It was heard at Rome that Jonathan was dead.
    • It was heard as far as Sparta that Jonathan was dead.
    • They were exceedingly grieved.
17. 14:17
    • They heard that Simon his brother had become high priest in his place.
    • They heard that Simon ruled the country and the cities in it.
18. 14:18
    • They wrote to Simon on tablets of brass.
    • They wrote to renew with Simon the friendship and the alliance which they had established with Judas and Jonathan his brothers.
19. 14:19
    • The writings were read before the congregation at Jerusalem.
20. 14:20
    • This is the copy of the letters that the Lacedemonians sent.
    • The rulers of the Lacedemonians and the city sent greeting to Simon the high priest, to the elders, to the priests, and to the rest of the people of the Jews.
    • The letter calls the Jews their brethren.
21. 14:21
    • The letter said that the ambassadors sent to their people reported to them about the glory and honour of the Jews.
    • The letter said they were glad at the coming of the ambassadors.
22. 14:22
    • The letter said they registered what the ambassadors spoke in the councils of the people.
    • The record said Numenius son of Antiochus and Antipater son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, came to them.
    • The record said the ambassadors came to renew the friendship they had with them.
23. 14:23
    • It pleased the people to receive the men honourably.
    • It pleased the people to put the copy of their words in the public records.
    • The purpose was that the people of the Lacedemonians might have a memorial of them.
    • They wrote a copy of these things to Simon the high priest.
24. 14:24
    • After this Simon sent Numenius to Rome.
    • Numenius carried a great shield of gold weighing a thousand minas.
    • The shield was sent to confirm the alliance with them.
25. 14:25
    • When the people heard these words, they spoke.
    • The people said, What thanks shall we give to Simon and his sons?
26. 14:26
    • Simon and his brothers and the house of his father established Israel.
    • They fought and drove away the enemies of Israel from them.
    • They confirmed liberty for Israel.
27. 14:27
    • They wrote it on tablets of brass.
    • They set the tablets upon pillars on mount Zion.
    • This is the copy of the writing.
    • The writing was dated the eighteenth day of Elul, in the one hundred seventy-second year.
    • That year was the third year of Simon the high priest.
28. 14:28
    • The proclamation was made at Saramel.
    • The proclamation was made in a great congregation of the priests, the people, the rulers of the nation, and the elders of the country.
    • These things were made known to us.
29. 14:29
    • Wars had often occurred in the country.
    • Simon was the son of Mattathias.
    • Simon was of the sons of Joarib.
    • Simon and his brothers put themselves in danger.
    • Simon and his brothers withstood the enemies of their nation.
    • They did this so that their sanctuary and the law might stand.
    • They glorified their nation with great glory.
30. 14:30
    • Jonathan gathered their nation together.
    • Jonathan became their high priest.
    • Jonathan was gathered to his people.
31. 14:31
    • Their enemies planned to invade their country.
    • The enemies planned to destroy their country.
    • The enemies planned to stretch out their hands against their sanctuary.
32. 14:32
    • Then Simon rose up.
    • Simon fought for his nation.
    • Simon spent much of his own money.
    • Simon armed the valiant men of his nation.
    • Simon gave them wages.
33. 14:33
    • Simon fortified the cities of Judea.
    • Simon fortified Bethsura, which lies on the borders of Judea.
    • The armour of the enemies had been at Bethsura before.
    • Simon placed a garrison of Jewish men there.
34. 14:34
    • Simon fortified Joppa, which lies upon the sea.
    • Simon fortified Gazara, which lies on the borders of Azotus.
    • The enemies had dwelt in Gazara before.
    • Simon settled Jews there.
    • Simon put in them whatever was needed for their repair.
35. 14:35
    • The people saw the faithfulness of Simon.
    • The people saw the glory which Simon resolved to bring to his nation.
    • The people made Simon their governor.
    • The people made Simon high priest.
    • They did this because he had done all these things.
    • They did this for the justice and the faithfulness which he kept to his nation.
    • They did this because he sought by every means to exalt his people.
    • The King James says the people sang the acts of Simon.
36. 14:36
    • In Simon's days things prospered in his hands.
    • The nations were removed out of their country.
    • Those in the city of David in Jerusalem were removed.
    • Those in the city of David had made themselves a citadel.
    • They used to go out from the citadel.
    • They polluted everything around the sanctuary.
    • They did great harm to its purity.
37. 14:37
    • Simon settled Jewish men in the citadel.
    • Simon fortified the citadel for the safety of the country and the city.
    • Simon raised up the walls of Jerusalem.
38. 14:38
    • King Demetrius confirmed the high priesthood to Simon according to these things.
39. 14:39
    • Demetrius made Simon one of his friends.
    • Demetrius honoured Simon with great honour.
40. 14:40
    • Demetrius had heard that the Jews were called friends and allies and brothers by the Romans.
    • Demetrius had heard that the Romans met the ambassadors of Simon honourably.
41. 14:41
    • The Jews and the priests were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and high priest forever.
    • Simon was to be governor and high priest until a faithful prophet should arise.
42. 14:42
    • Simon should be their captain over them.
    • Simon should take charge of the sanctuary.
    • Simon should appoint men over their works, over the country, over the arms, and over the strongholds.
    • The King James repeats that he should take charge of the sanctuary.
43. 14:43
    • Simon should take charge of the sanctuary.
    • Simon should be obeyed by all.
    • All the writings in the country should be written in Simon's name.
    • Simon should be clothed in purple.
    • Simon should wear gold.
44. 14:44
    • It should not be lawful for any of the people or the priests to set aside any of these things.
    • It should not be lawful for any of them to contradict the words Simon should speak.
    • It should not be lawful for any of them to gather an assembly in the country without Simon.
    • It should not be lawful for any of them to be clothed in purple.
    • It should not be lawful for any of them to wear a golden buckle.
45. 14:45
    • Whoever should act contrary to these things or set aside any of them should be liable to punishment.
46. 14:46
    • All the people consented to ordain for Simon that he should act according to these words.
47. 14:47
    • Simon accepted this.
    • Simon consented to be high priest.
    • Simon consented to be captain and ethnarch of the Jews and of the priests.
    • Simon consented to be protector of them all.
48. 14:48
    • They said this writing should be put on tablets of brass.
    • They said the tablets should be set up within the precinct of the sanctuary in a conspicuous place.
49. 14:49
    • They said the copies of them should be laid up in the treasury.
    • The purpose was that Simon and his sons might have them.

Words Worth Explaining

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

14:1

The book counts years from the founding of the Seleucid Greek kingdom in 312/311 BC, so the one hundred and seventy-second year falls in 141/140 BC. Demetrius is Demetrius II, the Seleucid king; Tryphon was the rival who had murdered Simon's brother Jonathan and seized the throne. Media was a region in what is now northwestern Iran.

14:2

Arsaces was the throne name taken by every Parthian king on his accession, rather as Roman emperors took the name Caesar; the man here was Mithridates I. The Parthians had already stripped Media and Persia from the Seleucids, so a Seleucid king marching east was walking into another man's kingdom.

14:3

"Put under guard" means he was kept as a prisoner. Demetrius never came home again.

14:4

Simon was the last surviving of the five sons of Mattathias who had begun the revolt. His brothers Judas and Jonathan had both been killed, which is why the leadership had come to him.

14:5

Joppa, modern Jaffa on the coast beside Tel Aviv, was the only usable harbor in reach; Judea itself is inland hill country, and without a port its trade moved through harbors other people controlled. The King James phrase "the isles of the sea" is a standard biblical expression for the coastlands and islands of the Mediterranean, that is, the Greek world to the west.

14:7

Gazera is Gezer and Bethsura is Beth-zur, two fortress towns guarding the roads into Judea. "The tower" in the King James is the citadel in Jerusalem, the Greek garrison fort that had held out inside the city for more than twenty years. Taking "all uncleaness" out of it means clearing away everything connected with foreign worship, since the fort overlooked the temple.

14:9

Old men sitting about in the open street and young men parading in fine war gear were stock pictures of a country at peace: nobody afraid to be outdoors, and the army equipped but not fighting.

14:10

"All manner of munition" in the King James means fortifications and stores of weapons and supplies, not ammunition in the modern sense. The word had not yet narrowed to gunpowder.

14:12

Sitting under your own vine and fig tree is a set phrase, used of Solomon's reign in 1 Kings and of the hoped-for future in Micah. Vines and figs take years to come into bearing, so a man sitting under his own is a man who has stayed on his land long enough for it to pay.

14:14

Searching out the law covers both looking up what it requires and enforcing it; it is described here as the work of a ruler, not of a scholar.

14:15

The vessels are the working equipment of the temple: bowls, lamps, censers, tables and the like. The originals had been stripped out by Antiochus IV, so replacing and adding to them was a visible measure of recovery.

14:16

Rome and Sparta were the two foreign powers the family had formal treaties of friendship with, Judas having dealt with Rome and Jonathan with both. Such treaties were largely symbolic, but the fact that news of a Jewish leader's death registered in either city marked how far the family's standing had reached.

14:17

The high priest was the chief priest at the temple. He led the worship of God. By now he was the ruler of the country too.

14:18

Public treaties were engraved on bronze because bronze survives weather and cannot be quietly altered. This was the normal Greek and Roman way of publishing a binding document.

14:20

The King James calls the Spartans "Lacedemonians", the older name for the people of the region around Sparta. Calling the Jews "our brethren" refers back to an earlier exchange of letters in which the Spartans were said to be kin of the Jews, both descended from Abraham. Claimed kinship of this sort was a normal and largely diplomatic basis for alliance between Greek states.

14:21

Messengers here means men sent to speak for their whole country. Kings and cities sent them with letters and gifts.

14:22

The council of the people was the Spartan assembly, the body that heard and voted on public business. Entering a foreign delegation's words in the city records was the formal act of recognizing them.

14:23

Public records were the city's books of important writings. Anyone could go and see what had been written there.

14:24

A mina was a Greek weight of roughly a pound, about half a kilogram, so a thousand minas is on the order of half a ton of gold. The King James calls it "a thousand pound weight". Large gold objects, especially shields and crowns, were the standard high-value gift between states when confirming an alliance.

14:26

"His father's house" means the family line of Mattathias, which from this point ruled Judea and is known as the Hasmonean dynasty.

14:27

Elul was the sixth month of the Jewish year, falling in late August and September. Mount Zion here means the temple hill in Jerusalem. The date is given twice, by the Greek kingdom's era and by the years of Simon's own rule; dating documents by a ruler's regnal years was what independent states did.

14:28

Saramel is unexplained. The Greek spelling looks like a garbled Hebrew phrase, possibly meaning something like "the court of the people of God", which would make it a place inside the temple where the assembly met rather than a town. No one knows for certain, and the text is left as it stands.

14:29

Jarib, elsewhere Joarib, was one of the twenty-four priestly divisions that took turns serving in the temple. Naming it establishes that Simon's family was priestly by descent, which is what qualified him to hold the high priesthood at all.

14:30

The King James's "added to his people" is an old Hebrew idiom for dying and being buried with one's ancestors. It says nothing about how he died.

14:32

Wages are the pay soldiers get for their work. Simon used his own money instead of asking others for it.

14:33

Making a city strong meant building thick walls and towers around it. Bethsura sat on the edge of Judea, so it guarded the way in.

14:34

Azotus is Ashdod, one of the old Philistine cities on the coastal plain, then a Greek-held town.

14:35

"Governor" here renders a Greek word for the recognized civil head of a people. Joined to the high priesthood, it made Simon both the political ruler and the chief officer of the temple, two roles that had until now been separable.

14:36

The "city of David" is the old fortified ridge of Jerusalem below and south of the temple, where the Greek garrison's citadel stood. The King James's "the heathen" simply means non-Jews, the Gentiles; the word carried no sneer in 1611.

14:38

The high priesthood was hereditary in principle, but by this period the Seleucid king claimed the right to appoint and depose the holder. Demetrius confirming Simon means the foreign crown signing off on what the Jews had already settled among themselves.

14:39

"Friend of the king" was a formal rank at the Seleucid court, with a title, court dress and privileges attached. It describes a grade in a hierarchy, not personal affection.

14:41

The clause makes the grant open-ended but not final: it stands until a prophet appears whose word could settle the matter. Prophecy was by this time widely regarded as having ceased in Israel, so the condition placed no practical limit on Simon while leaving the arrangement formally unclosed.

14:42

"Captain" in the King James translates the Greek title strategos, the commanding general, who in a Greek kingdom was also in practice the military governor of a province.

14:43

Purple cloth was dyed with a costly extract from murex sea snails and, in the Greek kingdoms, was worn only by royalty and by those the king permitted. Gold ornament went with it as court insignia. The decree is granting Simon the outward marks of a Hellenistic ruler.

14:44

The gold buckle was the clasp that fastened the purple cloak at the shoulder, given by Seleucid kings as a badge of the highest court rank. Forbidding anyone else to wear one makes Simon's rank unique within the country.

14:48

Greek cities published their decrees on bronze set up in temple precincts, where the text was permanent, public and under guard. The Jerusalem decree follows the same convention.

14:49

The treasury was the temple's strongroom, which served as a public archive and safe deposit as well as a store of money. Keeping copies there meant Simon's family could produce the text later if the terms were ever challenged.