2 Maccabees 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

After the agreement is made, Lysias goes to the king and the Jews go back to their farming, but several local governors will not leave them in peace, and the men of Joppa drown about two hundred Jews who had gone into their boats. Judas burns the harbors of Joppa and Jamnia and then fights a series of battles east of the Jordan and in Idumea, against Arabian forces, Caspis, Timotheus, Carnion, Ephron, and Gorgias. When the dead of his own side are gathered for burial, objects dedicated to the idols of Jamnia are found under their clothes, and the people pray that the sin be blotted out. Judas collects two thousand drachmas and sends it to Jerusalem for a sin offering, and the writer explains this by his regard for the resurrection.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • These covenants were made.
   • Lysias went to the king.
   • The Jews were occupied with their farming.
2. 12:2
   • Timotheus was one of the governors of the various districts.
   • Apollonius the son of Genneus was one of the governors of the various districts.
   • Hieronymus was one of the governors of the various districts.
   • Demophon was one of the governors of the various districts.
   • Nicanor the governor of Cyprus was among them.
   • These men would not allow the Jews to be at rest and live in peace.
3. 12:3
   • The men of Joppa committed a great act of impiety.
   • The men of Joppa invited the Jews who lived among them to go into boats the men of Joppa had prepared.
   • The invitation included the Jews' wives and children.
   • The men of Joppa acted as though they had no hostility toward the Jews.
4. 12:4
   • The Jews accepted the invitation in accordance with the common decree of the city.
   • The Jews desired to live in peace.
   • The Jews suspected nothing.
   • The men of Joppa took the Jews out into the deep and drowned them.
   • No fewer than two hundred were drowned.
5. 12:5
   • Judas learned of the cruelty done to his countrymen.
   • Judas gave orders to the men who were with him.
6. 12:6
   • Judas called upon God the righteous Judge.
   • Judas came against the murderers of his brethren.
   • Judas burned the harbor by night.
   • Judas set the boats on fire.
   • Judas killed those who had fled there.
7. 12:7
   • The town was shut up.
   • Judas withdrew.
   • Judas intended to return and root out the entire community of the people of Joppa.
8. 12:8
   • Judas heard that the men of Jamnia intended to do the same thing to the Jews who lived among them.
9. 12:9
   • Judas attacked the Jamnites by night.
   • Judas set fire to the harbor along with the fleet.
   • The glare of the fire was visible at Jerusalem.
   • Jerusalem was two hundred and forty furlongs away.
10. 12:10
    • They went nine furlongs from there.
    • They were journeying toward Timotheus.
    • Arabians attacked Judas.
    • The attackers were no fewer than five thousand foot soldiers.
    • The attackers included five hundred horsemen.
11. 12:11
    • A hard battle took place.
    • Judas and his men prospered by the help of God.
    • The nomads were defeated.
    • The nomads asked Judas to give them his right hand in pledge of peace.
    • The nomads promised to give him cattle.
    • The nomads promised to help him in other ways.
12. 12:12
    • Judas judged that they would truly be useful in many things.
    • Judas agreed to keep peace with them.
    • They gave pledges of friendship.
    • They departed to their tents.
13. 12:13
    • Judas also undertook to bridge his way to a certain city.
    • The city was strong.
    • The city was fenced about with walls.
    • The city was inhabited by people of many different nations.
    • The name of the city was Caspis.
14. 12:14
    • Those inside the city trusted in the strength of the walls.
    • Those inside the city trusted in their store of provisions.
    • Those inside behaved insolently toward Judas and his men.
    • Those inside railed at them.
    • Those inside blasphemed.
    • Those inside spoke words that were unlawful to speak.
15. 12:15
    • Judas and his company called upon the great Lord of the world.
    • That Lord cast down Jericho without battering rams or siege engines.
    • That happened in the time of Joshua.
    • Judas and his company made a fierce assault against the wall.
16. 12:16
    • They took the city by the will of God.
    • They made slaughter beyond telling.
    • A lake adjoined the city.
    • The lake was two furlongs broad.
    • The lake appeared filled and running with blood.
17. 12:17
    • They departed from there seven hundred and fifty furlongs.
    • They arrived at Characa.
    • They came to the Jews called Tubieni.
18. 12:18
    • They did not find Timotheus in those places.
    • Timotheus had departed from those places without accomplishing anything.
    • Timotheus had left a very strong garrison in a certain place.
19. 12:19
    • Dositheus and Sosipater were captains under Maccabeus.
    • Dositheus and Sosipater went out.
    • They destroyed those Timotheus had left in the fortress.
    • Those destroyed were more than ten thousand men.
20. 12:20
    • Maccabeus arranged his army in bands.
    • Maccabeus set these men over the bands.
    • They went against Timotheus.
    • Timotheus had with him a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers.
    • Timotheus had with him two thousand five hundred horsemen.
21. 12:21
    • Timotheus learned of the approach of Judas.
    • Timotheus sent ahead the women and children and the rest of the baggage to a place called Carnion.
    • The place was hard to besiege.
    • The place was difficult to approach.
    • The difficulty was because of the narrowness of all the approaches.
22. 12:22
    • Judas's first band came into sight.
    • Dread came upon the enemies.
    • Fear came upon them from the manifestation of him who sees all things.
    • They rushed into flight, one carried one way and another another way.
    • They were often injured by their own men.
    • They were pierced by the points of their own swords.
23. 12:23
    • Judas pursued them more vigorously.
    • Judas struck down the wicked wretches.
    • Judas destroyed about thirty thousand men.
24. 12:24
    • Timotheus himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater.
    • Timotheus begged them with much craft to let him go alive.
    • Timotheus said he held the parents of many of them and the brethren of some of them.
    • Timotheus said that if he were killed those held would be disregarded.
25. 12:25
    • Timotheus assured them with many words that he would restore those people unharmed according to the agreement.
    • They let Timotheus go for the sake of saving their brethren.
26. 12:26
    • Maccabeus marched out to Carnion.
    • Maccabeus marched to the temple of Atargatis.
    • Maccabeus slaughtered twenty-five thousand persons.
27. 12:27
    • Judas put them to flight and destroyed them.
    • Judas then marched against Ephron.
    • Ephron was a strong city.
    • Lysias dwelt in Ephron.
    • A great multitude of various nations was in Ephron.
    • Strong young men stood before the walls.
    • The young men fought back mightily.
    • There were great stores of engines and missiles there.
28. 12:28
    • Judas and his company called upon Almighty God.
    • That God with his power shatters the strength of his enemies.
    • They took the city.
    • They struck down twenty-five thousand of those inside.
29. 12:29
    • They departed from there to Scythopolis.
    • Scythopolis lies six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem.
30. 12:30
    • The Jews who dwelt there testified that the Scythopolitans had shown them good will.
    • The Jews testified that the Scythopolitans treated them kindly in times of adversity.
31. 12:31
    • They gave the Scythopolitans thanks.
    • They exhorted them to remain friendly toward their nation in the future.
    • They came to Jerusalem.
    • The feast of weeks was near at hand.
32. 12:32
    • After the feast called Pentecost, they went out against Gorgias.
    • Gorgias was the governor of Idumea.
33. 12:33
    • Gorgias came out with three thousand foot soldiers.
    • Gorgias came out with four hundred horsemen.
34. 12:34
    • They drew up in battle array.
    • A few of the Jews fell.
35. 12:35
    • Dositheus was one of Bacenor's company.
    • Dositheus was on horseback.
    • Dositheus was a strong man.
    • Dositheus laid hold of Gorgias.
    • Dositheus took hold of Gorgias's cloak and dragged him by force.
    • Dositheus intended to take the accursed man alive.
    • A Thracian horseman charged at Dositheus.
    • The Thracian horseman struck off his shoulder.
    • Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
36. 12:36
    • The men with Esdris had been fighting a long time.
    • The men with Esdris were worn out.
    • Judas called upon the Lord to show himself as their ally.
    • Judas called upon the Lord to show himself as leader of the battle.
    • The King James says the men who had fought long and were weary were those with Gorgias.
37. 12:37
    • Judas began the battle cry with hymns in the language of his fathers.
    • Judas rushed unexpectedly upon Gorgias's men.
    • Judas put them to flight.
    • The King James says Judas sang psalms with a loud voice.
38. 12:38
    • Judas gathered his army.
    • Judas came to the city of Odollam.
    • The seventh day was coming on.
    • They purified themselves according to the custom.
    • They kept the sabbath there.
39. 12:39
    • On the following day Judas and his men came.
    • They came at the time when it had become necessary.
    • They came to take up the bodies of those who had fallen.
    • They came to bring them back with their kinsmen to the graves of their fathers.
40. 12:40
    • Under the tunics of each of the dead they found objects consecrated to the idols of Jamnia.
    • The law forbids the Jews such things.
    • It became clear to all that the men had fallen for this reason.
41. 12:41
    • All of them blessed the Lord, the righteous Judge.
    • The Lord makes manifest the things that are hidden.
42. 12:42
    • They turned to supplication.
    • They asked that the sin committed might be wholly blotted out.
    • The noble Judas exhorted the multitude to keep themselves free from sin.
    • They had seen with their own eyes what happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
43. 12:43
    • Judas made a collection man by man.
    • The collection came to two thousand drachmas of silver.
    • Judas sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering.
    • In doing this Judas acted very well and honorably.
    • Judas acted taking thought of the resurrection.
44. 12:44
    • If Judas had not expected that those who had fallen would rise again, praying for the dead would be superfluous and foolish.
45. 12:45
    • Judas looked to the excellent reward laid up for those who die in godliness.
    • The thought was holy and godly.
    • Judas made atonement for the dead.
    • The purpose was that they might be released from sin.

Words Worth Explaining

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

12:1

Lysias was the regent who governed the Seleucid empire on behalf of the young king Antiochus V; the agreement is the peace terms set out in the previous chapter. The King James word "husbandry" simply means farming.

12:2

These men were Seleucid officials in charge of local districts of the empire. "Would not suffer them to be quiet" means would not leave them alone. Timotheus and Nicanor appear again later in this chapter and elsewhere in the book.

12:3

Joppa, modern Jaffa, was the main seaport on the coast of Judea, a Greek-speaking city with a Jewish minority living inside it.

12:4

The "common decree of the city" was a formal vote of the citizen assembly, a public and binding civic act. That is exactly why the invitation looked safe and the Jews accepted it.

12:5

Judas was the leader of the Jewish fighters. People also called him Maccabeus, which means the hammer.

12:6

A harbor is the safe water where boats stay close to the shore.

12:7

Walled cities shut their gates at night or at the first sign of attack. Once the gates were closed Judas had no way in, so he pulled back rather than besiege the place then.

12:8

Jamnia, called Yavneh in Hebrew, was another city on the coastal plain south of Joppa, with its own harbor.

12:9

A furlong is the King James translation of the Greek stadion, a unit of about two hundred yards. Two hundred and forty furlongs is roughly twenty-seven miles, the distance from the coast up to Jerusalem.

12:10

Nine furlongs is about a mile. "Arabians" here means tribes of the desert fringe east and south of the Jordan, not the inhabitants of a single kingdom.

12:11

The "Nomades of Arabia" were nomadic herding tribes with no fixed towns. Livestock was the wealth they had to offer, which is why that is what they promise.

12:12

"They shook hands" renders a Greek phrase for exchanging formal pledges. A clasp of hands was the recognized way of sealing an agreement between parties.

12:13

Caspis, also spelled Caspin, lay east of the Sea of Galilee, in the territory beyond the Jordan where small Jewish communities lived among larger Gentile populations. "Fenced about" in the King James means fortified, not fenced in the modern sense.

12:14

Insults shouted from the walls at besiegers were a normal part of a siege. "Blaspheming" here means specifically speaking against the Jews' God.

12:15

The reference is to the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6, where the walls came down with no siege equipment used at all. A battering ram was a heavy beam swung against a wall or gate; "engines of war" were catapults, siege towers and similar machinery.

12:16

Two furlongs is about a quarter of a mile. Descriptions on this scale are part of the heightened style this book uses when reporting a victory.

12:17

Seven hundred and fifty furlongs is roughly eighty-five miles. "Characa" is a Greek word meaning a place fortified with a palisade, and its site is unknown. The Tubieni were Jews living in the district of Tob, east of the Jordan, mentioned earlier in this book.

12:18

A garrison is a body of troops left behind to hold a fortified position after the main army moves on.

12:19

"Maccabeus" is the surname of Judas, the leader of the revolt. The writer uses "Judas" and "Maccabeus" interchangeably for the same man.

12:20

Ancient writers regularly report enemy armies at figures of this size. The numbers are meant to convey the odds faced rather than to serve as a count.

12:21

Carnion is Carnaim, a town in Gilead east of the Jordan; its temple is mentioned in verse 26. Sending the women, children and baggage into a fortress before a battle was standard practice for an army on campaign.

12:22

"The appearing of him who seeth all things" translates a Greek word used for a visible manifestation of a god intervening in a battle. This book returns to that idea repeatedly.

12:24

Timotheus was holding Jewish civilians as hostages. His argument is that if he is executed there will be no one left with any reason to care what becomes of them.

12:26

Atargatis was a Syrian goddess worshiped widely across the region, associated with fish and with fertility. Her temple was what made Carnaim a place of importance.

12:27

"Darts" in the King James means javelins and other thrown or shot missiles, not small darts. Some manuscripts do not name Lysias here, and his presence is hard to square with verse 1, where he has already gone back to the king.

12:29

Scythopolis is the Greek name for Beth-shean, a largely Gentile city in the Jordan valley. Six hundred furlongs is about seventy miles.

12:31

The feast of weeks, Shavuot, fell seven weeks after Passover and marked the end of the grain harvest. It was one of the festivals for which people traveled up to Jerusalem.

12:32

Pentecost is the Greek name for the same feast, from the word for "fiftieth," because it fell on the fiftieth day after Passover. Idumea was the region immediately south of Judea, the old territory of Edom.

12:35

Thracian horsemen, from the region north of the Aegean, served across the Hellenistic world as hired cavalry. The King James "smote off his shoulder" translates a verb meaning to maim or disable, not necessarily to sever. Marisa, Hebrew Mareshah, was a town in Idumea.

12:36

The King James says the men with Gorgias were weary; the Greek names Esdris, one of Judas' own officers, so it is the Jewish troops who are worn out and need help. The difference comes from variant readings in the manuscripts.

12:37

"His own language" means Hebrew or Aramaic rather than Greek. Raising the war cry together with sung psalms was part of how an army went into battle.

12:38

Odollam is Adullam, a town in the Judean foothills. Purifying themselves meant the ritual washing required after contact with dead bodies. The seventh day is the sabbath, on which no work, and no fighting, was done.

12:39

The recovery of the bodies had to wait a day because of the sabbath. Burial in the family tomb alongside one's ancestors was the normal and expected end; to be left unburied was a disgrace.

12:40

These were small amulets or tokens dedicated to the gods worshiped at Jamnia, carried under the clothing as protective charms. The law meant is Deuteronomy 7:25-26, which forbids taking for oneself anything belonging to an idol.

12:43

A drachma was a Greek silver coin worth roughly a day's pay for a laborer, so two thousand of them was a considerable sum. A sin offering was a sacrifice prescribed in the law of Moses and made at the temple; the money paid for the animals and the offering.

12:44

Rising again means being made alive again after dying. Many Jews then believed God would do this one day.

12:45

The King James "in that he perceived" states this as fact, but the Greek is a conditional, closer to "if he was looking to the reward stored up," which leaves the writer's reasoning more tentative. "Made a reconciliation" means offered the sacrifice that removes an offense, what is usually called atonement.