The Koine Bible

And Simon heard that Tryphon had gathered a great force to come into the land of Judea and to destroy it.

And he saw that the people were terrified and fearful, and he went up to Jerusalem and gathered the people

And he encouraged them and said to them, You yourselves know all that I and my brothers and my father’s house have done concerning the laws and the holy things, and the wars and the distresses that we saw.

For this reason all my brothers perished for the sake of Israel, and I alone was left behind.

And now may it not happen to me to spare my life in any time of affliction, for I am not better than my brothers.

But I will avenge for my nation and for the holy things and for your wives and children, because all the nations have been gathered together to destroy us for the sake of hatred.

And the spirit of the people was revived as soon as they heard these words.

And they answered with a loud voice, saying, You are our leader instead of Judas and Jonathan your brother.

Fight our battle, and all that you might say to us we will do.

And he gathered all the fighting men, and he hastened to complete the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it all around.

And Jonathan sent the son of Absalom and with him a sufficient force to Joppa, and he drove out those who were in it, and he remained there in it.

And Tryphon departed from Ptolemais with a large force to come into the land of Judea, and Jonathan with him in custody.

And Simon encamped at Adidoi opposite the plain.

And Tryphon perceived that Simon had risen up in place of Jonathan his brother, and that he was about to join battle with him, and he sent ambassadors to him, saying

concerning the silver that Jonathan your brother owed into the royal treasury, because of which needs he had we are holding him

And now send one hundred and two talents of silver and his sons as hostages, so that after being released he may not desert from us, and we will let him go.

And Simon knew that they were speaking deceitfully to him, and he sent to receive the silver and the boys, lest perhaps he should raise a great hostility against the people.

saying that I did not send him the silver and the young children were lost

And he sent the servants and the hundred talents, and he lied and did not let Jonathan go.

And after these things Tryphon came to invade the land and to crush it, and they encamped on the road toward Adora; and Simon and his camp were opposite him in every place where he would go.

But those from the Akra were sending envoys to Tryphon, urging him to come to them through the wilderness and to send them provisions

And Tryphon prepared all his cavalry to come, and in that night there was very much snow, and he did not come because of the snow, and he withdrew and came into Gileaditis.

But when he had approached Bascama, he killed Jonathan, and he was buried there.

And Tryphon turned back and went away to his land.

And Simon sent and took the bones of Jonathan his brother, and buried him in Modein, the city of his fathers.

And all Israel lamented him with a great lamentation, and mourned for him many days.

And Simon built upon the tomb of his father and of his brothers, and he raised it up to the sight with dressed stone from behind and in front

And he set up seven pyramids, one opposite the other, for the father and for the mother and for the four brothers

And with these he made devices, placing large pillars, and he made on the pillars full armors for an everlasting name, and beside the armors carved ships, so as to be seen by all who sail the sea.

This is the tomb which he made in Modein until this day

But Tryphon was going in deceit with Antiochus, the younger king, and he killed him

And he reigned in his place and put on the diadem of Asia and brought about a great calamity upon the land

And Simon built the strongholds of Judea and fortified them with high towers and with great walls and with gates and bars, and he put provisions in the strongholds

And Simon chose men and sent to Demetrius the king to make a release to the country, because all the deeds of Tryphon were plunderings.

And King Demetrius sent to him according to these words, and he answered him and wrote him such a letter

King Demetrius to Simon the high priest and friend of kings and to the elders and to the nation of the Jews, greetings.

We have received the golden crown and the palm branch which you sent, and we are ready to make great peace with you and to write to those in charge of the affairs about granting you the remissions

And as many things as we established toward you stand, and the strongholds which you built, let them belong to you.

But we release the ignorances and the sins until the present day, and the crown which you owed, and if anything else was exacted in Jerusalem, let it no longer be exacted as tax.

And if any of you are suitable to be enrolled among those around us, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us.

In the one hundred and seventieth year the yoke of the nations was taken away from Israel

And the people began to write in the documents and contracts, in the first year of Simon the great high priest and general and leader of the Jews

In those days he encamped against Gazara and surrounded it with camps and made a siege tower and brought it near the city and struck one tower and took possession of it

And those in the citadel were going out into the city, and there was a great disturbance in the city

And those in the city went up with the women and the children onto the wall, having torn their garments, and they cried out with a loud voice, asking Simon to give them right hands.

And they said, Do not deal with us according to our wickednesses, but according to your mercy.

And Simon was reconciled with them and did not fight against them, and he drove them out of the city and purified the houses in which the idols were, and thus he entered into it, praising and blessing

And he cast out of it all uncleanness, and settled in it men who would do the law, and he fortified it and built for himself in it a dwelling.

But those from the citadel in Jerusalem were prevented from going out and going in to the country, to buy and to sell, and they were very hungry, and many of them perished by the famine

And they cried out to Simon to receive pledges, and he gave them, and he cast them out from there, and he cleansed the citadel from the defilements

And they entered into it on the third and twentieth of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, with praise and with palm branches and with lyres and with cymbals and with harps and with hymns and with songs, because a great enemy had been crushed out of Israel.

And he established each year to lead this day with gladness, and he fortified the mountain of the sanctuary beside the Acra, and he dwelt there, he and those with him.

And Simon saw John his son, that he is a man, and he appointed him leader of all the forces, and he was dwelling in Gazara.