The Koine Bible

But Eleazar, a certain distinguished man of the priests from the country, already having obtained old age in dignity and adorned with every virtue according to life, having quieted the elders around him, prayed to call upon the holy God, saying these things:

O king, mighty ruler, Most High, Almighty God, governing all creation in compassions

Look upon Abraham’s seed, upon the children of Jacob, your consecrated portion, a people in a foreign land, a stranger unjustly being destroyed, O Father

You, Pharaoh, who increased with chariots, formerly the ruler of this Egypt, lifted up with lawless boldness and arrogant tongue, together with the proud army, you destroyed, having shone forth upon the race of Israel with a light of mercy over the sea.

You shattered Sennacherib, the weighty king of the Assyrians, who had boasted in countless forces, who had already by the spear taken the whole land under his power and had risen up against your holy city, speaking grave words in boastfulness and boldness, O Master, making plain your might to many nations.

You gave in Babylon the three companions, who had willingly given their lives to the fire so as not to worship empty things, a furnace cooled with dew, and rescued them without harm even to a hair, sending a flame upon all the hostile ones.

You brought up Daniel, thrown to the lions by envious slanders, into light, unharmed by the beasts as food

and having seen Jonah, being wasted in the belly of the deep-feeding whale, unharmed, you displayed him to all his kin, Father

And now, hater of insolence, all-merciful, protector of all, quickly appear to those of the race of Israel, insulted by detestable lawless nations.

But if our life has been seized by impieties during the exile, having delivered us from the hand of the enemy, by whichever death you choose, master, destroy us.

Let not the foolish-minded bless the vain things over the destruction of your beloved, saying, Not even their God rescued them.

But you, who have all strength and all dominion, eternal, now look upon us and have mercy on us, who are being removed from life in a way of conspirators because of the outrageousness of lawless men without reason.

But let the nations shudder at your invincible power today, honored one, having power for the salvation of the race of Jacob.

The whole multitude of the infants and their parents with tears entreats you.

Let it be shown to all the nations that you are with us, O Lord, and you did not turn your face away from us, but as you said, that not even while they are in the land of their enemies did I overlook them, so likewise accomplish it, O Lord

And as Eleazar had just finished the prayer, the king was passing along the hippodrome with the beasts and with all the roaring of the force.

And the Jews, when they saw it, cried out greatly to heaven, so that even the neighboring valleys, having resounded together, caused an irresistible panic in all the camp.

Then the highly glorious almighty and true God, having shown his holy face, opened the gates of heaven, from which two awe-inspiring angels, glorified, came down, visible to all except the Jews.

And they resisted and filled the force of the adversaries with confusion and cowardice, and they bound them with immovable fetters.

And even the king’s body became trembling, and his boldness, his heavy-spirited boldness, was forgotten.

And the beasts turned back upon the armed forces that followed together, and were trampling them and destroying them.

And the king’s anger was turned into pity and tears over the things that had been devised before him

For when he heard the cry and saw them all lying prostrate to destruction, shedding tears with anger, he was threatening his friends, saying,

You are co-ruling and have surpassed tyrants in cruelty, and you are even attempting to remove me myself, your benefactor, from my office and even from life, secretly devising things that are not advantageous to the kingdom

Who, having torn away those who held our strongholds of the country in faith, gathered each one here without reason?

Who has thus lawlessly surrounded with torments those who from the beginning, in goodwill toward us, surpass all nations in every way, and those who many times have endured the worst dangers among men?

Release, release the unjust bonds; send them away to their own places with peace, having renounced the things formerly done.

Release the sons of the Almighty heavenly God, the living one, who from our ancestors until now provides for our affairs a prosperous stability without hindrance with glory.

So then he said these things, but they, released in a short time, were blessing their holy Savior God, having just escaped death.

Then the king, having withdrawn into the city, summoned the one over the revenues and ordered him to provide wines and the rest of the things suitable for feasting for the Jews for seven days, judging them in the place where they had seemed to take up destruction, to bring salvation in this same place in all gladness.

Then those who before were disgraced and closer to Hades, rather, even standing upon it, having established a saving cup instead of a bitter and hard-to-bear death, divided among themselves by couches the place prepared for them for downfall and burial, full of joy

And when they had ceased the all-mournful strain of lamentation, they took up an ancestral song, praising the God who saves and works wonders, and having cast off every wailing and lamentation, they formed dances, a sign of peaceful joy.

And likewise the king also, holding a heavy banquet concerning these things, unceasingly gave thanks to heaven greatly for the extraordinary salvation that had come to him

and those who before were deeming them to be for destruction and for bird-food, and had enrolled them with joy, groaned, having wrapped shame upon themselves, and having extinguished without glory their fire-breathing audacity

And the Jews, as we have said before, having formed the aforesaid choir, with feasting, in cheerful thanksgivings and psalms, spent their time

And having established a common ordinance concerning these things for all their sojourn, to observe for the generations the days previously mentioned, they appointed them as days of joy, not for the sake of drinking and gluttony, but of the salvation that had come to them through God

And they approached the king, asking for their release to their own homes.

And they are enrolled from the twenty-fifth of Pachon until the fourth of Epiphi, for forty days; and their destruction is brought about from the fifth of Epiphi until the seventh, in three days.

in which also the Master of all, having appeared with great glory, displayed his mercy, he rescued them unfallen, with one mind

And they were being feasted in every way, being supplied by the king, until the fourteenth, on which also they made the petition concerning their release.

And the king, having agreed to them, wrote for them the letter written below to the generals throughout the cities, generously, having earnestness.