1367 verses about Persecution

Therefore these days were called Phrurae, because of the lots; (for in their language they are called Phrurae;)because of the words of this letter, and because of all they suffered on this account, and all that happened to them.

Let us oppress the righteous poor; Let us not spare the widow, Nor reverence the hairs of the old man gray for length of years.

But let us lie in wait for the righteous man, Because he is of disservice to us, And is contrary to our works, And upbraids us with sins against the law, And lays to our charge sins against our discipline.

He is grievous to us even to behold, Because his life is unlike other men’s, And his paths are of strange fashion.

Let us see if his words be true, And let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life.

With outrage and torture let us put him to the test, That we may learn his gentleness, And may prove his patience under wrong.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death; For he will be visited according to his words.

Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness Before the face of those who afflicted him, And those who make his labors of no account.

The slander of an unrighteous tongue to the king. My soul drew near even to death, And my life was near to the grave beneath.

My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for your enemy has persecuted you; but shortly you shall see his destruction, and shall tread upon their necks.

And you did deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies, and most hateful forsakers of God, and to an unjust king, and the most wicked in all the world.

And the king’s servants, that put them in, ceased not to make the furnace hot with naphtha, pitch, tow, and small wood;

With that Susanna cried with a loud voice: and the two elders cried out against her.

you know that they have borne false witness against me, and, behold, I must die; whereas I never did such things as these men have maliciously invented against me.

When they of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, The king is become a Jew, and he has pulled down Bel, and slain the dragon, and put the priests to the sword.

So they came to the king, and said, Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy you and your house.

And Antiochus, after that he had struck Egypt, returned in the hundred and forty and third year, and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a great multitude,

And there came great mourning upon Israel, in every place where they were;

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them; and she became a habitation of strangers, and she became strange to those who were born in her, and her children forsook her.

And king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people,

And the king sent letters by the hand of messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, that they should follow laws strange to the land,

and should forbid whole burnt offerings and sacrifice and drink offerings in the sanctuary; and should profane the Sabbaths and feasts,

and pollute the sanctuary and those who were holy;

that they should build altars, and temples, and shrines for idols, and should sacrifice swine’s flesh and unclean beasts:

And whoever shall not do according to the word of the king, he shall die.

According to all these words wrote he to his whole kingdom; and he appointed overseers over all the people, and he commanded the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city by city.

and they made israel to hide themselves in every place of refuge which they had.

And on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the hundred and forty and fifth year, they built an abomination of desolation upon the altar, and in the cities of Judah on every side they built idol altars.

And they tore in pieces the books of the law which they found, and set them on fire.

And wherever was found with any a book of the covenant, and if any consented to the law, the king’s sentence delivered him to death.

Thus did they in their might to Israel, to those that were found month by month in the cities.

And the women that had circumcised their children they put to death according to the commandment.

And they hanged their babes about their necks, and destroyed their houses, and those who had circumcised them.

And they chose to die, that they might not be defiled with the meats, and that they might not profane the holy covenant: and they died.

What nation has not inherited her palaces, and gotten possession of her spoils?

and, behold, our holy things and our beauty and our glory are laid waste, and the Gentiles have profaned them.

Wherefore should we live any longer?

And the king’s officers, that were enforcing the apostasy, came into the city Modin to sacrifice.

now therefore come you first and do the commandment of the king, as all the nations have done, and the men of Judah, and those who remain in Jerusalem: and you and your house shall be in the number of the king’s Friends, and you and your sons shall be honored with silver and gold and many gifts.

And Mattathias answered and said with a loud voice, If all the nations that are in the house of the king’s dominion hearken to him, to fall away each one from the worship of his fathers, and have made choice to follow his commandments,

We will not hearken to the king’s words, to go aside from our worship, on the right hand, or on the left.

And when he had left speaking these words, there came a Jew in the sight of all to sacrifice on the altar which was at Modin, according to the king’s commandment.

And the king’s officer, who compelled men to sacrifice, he killed at that time, and pulled down the altar.

And Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying, Whosoever is zealous for the law, and maintains the covenant, let him come forth after me.

And he and his sons fled into the mountains, and forsook all that they had in the city.

Then many that sought after justice and judgement went down into the wilderness, to dwell there,

And it was told the king’s officers, and the forces that were in Jerusalem, the city of David, that certain men, who had broken the king’s commandment, were gone down into the secret places in the wilderness;

and many pursued after them, and having overtaken them, they encamped against them, and set the battle in array against them on the Sabbath day.

And they said to them, Thus far. Come forth, and do according to the word of the king, and you⌃ shall live.

And they said, We will not come forth, neither will we do the word of the king, to profane the Sabbath day.

And they hurried to give them battle.

saying, Let us die all in our innocency: heaven and earth witness over us, that you⌃ put us to death without trial.

And Mattathias and his friends knew it, and they mourned over them exceedingly.

And one said to another, If we all do as our kindred have done, and fight not against the Gentiles for our lives and our ordinances, they will now quickly destroy us from off the earth.

And they took counsel on that day, saying, whoever shall come against us to battle on the Sabbath day, let us fight against him, and we shall in no wise all die, as our kindred died in the secret places.

Then were gathered together to them a company of Hasidaeans, mighty men of Israel, every one that offered himself willingly for the law.

And all those who fled from the evils were added to them, and became a stay to them.

And Mattathias and his friends went round about, and pulled down the altars;

and they circumcised by force the children that were uncircumcised, as many as they found in the coasts of Israel.

And they rescued the law out of the hand of the Gentiles, and out of the hand of the kings, neither suffered they the sinner to triumph.

And take you⌃ to you all the doers of the law, and avenge the wrong of your people.

And he pursued the lawless, seeking them out, and he burned up those that troubled his people.

And Apollonius gathered the Gentiles together, and a great army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.

And they pursued them in the going down of Bethhoron to the plain, and there fell of them about eight hundred men; but the residue fled into the land of the Philistines.

and his name came near even to the king, and every nation told of the battles of Judas.

that he should send an army against them, to root out and destroy the strength of Israel, and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away their memorial from the place;

and with them he sent forty thousand footmen, and seven thousand horse, to go into the land of Judah, and to destroy it, according to the word of the king.

And Judas and his kindred saw that evils were multiplied, and that the forces were encamping in their borders; and they took knowledge of the king’s words which he had commanded, to destroy the people and make an end of them;

And Jerusalem was without inhabitant as a wilderness, there was none of her offspring that went in or went out; and the sanctuary was trodden down, and the sons of strangers were in the citadel, the Gentiles lodged therein; and joy was taken away from Jacob, and the pipe and the harp ceased.

And your holy place is trodden down and profaned, and your priests are in heaviness and brought low.

And, behold, the Gentiles are assembled together against us to destroy us: you know what things they imagine against us.

and joined battle, and the Gentiles were discomfited, and fled into the plain.

But all the hindmost fell by the sword: and they pursued them to Gazara, and to the plains of Idumaea and Azotus and Jamnia, and there fell of them about three thousand men.

But the strangers, as many as had escaped, came and told Lysias all the things that had happened:

And they took counsel to destroy the race of Jacob that was in the midst of them, and they began to kill and destroy among the people.

And Judas fought against the children of Esau in Idumaea at Akrabattine, because they besieged Israel: and he struck them with a great slaughter, and brought down their pride, and took their spoils.

And the Gentiles that were in Gilead gathered themselves together against the Israelites that were on their borders, to destroy them. And they fled to the stronghold of Dathema,

and sent letters to Judas and his kindred, saying, The Gentiles that are round about us are gathered together against us to destroy us:

And all our kindred that were in the land of Tubias have been put to death; and they have carried into captivity their wives and their children and their stuff; and they destroyed there about a thousand men.

saying, That there were gathered together against them those of Ptolemais, and of Tyre, and of Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles to consume them.

and how that many of them were shut up in Bosora, and Bosor, and Alema, Casphor, Maked, and Carnaim; all these cities are strong and great:

and how that they were shut up in the rest of the cities of the land of Gilead, and that tomorrow they have appointed to encamp against the strongholds, and to take them, and to destroy all these men in one day.

And the morning came, and they lifted up their eyes, and, behold, much people which could not be counted, bearing ladders and engines of war, to take the stronghold; and they were fighting against them.

And they took the city, and burned the temple with fire, together with all that were therein. And Carnaim was subdued, neither could they stand any longer before the face of Judas.

And they of the city shut them out, and stopped up the gates with stones.

And those who were in the citadel shut up Israel round about the sanctuary, and sought always their hurt, and the strengthening of the Gentiles.

And Judas thought to destroy them, and called all the people together to besiege them.

And they were gathered together, and besieged them in the hundred and fifties year, and he made mounds to shoot from, and engines of war.

and for this cause the children of our people besieged the citadel, and were alienated from us; but as many of us as they could light on they killed, and plundered our inheritances.

And not against us only did they stretch out their hand, but also against all their borders.

And the number of his forces was a hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand horsemen, and two and thirty elephants trained for war.

And the king took Bethsura, and appointed a garrison there to keep it.

And he encamped against the sanctuary many days; and set there mounds to shoot from, and engines of war, and instruments for casting fire and stones, and pieces to cast darts, and slings.

and there were but a few left in the sanctuary, because the famine prevailed against them, and they were scattered, each man to his own place.

and they accused the people to the king, saying, Judas and his kindred have destroyed all your friends, and have scattered us from our own land.

And they gave him credence: and he laid hands on threescore men of them, and killed them in one day, according to the word which the psalmist wrote,

The flesh of your saints did they cast out, And their blood did they shed round about Jerusalem; And there was no man to bury them.

And there were gathered to him all those who troubled their people, and they got the mastery of the land of Judah, and did great hurt in Israel.

And Judas saw all the mischief that Alcimus and his company had done among the children of Israel, even above the Gentiles,

and he went out into all the coasts of Judea round about, and took vengeance on the men that had deserted from him, and they were restrained from going forth into the country.