26
Simon sent 2,000 well-trained soldiers to help Antiochus, as well as silver and gold and a great deal of equipment.
27
But Antiochus refused to accept them, canceled all the previous agreements that he had made with Simon, and became his enemy.
28
Then Antiochus sent his trusted official Athenobius to negotiate with Simon. He told Simon, "You are occupying Joppa, Gezer, and the fort in Jerusalem, cities that belong to my kingdom.
29
You have devastated those regions and brought great trouble to the country. You have seized control of many places in my kingdom.
30
Now you must hand back these cities that you have captured, and you must give me the tax money that you have taken from places that you occupied outside the territory of Judea.
31
If you are unwilling to do this, then you must pay me 30,000 pounds of silver, and 30,000 additional pounds of silver to compensate me for damages and for lost taxes. If you refuse to do either of these, we will go to war against you."
32
When Athenobius came to Jerusalem and saw the splendor of Simon's court, the gold and silver tableware in his banquet hall, and the rest of the display of great wealth, he was amazed. He delivered the king's message to Simon,
33
and Simon answered, "We have never taken land away from other nations or confiscated anything that belonged to other people. On the contrary, we have simply taken back property that we inherited from our ancestors, land that had been unjustly taken away from us by our enemies at one time or another.
34
We are now only making use of this opportunity to recover our ancestral heritage.
35
As for Joppa and Gezer, which you claim, we will give you 6,000 pounds of silver, in spite of the fact that the people of those cities have done great harm to our nation." Athenobius made no reply,
36
but he returned to the king in a rage. When he told the king what Simon had said, and reported on the splendor of Simon's court and all that he had seen, the king became violently angry.