39
Her Temple was as empty as a wilderness; her festivals were turned into days of mourning, her Sabbath joy into shame. Her honor became an object of ridicule.
40
Her shame was as great as her former glory, and her pride was turned into deepest mourning.
41
Antiochus now issued a decree that all nations in his empire should abandon their own customs and become one people. All the Gentiles and even many of the Israelites submitted to this decree. They adopted the official pagan religion, offered sacrifices to idols, and no longer observed the Sabbath.
44
The king also sent messengers with a decree to Jerusalem and all the towns of Judea, ordering the people to follow customs that were foreign to the country.
45
He ordered them not to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or wine offerings in the Temple, and commanded them to treat Sabbaths and festivals as ordinary work days.
46
They were even ordered to defile the Temple and the holy things in it.
47
They were commanded to build pagan altars, temples, and shrines, and to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals there.
48
They were forbidden to circumcise their sons and were required to make themselves ritually unclean in every way they could,
49
so that they would forget the Law which the Lord had given through Moses and would disobey all its commands.
50
The penalty for disobeying the king's decree was death.
51
The king not only issued the same decree throughout his whole empire, but he also appointed officials to supervise the people and commanded each town in Judea to offer pagan sacrifices.
52
Many of the Jews were ready to forsake the Law and to obey these officials. They defiled the land with their evil,
53
and their conduct forced all true Israelites to hide wherever they could.
54
On the fifteenth day of the month of Kislev in the year 145, King Antiochus set up "The Awful Horror" on the altar of the Temple, and pagan altars were built in the towns throughout Judea.
1
55
Pagan sacrifices were offered in front of houses and in the streets.
56
Any books of the Law which were found were torn up and burned,
57
and anyone who was caught with a copy of the sacred books or who obeyed the Law was put to death by order of the king.
58
Month after month these wicked people used their power against the Israelites caught in the towns.
59
On the twenty-fifth of the month, these same evil people offered sacrifices on the pagan altar erected on top of the altar in the Temple.