12
For he said that he had committed a sin deserving of death, and that if he were delivered he would praise the blessedness of the holy place before all people.
13
Moved by these words, Onias the high priest, although otherwise he had scruples about doing so, prayed for him lest King Seleucus suppose that Apollonius had been overcome by human treachery and not by divine justice.
14
So Apollonius, having been preserved beyond all expectations, went away to report to the king what had happened to him.
15
When King Seleucus died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to the throne, an arrogant and terrible man,
16
who removed Onias from the priesthood and appointed Onias's brother Jason as high priest.
17
Jason agreed that if the office were conferred upon him he would pay the king three thousand six hundred and sixty talents annually.
18
So the king appointed him high priest and ruler of the nation.
19
Jason changed the nation's way of life and altered its form of government in complete violation of the law,
20
so that not only was a gymnasium constructed at the very citadel of our native land, but also the temple service was abolished.
21
The divine justice was angered by these acts and caused Antiochus himself to make war on them.
22
For when he was warring against Ptolemy in Egypt, he heard that a rumor of his death had spread and that the people of Jerusalem had rejoiced greatly. He speedily marched against them,