35
Unto whom king Demetrius answered and wrote after this manner:
36
King Demetrius unto Simon the high priest, and friend of kings, as also unto the elders and nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting:
37
The golden crown, and the scarlet robe, which ye sent unto us, we have received: and we are ready to make a stedfast peace with you, yea, and to write unto our officers, to confirm the immunities which we have granted.
38
And whatsoever covenants we have made with you shall stand; and the strong holds, which ye have builded, shall be your own.
39
As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day, we forgive it, and the crown tax also, which ye owe us: and if there were any other tribute paid in Jerusalem, it shall no more be paid.
40
And look who are meet among you to be in our court, let then be enrolled, and let there be peace betwixt us.
41
Thus the yoke of the heathen was taken away from Israel in the hundred and seventieth year.
42
Then the people of Israel began to write in their instruments and contracts, In the first year of Simon the high priest, the governor and leader of the Jews.
43
In those days Simon camped against Gaza and besieged it round about; he made also an engine of war, and set it by the city, and battered a certain tower, and took it.
44
And they that were in the engine leaped into the city; whereupon there was a great uproar in the city:
45
Insomuch as the people of the city rent their clothes, and climbed upon the walls with their wives and children, and cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to grant them peace.