2 Maccabees 5:1-14

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jason Tries to Regain Control

5 About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt.^{(A) 2} And it happened that, for almost forty days, there appeared over all the city golden-clad cavalry charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords^(B)— ³ troops of cavalry drawn up, attacks and counterattacks made on this side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing of spears, hurling of missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all kinds.^{(C) 4} Therefore everyone prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.^(D)

⁵ When a false rumor arose that Antiochus was dead, Jason took no fewer than a thousand men and suddenly made an assault on the city. When the troops on the wall had been forced back and at last the city was being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel.^{(E) 6} But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his compatriots, not realizing that success at the cost of one’s kindred is the greatest misfortune but imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over compatriots.^{(F) 7} He did not, however, gain control of the government; in the end, he got only disgrace from his conspiracy and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.^{(G) 8} Finally, he met a miserable end. Accused^[a] before Aretas the ruler of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by everyone, hated as a rebel against the laws, and abhorred as the executioner of his country and his compatriots, he was cast ashore in Egypt.^{(H) 9} There he who had driven many from their own country into exile died in exile, having embarked to go to the Spartans^[b] in hope of finding protection because of their kinship.^{(I) 10} He who had cast out many to lie unburied had no one to mourn for him; he had no funeral of any sort and no place in the tomb of his ancestors.^(J)

¹¹ When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm.^{(K) 12} He commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met and to kill those who went into their houses.^{(L) 13} Then there was massacre of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of young girls and infants.^{(M) 14} Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting, and as many were sold into slavery as were killed.