3 Maccabees 6

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

The Prayer of Eleazar

6 Then a certain Eleazar, famous among the priests of the country, who had attained a ripe old age and throughout his life had been adorned with every virtue, directed the elders around him to stop calling upon the holy God, and he prayed as follows: ² ‘King of great power, Almighty God Most High, governing all creation with mercy, ³ look upon the descendants of Abraham, O Father, upon the children of the sainted Jacob, a people of your consecrated portion who are perishing as foreigners in a foreign land. ⁴ Pharaoh with his abundance of chariots, the former ruler of this Egypt, exalted with lawless insolence and boastful tongue, you destroyed together with his arrogant army by drowning them in the sea, manifesting the light of your mercy on the nation of Israel. ⁵ Sennacherib exulting in his countless forces, oppressive king of the Assyrians, who had already gained control of the whole world by the spear and was lifted up against your holy city, speaking grievous words with boasting and insolence, you, O Lord, broke in pieces, showing your power to many nations. ⁶ The three companions in Babylon who had voluntarily surrendered their lives to the flames so as not to serve vain things, you rescued unharmed, even to a hair, moistening the fiery furnace with dew and turning the flame against all their enemies. ⁷ Daniel, who through envious slanders was thrown down into the ground to lions as food for wild animals, you brought up to the light unharmed. ⁸ And Jonah, wasting away in the belly of a huge, sea-born monster, you, Father, watched over and restored^[a] unharmed to all his family. ⁹ And now, you who hate insolence, all-merciful and protector of all, reveal yourself quickly to those of the nation of Israel^[b]—who are being outrageously treated by the abominable and lawless Gentiles.

¹⁰ ‘Even if our lives have become entangled in impieties in our exile, rescue us from the hand of the enemy, and destroy us, Lord, by whatever fate you choose. ¹¹ Let not the vain-minded praise their vanities^[c] at the destruction of your beloved people, saying, “Not even their god has rescued them.” ¹² But you, O Eternal One, who have all might and all power, watch over us now and have mercy on us who by the senseless insolence of the lawless are being deprived of life in the manner of traitors. ¹³ And let the Gentiles cower today in fear of your invincible might, O honoured One, who have power to save the nation of Jacob. ¹⁴ The whole throng of infants and their parents entreat you with tears. ¹⁵ Let it be shown to all the Gentiles that you are with us, O Lord, and have not turned your face from us; but just as you have said, “Not even when they were in the land of their enemies did I neglect them”, so accomplish it, O Lord.’

Two Angels Rescue the Jews

¹⁶ Just as Eleazar was ending his prayer, the king arrived at the hippodrome with the animals and all the arrogance of his forces. ¹⁷ And when the Jews observed this they raised great cries to heaven so that even the nearby valleys resounded with them and brought an uncontrollable terror upon the army. ¹⁸ Then the most glorious, almighty, and true God revealed his holy face and opened the heavenly gates, from which two glorious angels of fearful aspect descended, visible to all but the Jews. ¹⁹ They opposed the forces of the enemy and filled them with confusion and terror, binding them with immovable shackles. ²⁰ Even the king began to shudder bodily, and he forgot his sullen insolence. ²¹ The animals turned back upon the armed forces following them and began trampling and destroying them.

²² Then the king’s anger was turned to pity and tears because of the things that he had devised beforehand. ²³ For when he heard the shouting and saw them all fallen headlong to destruction, he wept and angrily threatened his Friends, saying, ²⁴ ‘You are committing treason and surpassing tyrants in cruelty; and even me, your benefactor, you are now attempting to deprive of dominion and life by secretly devising acts of no advantage to the kingdom. ²⁵ Who has driven from their homes those who faithfully kept our country’s fortresses, and foolishly gathered every one of them here? ²⁶ Who is it that has so lawlessly encompassed with outrageous treatment those who from the beginning differed from^[d] all nations in their goodwill towards us and often have accepted willingly the worst of human dangers? ²⁷ Loose and untie their unjust bonds! Send them back to their homes in peace, begging pardon for your former actions!^{[e] 28} Release the children of the almighty and living God of heaven, who from the time of our ancestors until now has granted an unimpeded and notable stability to our government.’ ²⁹ These then were the things he said; and the Jews, immediately released, praised their holy God and Saviour, since they now had escaped death.

The Jews Celebrate Their Deliverance

³⁰ Then the king, when he had returned to the city, summoned the official in charge of the revenues and ordered him to provide to the Jews both wines and everything else needed for a festival of seven days, deciding that they should celebrate their rescue with all joyfulness in that same place in which they had expected to meet their destruction. ³¹ Accordingly those disgracefully treated and near to death,^[f] or rather, who stood at its gates, arranged for a banquet of deliverance instead of a bitter and lamentable death, and full of joy they apportioned to celebrants the place that had been prepared for their destruction and burial. ³² They stopped their chanting of dirges and took up the song of their ancestors, praising God, their Saviour and worker of wonders.^[g] Putting an end to all mourning and wailing, they formed choruses^[h] as a sign of peaceful joy. ³³ Likewise also the king, after convening a great banquet to celebrate these events, gave thanks to heaven unceasingly and lavishly for the unexpected rescue that he^[i] had experienced. ³⁴ Those who had previously believed that the Jews would be destroyed and become food for birds, and had joyfully registered them, groaned as they themselves were overcome by disgrace, and their fire-breathing boldness was ignominiously^[j] quenched.

³⁵ The Jews, as we have said before, arranged the aforementioned choral group^[k] and passed the time in feasting to the accompaniment of joyous thanksgiving and psalms. ³⁶ And when they had ordained a public rite for these things in their whole community and for their descendants, they instituted the observance of the aforesaid days as a festival, not for drinking and gluttony, but because of the deliverance that had come to them through God. ³⁷ Then they petitioned the king, asking for dismissal to their homes. ³⁸ So their registration was carried out from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epeiph,^[l] for forty days; and their destruction was set for the fifth to the seventh of Epeiph,^[m] the three days ³⁹ on which the Lord of all most gloriously revealed his mercy and rescued them all together and unharmed. ⁴⁰ Then they feasted, being provided with everything by the king, until the fourteenth day,^[n] on which also they made the petition for their dismissal. ⁴¹ The king granted their request at once and wrote the following letter for them to the generals in the cities, magnanimously expressing his concern: