Antiochus' Final Campaign and Death

1 Maccabees 6

¹ King Antiochus was traveling through the upper countries; and he heard that in Elymais in Persia there was a city renowned for riches, for silver and gold,

² and that the temple which was in it was exceedingly rich, and that in it were golden shields, breastplates, and weapons which Alexander, son of Philip, the Macedonian king, who reigned first among the Greeks, left behind there.

³ So he came and tried to take the city and to pillage it; and he was not able, because his plan was known to them of the city,

⁴ and they rose up against him in battle. He fled and returned to Babylon with great disappointment.

⁵ Then someone came into Persia bringing him news that the armies which went against the land of Judah had been put to flight,

⁶ and that Lysias went first with a strong army and was put to shame before them, and that they had grown strong because of weapons, power, and a supply of plunder which they took from the armies that they had cut off,

⁷ and that they had pulled down the abomination which he had built upon the altar that was in Jerusalem, and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls, as before, and also Bethsura, his city.

⁸ It came to pass, when the king heard these words, he was astonished and moved exceedingly. He laid himself down on his bed, and fell sick for grief, because it had not turned out for him as he had planned.

⁹ He was there many days, because great grief continually gripped him, and he realized that he would die.

¹⁰ He called for all his friends, and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes, and my heart fails because of worry.

¹¹ I said in my heart, ‘To what suffering I have come! How great a flood it is that I’m in, now! For I was gracious and loved in my power.’

¹² But now I remember the evils which I did at Jerusalem, and that I took all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, and sent out to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without a cause.

¹³ I perceive that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me. Behold, I am perishing through great grief in a strange land.”

¹⁴ Then he called for Philip, one of his friends, and set him over all his kingdom.

¹⁵ He gave him his crown, his robe, and his signet ring, so that he could guide Antiochus his son, and nourish him up that he might be king.

¹⁶ Then King Antiochus died there in the one hundred forty-ninth year.

¹⁷ When Lysias learned that the king was dead, he set up Antiochus his son to reign, whom he had nourished up being young, and he called his name Eupator.

2 Maccabees 9

¹ Now about that time, Antiochus retreated in disorder from the region of Persia.

² For he had entered into the city called Persepolis, and he attempted to rob a temple and to control the city. Therefore the multitudes rushed in and the people of the country turned to defend themselves with weapons; and it came to pass that Antiochus was put to flight by the people of the country and broke his camp with disgrace.

³ While he was at Ecbatana, news was brought to him about what had happened to Nicanor and the forces of Timotheus.

⁴ Being overcome by his anger, he planned to make the Jews suffer for the evil deeds of those who had put him to flight. Therefore, with judgment from heaven even now accompanying him, he ordered his charioteer to drive without ceasing until he completed the journey; for he arrogantly said this: “I will make Jerusalem a common graveyard of Jews when I come there.”

⁵ But the All-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with a fatal and invisible stroke. As soon as he had finished speaking this word, an incurable pain of the bowels seized him, with bitter torments of the inner parts—

⁶ and that most justly, for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange sufferings.

⁷ But he in no way ceased from his rude insolence. No, he was filled with even more arrogance, breathing fire in his passion against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. But it came to pass moreover that he fell from his chariot as it rushed along, and having a grievous fall was tortured in all of the members of his body.

⁸ He who had just supposed himself to have the waves of the sea at his bidding because he was so superhumanly arrogant, and who thought to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance, was now brought to the ground and carried in a litter, showing to all that the power was obviously God’s,

⁹ so that worms swarmed out of the impious man’s body, and while he was still living in anguish and pain, his flesh fell off, and by reason of the stench all the army turned with loathing from his decay.

¹⁰ The man who a little before supposed himself to touch the stars of heaven, no one could endure to carry because of his intolerable stench.

¹¹ Therefore he began in great part to cease from his arrogance, being broken in spirit, and to come to knowledge under the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment.

¹² When he himself could not stand his own smell, he said these words: “It is right to be subject to God, and that one who is mortal should not think they are equal to God.”

¹³ The vile man vowed to the sovereign Lord, who now no more would have pity upon him, saying

¹⁴ that the holy city, to which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground and to make it a common graveyard, he would declare free.

¹⁵ Concerning the Jews, whom he had decided not even to count worthy of burial, but to cast them out to the animals with their infants for the birds to devour, he would make them all equal to citizens of Athens.

¹⁶ The holy sanctuary, which before he had plundered, he would adorn with the best offerings, and would restore all the sacred vessels many times multiplied, and out of his own revenues would defray the charges that were required for the sacrifices.

¹⁷ Beside all this, he said that he would become a Jew and would visit every inhabited place, proclaiming the power of God.

²⁸ So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the most intense sufferings, even as he had dealt with other men, ended his life among the mountains by a most piteous fate in a strange land.

²⁹ Philip his foster brother took the body home and then, fearing the son of Antiochus, he withdrew himself to Ptolemy Philometor in Egypt.