Old Testament

New Testament

2 Maccabees 1:1-11 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

1. To the brothers, the Jews, who are throughout Egypt: the brothers, the Jews, who are in Jerusalem and in the region of Judea, send greetings and good peace.

2. May God be gracious to you, and may he remember his covenant, which was spoken to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, his faithful servants.

3. And may he give all of you the heart to worship him, and to do his will, with a great heart and a willing soul.

4. May he throw open your heart with his law and with his precepts, and may he create peace.

5. May he heed your prayers and be reconciled to you, and may he not forsake you in the evil time.

6. And now, in this place, we are praying for you.

7. When Demetrius reigned, in the one hundred and sixty-ninth year, we Jews wrote to you during the tribulation and assaults which overcame us in those years, from the time that Jason withdrew from the holy land and from the kingdom.

8. They burnt the gate, and they shed innocent blood. And we prayed to the Lord and were heard, and we brought forth sacrifices and fine wheat flour, and we kindled the lamps and set forth the loaves.

9. And now, celebrate the days of shelters in the month of Kislev.

10. In the one hundred and eighty-eighth year, from the people who are at Jerusalem and in Judea, and from the Senate and Judas: to Aristobulus, the magistrate of king Ptolemy, who is of the ancestry of anointed priests, and to those Jews who are in Egypt: greetings and good health.

11. Having been freed by God from great peril, we give thanks to him greatly, in as much as we have been struggling against so great a king.

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