16. For there were letters written to the Jews from Lysias, which, indeed, were composed in this way: "Lysias, to the people of the Jews: greetings.
17. John and Absalom, who had been sent from you to deliver your writings, requested that I would implement these things that were signified by them.
18. Therefore, whatever things could be brought before the king, I have presented them. And he has conceded to those things that are permitted.
19. If, therefore, you will keep yourselves faithful in these matters, then, from now on, I will endeavor to be a cause of your good.
20. But as for other particulars, I have given orders by word, both to these, and to those who have been sent by me, to confer with you.
21. Farewell. In the one hundred forty-eighth year, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of Dioscorus."
22. But the letter of the king contained this: "King Antiochus to Lysias, his brother: greetings.
23. Since our father has been transferred among the gods, we are willing that those who are in our kingdom should act without tumult, and should attend diligently to their own concerns.
24. We have heard that the Jews would not consent to my father to convert to the rites of the Greeks, but that they chose to keep to their own institutions, and, because of this, that they ask of us to leave them to their own laws.