7. “In the year 169, when Demetrius the Second was king of Syria, we wrote to tell you about the persecution and the hard times that came upon us in the years after Jason revolted against authority in the Holy Land.
8. Jason and his men set fire to the Temple gates and slaughtered innocent people. Then we prayed to the Lord and he answered our prayers. So we sacrificed animals, gave offerings of grain, lit the lamps in the Temple, and set out the sacred loaves.
9. This is why we urge you to celebrate in the month of Kislev a festival similar to the Festival of Shelters. Written in the year 188.”
10. “From the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea, the Jewish Senate, and Judas, to Aristobulus, a descendant of priests and the teacher of King Ptolemy, and to the Jews in Egypt, greetings and good health.
11. “We thank God because he saved us from great danger. We were like men ready to fight against a king,
12. but God drove the enemy from our holy city.
13. When King Antiochus arrived in Persia, his army seemed impossible to defeat, but they were cut to pieces in the temple of the goddess Nanea by an act of treachery on the part of her priests.
14. King Antiochus had gone to the temple with some of his most trusted advisers, so that he might marry the goddess and then take away most of the temple treasures as a wedding gift.
15. After the priests had laid out the treasure, he and a few of his men went into the temple to collect it. But the priests closed the doors behind him
16. and stoned him and his men from trapdoors hidden in the ceiling. Then they cut up the bodies and threw the heads to the people outside.
17. Praise God for punishing those evil men! Praise him for everything!
18. “On the 25th day of the month of Kislev we will celebrate the Festival of Rededication just as we celebrate the Festival of Shelters. We thought it important to remind you of this, so that you too may celebrate this festival. In this way you will remember how fire appeared when Nehemiah offered sacrifices after he had rebuilt the Temple and the altar.
19. At the time when our ancestors were being taken to exile in Persia, a few devout priests took some fire from the altar and secretly hid it in the bottom of a dry cistern. They hid the fire so well that no one ever discovered it.
20. Years later, when it pleased God, the Persian emperor sent Nehemiah back to Jerusalem, and Nehemiah told the descendants of those priests to find the fire. They reported to us that they had found no fire but only some oily liquid. Nehemiah then told them to scoop some up and bring it to him.
21. When everything for the sacrifice had been placed on the altar, he told the priests to pour the liquid over both the wood and the sacrifice.
22. After this was done and some time had passed, the sun appeared from behind the clouds, and suddenly everything on the altar burst into flames. Everyone looked on in amazement.
23. Then, while the fire was consuming the sacrifice, Jonathan the High Priest led the people in prayer, and Nehemiah and all the people responded.
24. “Nehemiah's prayer went something like this: ‘Lord God, Creator of all things, you are awesome and strong, yet merciful and just. You alone are king. No one but you is kind;
25. no one but you is gracious and just. You are almighty and eternal, for ever ready to rescue Israel from trouble. You chose our ancestors to be your own special people.
26. Accept this sacrifice which we offer on behalf of all Israel; protect your chosen people and make us holy.