Old Testament

New Testament

2 Maccabees 5:7-14 New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE)

7. Even so, he did not gain control of the government, but in the end received only disgrace for his treachery, and once again took refuge in the country of the Ammonites.

8. At length he met a miserable end. Called to account before Aretas, ruler of the Arabians, he fled from city to city, hunted by all, hated as an apostate from the laws, abhorred as the executioner of his country and his compatriots. Driven into Egypt,

9. he set out by sea for the Lacedaemonians, among whom he hoped to find protection because of his relations with them. He who had exiled so many from their country perished in exile;

10. and he who had cast out so many to lie unburied went unmourned and without a funeral of any kind, nor any place in the tomb of his ancestors.

11. When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm.

12. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses.

13. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of young women and infants.

14. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.

Read complete chapter 2 Maccabees 5