Simon Takes Up the Struggle
1Word came to Simon that Tryphon had assembled a large army to come into the land of Judah and crush it. 2He saw that the people were trembling and afraid. So he made his way up to Jerusalem and called an assembly of the people. 3He encouraged them and said to them, “You yourselves know what I have done, with my brothers and my father’s household, on behalf of the laws and the holy place, and the wars and hardships we have seen. 4That is why all my brothers have perished — for Israel’s sake — and I alone am left. 5And now, may I never spare my own life in any hour of trouble, since I am worth no more than my brothers. 6Rather, I will avenge my people and the holy place, and your wives and your children, for all the nations have gathered out of hatred to crush us.” 7At these words the spirit of the people blazed up again, 8and they shouted back in reply, “You are our leader in place of Judas and of Jonathan your brother. 9Fight our war, and whatever you tell us, we will do.” 10So he assembled all the fighting men, hastened to complete the walls of Jerusalem, and fortified it on every side. 11He sent Jonathan son of Absalom with a sizable force to Joppa. Jonathan drove out the people who were there and stayed on in the city.
The Death of Jonathan and the Tomb at Modein
12Tryphon set out from Ptolemais with a large army to enter the land of Judah, and he had Jonathan with him under guard. 13Simon encamped at Hadid, facing the plain. 14Tryphon learned that Simon had stepped into the place of Jonathan his brother and intended to join battle with him, so he sent envoys to him with this message: 15“It is on account of the money your brother Jonathan owed the royal treasury, for the offices he held, that we are detaining him. 16So send us now a hundred silver talents, and two of his sons as hostages, so that once he is released he will not revolt against us; then we will set him free.” 17Simon knew they were speaking to him deceitfully, but he sent for the money and the boys, so as not to bring great hostility on himself from the people, 18who would say that Jonathan had perished because Simon had not sent him the money and the boys. 19So he sent the boys and the hundred talents. But Tryphon broke his word and did not release Jonathan. 20After this Tryphon came to invade the country and crush it, and they circled around by the road that leads to Adoraim. But Simon and his army moved alongside him wherever he went. 21The men of the citadel kept sending envoys to Tryphon, urging him to come to them through the wilderness and to send them provisions. 22Tryphon made all his cavalry ready to go, but that night there was a very heavy snowfall, and on account of the snow he did not come. He broke camp and went into Gilead. 23When he drew near Baskama, he killed Jonathan, and Jonathan was buried there. 24Then Tryphon turned back and went off to his own land. 25Simon sent and recovered the bones of his brother Jonathan and buried him at Modein, the city of his ancestors. 26All Israel lamented him with a great lamentation and mourned for him many days. 27Over the tomb of his father and his brothers Simon built a monument, raising it high so that it could be seen, with polished stone at the back and at the front. 28He set up seven pyramids facing one another, for his father, his mother, and his four brothers. 29Around these he devised an elaborate setting: he surrounded them with great columns, and on the columns he placed full suits of armor as a lasting memorial, and beside the armor he had ships carved, to be seen by all who sail the sea. 30This is the tomb he built at Modein, and it stands to this day.
The Yoke Is Lifted from Israel
31Tryphon, meanwhile, was playing a treacherous game with young King Antiochus, and he killed him. 32He became king in his place, put on the diadem of Asia, and dealt the land a great blow. 33Simon built up the strongholds of Judea, ringing them with tall towers and massive walls, with gates and bars, and he laid in provisions in the strongholds. 34Simon also chose men and sent them to King Demetrius to obtain relief for the country, for Tryphon’s every act was robbery. 35King Demetrius sent him a reply in keeping with this request. He answered him and wrote him a letter like this: 36“King Demetrius to Simon, high priest, Friend of kings, as well as to the elders and the nation of the Jews: greetings. 37We have received the gold crown and the palm branch that you sent, and we stand ready to conclude a full peace with you and to instruct our officials to grant you your exemptions. 38Whatever we have agreed with you stands firm, and the strongholds you have built shall be yours. 39We pardon every oversight and offense committed up to this day, and the crown you owed. Whatever other tax was collected in Jerusalem shall be collected no longer. 40If any of you are fit to be enrolled among our retinue, let them be registered, and let peace prevail between us.” 41In the one hundred and seventieth year the yoke of the nations was lifted from Israel, 42and the people began to write in their documents and contracts, “Year one of Simon, great high priest, commander, and leader of the Jews.”
Simon Takes Gezer and the Citadel
43In those days he encamped against Gezer and ringed it with troops. He built a siege tower, brought it up to the city, battered one of the towers, and took it. 44The men in the siege tower leaped down into the city, and the whole city was thrown into great turmoil. 45The people of the city, with their wives and children, climbed up onto the wall with their garments torn, and they cried out with a loud voice, begging Simon to give them his right hand. 46“Do not deal with us according to our wicked deeds,” they said, “but according to your mercy.” 47Simon came to terms with them and did not fight them. He expelled them from the city, cleansed the houses where the idols had been, and only then did he enter it, with hymns and words of blessing. 48He cast out every uncleanness from it and settled in it men who would keep the law. He made it stronger still, and he built himself a residence there. 49The men of the citadel in Jerusalem were cut off from going out into the countryside and coming back to buy and sell. They grew very hungry, and a good many of them died of famine. 50They cried out to Simon to receive his right hand, and he granted it. He expelled them from there and cleansed the citadel of its pollutions. 51In the one hundred and seventy-first year, on the twenty-third of the second month, they entered it with praise and palm branches, with lyres and cymbals and harps, with hymns and with songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and driven out of Israel. 52He ordained that this day be celebrated with gladness year after year. He strengthened the fortifications of the temple mount alongside the citadel, and he and his men lived there. 53Simon saw that his son John had grown into a man, so he made him commander of all the forces, and John lived at Gezer.
