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2 Maccabees 5:9-11
New Catholic Bible
2 Maccabees 5:9-11
New Catholic Bible
9 From there he crossed the sea to Sparta, where he hoped to obtain sanctuary because of the Spartans’ kinship[a] with him. There, he who had sent into exile so many children of his homeland, died himself in exile. 10 Furthermore, this man who had cast out so many to be unburied now had no one to mourn for him, with no funeral of any kind and no place in the tomb of his ancestors.[b]
11 Antiochus IV Epiphanes Ravages the Temple.[c] When news of what had happened reached the king, he came to the conclusion that Judea was in revolt. He therefore set out from Egypt, raging like a wild beast, and took the city by storm.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Maccabees 5:9 Spartans’ kinship: see 1 Mac 12:20f concerning this fictitious kinship between Jews and Spartans.
- 2 Maccabees 5:10 Remaining unburied constituted an infamous punishment for the Jews (see 1 Mac 7:17; Deut 28:26; Jer 7:33; 22:19).
- 2 Maccabees 5:11 Obstructed in Egypt by the Romans (see Dan 11:27-30), the Syrian king retaliates against the Jews. The number of the victims is inflated, and the author exaggerates the event as well: he adds to the massacre the pillage that preceded it by a year (169 B.C.). What is important is solely the lesson that he draws from it: Israel has brought misfortune upon itself by sinning against God.
