§ 9. The defeat of Cendebaus.-Judæa was now cleared of foreign garrisons, and Simon ruled as an independent prince. For some years the land enjoyed rest and prosperity, and our authority, in a passage to be quoted later, waxes eloquent over the good old days of Simon.

In gratitude for the results achieved by Mattathias and his sons, the Jewish people, so we are told, passed a decree in which they confirmed Simon in his dual offices of leader and high priest, and made them hereditary in his family (September, 141 B.C.).

Three years after this Demetrius II was taken prisoner by Mithridates I, King of Parthia (138 B.C.). His brother, Antiochus VII Sidetes, who was in Rhodes, heard of Demetrius's captivity, sailed to Syria and opened a new campaign against Tryphon. He was more successful than Demetrius. Tryphon was finally besieged in Apamea and put to death. While the issue of the fight between him and Tryphon was doubtful, Antiochus (as was usual now) had sought the help of the Jews, and confirmed and extended the privileges of Simon. But as his prospects became brighter, his attitude changed. He sent to demand the restitution of Joppa and Gazara and of the citadel at Jerusalem. In lieu of them he would accept a money payment of 1,000 talents. Simon at once refused to comply.

And Athenobius the king's Friend came to Jerusalem; and he saw the glory of Simon, and the cupboard of gold and silver vessels, and his great attendance, and he was amazed; and he reported to him the king's words. And Simon answered, and said unto him,

"We have neither taken other men's land, nor have we possession of that which appertaineth to others, but of the inheritance of our fathers; howbeit, it was had in possession of our enemies wrongfully for a certain time. But we, having opportunity, hold fast the inheritance of our fathers. But as touching Joppa and Gazara, which thou demandest, they did great harm among the people throughout our country, we will give a hundred talents for them.'

And he answered him not a word, but returned in a rage to the king, and reported unto him these words, and the glory of Simon, and all that he had seen: and the king was exceeding wroth.

Antiochus Sidetes proceeded to send an army under Cendebæus to compel Simon to yield to his demands. But his attempt at force utterly failed.

A BATTLE AT MODIN

765

And the king appointed Cendebæus chief captain of the sea coast, and gave him forces of foot and horse: and he commanded him to encamp before Judæa, and he commanded him to build up Kidron, and to fortify the gates, and that he should fight against the people: but the king pursued Tryphon.

And Cendebæus came to Jamnia, and began to provoke the people, and to invade Judæa, and to take the people captive, and to slay them. And he built Kidron, and set horsemen there, and forces of foot, to the end that issuing out they might make outroads upon the ways of Judæa, according as the king commanded him.

And John went up from Gazara, and told Simon his father what Cendebæus was doing. And Simon called his two eldest sons, Judas and John, and said unto them, 'I and my brethren and my father's house have fought the battles of Israel from our youth, even unto this day; and things have prospered in our hands, that we should deliver Israel oftentimes. But now I am old, and ye moreover, by his mercy, are of a sufficient age: : be ye instead of me and my brother, and go forth and fight for our nation; but let the help which is from heaven be with you.'

And he chose out of the country twenty thousand men of war and horsemen, and they went against Cendebæus, and slept at Modin. And rising up in the morning, they went into the plain, and, behold, a great host came to meet them, of footmen and horsemen and there was a brook betwixt them. And he encamped over against them, he and his people: and he saw that the people were afraid to pass over the brook, and he passed over first, and the men saw him, and passed over after him. And he divided the people, and set the horsemen in the midst of the footmen: but the enemies' horsemen were exceeding many.

And they sounded with the trumpets; and Cendebæus and his army were put to the rout, and there fell of them many wounded to death, but they that were left fled to the stronghold: at that time was Judas John's brother wounded: but John pursued after them, till he came unto Kidron, which Cendebæus had built; and they fled unto the towers that are in the fields of Azotus; and he burned it with fire; and there fell of them about two thousand men. And he returned into Judæa in peace.

§ 10. The death of Simon.-Simon was now no more disturbed by any Syrian incursion. The peace and independence of Judæa were secured. Yet Simon too, like all the other sons of Mattathias, was destined to die a violent death. But whereas the other sons had been killed by a foreign enemy, Simon fell by the treacherous stroke of his own son-in-law. The tale of his death is thus related

to us. The date was February, 135 B.C.

And Ptolemy the son of Abubus had been appointed captain for the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold; for he was the high priest's son in law. And his heart was lifted up, and he was minded to make himself master of the country, and he took counsel deceitfully against Simon and his sons, to make away with them.

Now Simon was visiting the cities that were in the country, and taking care for the good ordering of them; and he went down to Jericho, himself and Mattathias and Judas his sons, in the hundred and seventy and seventh year, in the eleventh month, the same is the month Sebat: and the son of Abubus received them deceitfully into the little stronghold that is called Dok, which he had built, and made them a great banquet, and hid men there. And when Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his men rose up, and took their arms, and came in upon Simon into the banqueting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and certain of his servants. And he committed a great iniquity, and recompensed evil for good.

§ 11. A panegyric upon Simon.-Yet though Simon's reignfor reign we may justly call it-ended thus tragically, it was upon the whole a seven-year period of advance and prosperity. Not unjustified by any means are the glowing words, to which I referred before, in which our excellent historian, from whom we now regretfully take leave, characterizes in terms of praise and pride the days of Simon. It is interesting to compare the words of the historian with the one hundred and first Psalm (p. 574). Whether Simon attempted to carry out the Psalmist's conception of the ideal prince, or whether the Psalmist based his ideal upon Simon, cannot here be discussed or decided.

And the land had rest all the days of Simon: and he sought the good of his nation; and his authority and his glory was well-pleasing to them all his days. And amid

THE PRAISE OF SIMON

767

all his glory he took Joppa for a haven, and made it an entrance for the isles of the sea; and he enlarged the borders of his nation, and gat possession of the country; and he gathered together a great number of captives, and gat the dominion of Gazara, and Bethsura, and the citadel, and he took away from it its uncleannesses; and there was none that resisted him.

And they tilled their land in peace, and the land gave her increase, and the trees of the plains their fruit. The ancient men sat in the streets, they communed all of them together of good things, and the young men put on glorious and warlike apparel. He provided victuals for the cities, and furnished them with all manner of munition, until the name of his glory was named unto the end of the earth.

He made peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy and they sat each man under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid: and there ceased in the land any that fought against them: and the kings were discomfited in those days. And he strengthened all those of his people that were brought low: the law he searched out, and every lawless and wicked person he took away. He glorified the sanctuary, and the vessels of the temple he multiplied.

CONCLUSION

THE First Book of the Maccabees closes with the death of Simon, and here my story of the Maccabees will close likewise. It is just possible, as we saw in the last section, that one or two Psalms may refer to Simon, but it is exceedingly unlikely that any of them, or indeed that any other words of the existing Hebrew Bible, were written after his death. It is therefore fitting that in this Bible for Home Reading the history of the Jews should also terminate at this date-three hundred years after Nehemiah's second visit to Jerusalem. In other books than mine must be read the decline and fall of the Maccabean house, and the record of the two hundred years which elapsed between the death of Simon and the destruction of the Jewish state in the reign of the Roman Emperor Vespasian. The story of these two hundred years, culminating, as they do, in a long agony, which continued under various forms far beyond Vespasian, is one of the strangest and saddest chapters in the history of mankind.

The religion of the Jews in its essence and fundamentals was too great and universal to be confined to the limits of a single people. The combination of such a religion with a small political community produced a situation which the Roman Empire made more and more anomalous and impossible. A religion which has national rites must also have national dogmas; but a God who is one and universal must be worshipped with rites in which all men can join. But this equalization of rite with doctrine and dogma was the work of ages; and even now, from causes into which I cannot here enter, it is only in process of accomplishment. One great stage in the process has, however, been reached, and in England we find its best and fullest illustration. We English Jews know but one people, one nation, one country, as our own. Our religion and our nation are separate and distinct, and just as there are millions who are of our nation but not of our religion, so there are millions who belong to our religion and are not of our nation. The further and final stage, when our religion will be more comprehensive still,