And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

The Angel thus explains it :—

And the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many : he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

And again the Angel said :—

And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.

Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow:* and many shall fall down slain.

And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.

At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.

For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be

Be overcome.

grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant : so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

Heliodorus.

66

COMMENT.-Seleucus, the raiser of taxes, was murdered by His younger brother, Antiochus, had been sent to Rome as a hostage for the payment of the fine. He fled secretly from home, and by flatteries and fair promises obtained the kingdom of Syria, which was the right of his young nephew. He took the surname of Epiphanes, meaning remarkable or illustrious, but a vile person," was the name long before given to him by the AllSeeing. He had not the honour of the kingdom, for he only reigned by sufferance of the Romans. He did, however, become very powerful for a time, and being very cunning, he obtained possession of the richest parts of the province, and seized the treasures of them as no predecessor of his had done; but at the same time he was most lavish of them, squandering them in drunken feasts to the Roman gods, whom he preferred to those of his Greek forefathers.

His doings towards the Holy Land and the priesthood shall be told from the Maccabees in the next lesson, though they are briefly referred to by Daniel, but we will here follow the rest of the prophecy respecting his conduct towards Egypt. As long as his sister, Cleopatra, lived as queen-mother of Egypt, he kept the peace, but after her death, he made war on her son, young Ptolemy Philometer (mother-lover) and overthrew his power. Indeed, the poor youth was betrayed by his own servants, "they who ate of his meat," who set up his younger brother for his rival; his army was overcome, and many Egyptians slain.

Peace was made between the uncle and nephew, who met and had a hollow reconciliation, when they both spake lies at one table, but they hated each other as much as ever, and soon began the war again. Antiochus again invaded Egypt, but unsuccessfully, for Ptolemy had asked succour from the Romans, and ships were sent from Macedonia to his assistance, so that Antiochus was forced to give up his plans for subduing Egypt, and returned in great wrath and fury.

This is the foreign history of the early part of this wicked man's reign, which was the exact fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy

LESSON XXX.

THE APOSTASY OF JASON.

B.C. 170.-2 MACCABEES iv. 7-25.

But after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias laboured underhard to be high priest,

Promising unto the king by intercession three hundred and threescore talents of silver, and of another revenue eighty talents:

Beside this, he promised to assign an hundred and fifty more, if he might have license to set him up a place for exercise, and for the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen, and to write them of Jerusalem by the name of Antiochians.

Which when the king had granted, and he had gotten into his hand the rule, he forthwith brought his own nation to the Greekish fashion.

For he built gladly a place of exercise under the tower itself, and brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat. Now such was the height of Greek fashions, and increase of heathenish manners, through the exceeding profaneness of Jason, that ungodly wretch, and not high priest;

That the priests had no courage to serve any more at the altar, but despising the temple, and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened to be partakers of the unlawful allowance in the place of exercise, after the game of Discus called them forth;

Not setting by the honours of their fathers, but liking the glory of the Grecians best of all.

By reason whereof sore calamity came upon them: for they had them to be their enemies and avengers, whose custom they followed so earnestly, and unto whom they desired to be alike in all things.

For it is not a light thing to do wickedly against the laws of God: but the time following shall declare these things.

Now when the game that was used every fifth year was kept at Tyrus, the king being present,

This ungracious Jason sent special messengers from Jerusalem, who were Antiochians, to carry three hundred drachms of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, which even the bearers thereof thought fit not to bestow upon the sacrifice, because it was not convenient, but to be reserved for other charges.

This money then, in regard of the sender, was appointed to Hercules' sacrifice; but because of the bearers thereof, it was employed to the making of gallies.

Three years afterward Jason sent Menelaus, to bear the money unto the king, and to put him in mind of certain necessary matters.

But he being brought to the presence of the king, when he had magnified him for the glorious appearance of his power, got the priesthood to himself, offering more than Jason by three hundred talents of silver.

So he came with the king's mandate, bringing nothing worthy the high priesthood, but having the fury of a cruel tyrant, and the rage of a savage beast.

Then Jason, who had undermined his own brother, being undermined by another, was compelled to flee into the country of the Ammonites.

Now Menelaus, supposing that he had gotten a convenient time, stole certain vessels of gold out of the temple, and gave some of them to Andronicus, and some he sold into Tyrus and the cities round about.

Which when Onias knew of a surety, he reproved him, and withdrew himself into a sanctuary at Daphne, that lieth by Antiochia.

Wherefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus apart, prayed him to get Onias into his hands; who being persuaded thereunto, and coming to Onias in deceit, gave him his right hand with oaths; and though he were suspected by him, yet persuaded he him to come forth of the sanctuary: whom forthwith he shut up without regard of justice.

For the which cause not only the Jews, but many also of other nations, took great indignation, and were much grieved for the unjust murder of the man.

COMMENT. For the first time a son of Aaron was base enough to apply to a heathen prince for the High Priesthood, which had now become the governorship of the Jews. Jason, the brother of Onias, bribed Antiochus to depose the true High Priest and have him carried into captivity at Antioch. He also asked as a favour to be allowed to build a gymnasium, or place of exercise, at Jerusalem, in which the Jews might be trained in Greek games, offering another large sum for the permission.

This form of temptation was a new one, and to understand its force we must take into account that the Greeks of earlier times had worked to the highest point to which man could go without outward Divine aid in the search for wisdom, science, truth, and beauty, and though their successors were very degenerate, they were the acknowledged teachers of the civilized world. To be what we should now call a gentleman, implied training in Greek philosophy, poetry, and athletic exercises. So trained, a man was on a par with all other educated men ; without such teaching he was a mere barbarian in their eyes, whatever his rank or attainments. Now the philosophy, having won a glimpse of the truth, agreed with the bare foundation of truth to which the Sadducees

reduced their faith by rejecting the Prophecies, and thus made a point where a somewhat free-thinking Jew could meet a Greek, who held that there was an Eternal Wisdom and Power above, and that all else was just a fancy which pleased the vulgar in each nation, and had become interwoven with their old poetry, history, and state customs. And as many more persons, especially these Greeks themselves, maintained the shrines of the Greek idols, and loved the grand old songs of Homer, it would have seemed to worldly minds that they were the best, and that the worship of the God of the Jews, with all its rites and sacrifices, just hindered the nation from taking their rank among others; while the athletic training developed the power and grace of the body to the utmost, and opened the way to competition in those games-races, throwing the disc, wrestling, and the like—in which the Greeks placed their chief glory.

So it seemed to Jason and only too many of the priests, who forsook their duties in the Temple to practise these games, which were abhorrent to a religious-ininded Jew, since they were performed by naked men and were besides connected with heathen rites. But Jason was bent on courting the king, and when Antiochus came to Tyre to keep the feast of Hercules, as the Greeks called Melkarth or Moloch, the old Tyrian idol, he sent a large present by some of the Jews; but, fallen as they were, they could not bring themselves to carry a contribution to Moloch, and gave it to the Tyrian fleet.

The next bribe Jason sent was used against him; Menelaus, whom the best authorities declare to have been his own brother, offered a still higher sum for the priesthood, whereupon Jason was deposed and fled to the Ammonites. Menelaus could only raise the money by selling the vessels of the Temple; and on being severely reproved by the eldest brother, the deposed Onias, then living at Antioch, contrived that this good man should be put to death, to the great indignation, not only of the Jews, but of the Greeks and Syrians, who had watched his holy life at Antioch.

Zechariah is thought to refer to these troubles in his eleventh chapter.

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

*