November 18, 2013, Reading

First Maccabees   1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63

1:10 And they all put diadems on themselves after his death, and their sons after them, for many years; and evils were multiplied on the earth.

1:11 And there went forth from among them a sinful root, Antiochus the illustrious, the son of king Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome. And he reigned in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks.

1:12 In those days, there went forth from Israel sons of iniquity, and they persuaded many, saying: “Let us go and negotiate a covenant with the Gentiles that are all around us. For since we have withdrawn from them, many evils have found us.”

1:13 And the word seemed good in their eyes.

1:14 And some of the people determined to do this, and they went to the king. And he gave them the power to act according to the justice of the Gentiles.

1:15 And they built a sports arena in Jerusalem, according to the laws of the Nations. –

1:41 Her sanctuary was desolate, like a place of solitude, her feast days were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into disgrace, her honors into nothing.

1:42 Her shame was multiplied according to her glory, and her loftiness was turned into lamentation

. 1:43 And king Antiochus wrote to all his kingdom, that all the people must be one, and that each one should relinquish his own law. 

1:54 And these ordered the cities of Judah to sacrifice.

1:55 And many from the people, who had abandoned the law of the Lord, were gathered together by them. And they committed evils upon the land.

1:56 And they drove the people of Israel into hiding and into the secret places of fugitives.

1:57 On the fifteenth day of the month of Kislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, king Antiochus set up the abominable idol of desolation on the altar of God, and they built altars throughout all the surrounding cities of Judah. 

1:61 By their power, they did these things to the people of Israel, as they were discovered in the cities, month after month.

1:62 And on the twenty-fifth day of the month, they sacrificed on that altar which was opposite the high altar.

1:63 And the women who circumcised their sons were butchered, according to the order of king Antiochus.