Hermon and His Elephants
3 Maccabees 5, verse 1. Then the king, filled with wrath and anger and inflexible in every respect, summoned Hermon, the keeper of the elephants. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 2. On the following day, he ordered that he take all the elephants—five hundred in number—and get them drunk with plenty of unmingled wine and abundant handfuls of frankincense. Then after they had grown wild from the bounteous abundance of drink, he was to lead them where the Jews would meet their fate. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 3. When he had issued these directives, he resumed his feasting, alone with those of his friends and of the army who were particularly hostile toward the Jews. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 4. Then Hermon, caretaker of the elephants, obediently carried out all his orders. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 5. The servants responsible for the Jews went out at evening, binding the hands of these unfortunate people, and managed to keep them in custody all night. They expected the whole nation would meet a final destruction. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 6. But the Jews, thinking they were deprived of all protection from the Gentiles because of being bound on all sides, 3 Maccabees 5, verse 7. called out to the Lord Almighty, Sovereign of all authority, their merciful God and Father. With tears and with a cry not easily silenced, they prayed 3 Maccabees 5, verse 8. that He divert the unholy plot against them with a vengeance by a glorious appearance, and save them from the fate now present before them. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 9. Their supplication went up earnestly to heaven. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 10. Now Hermon got his pitiful elephants drunk by filling them up with a great abundance of wine and frankincense. Then he came to the court early in the morning to make his report to the king. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 11. But God sent on the king a deep sleep, that good gift from the beginning of time which he has cast on those He favors during both night and the day. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 12. Thus the king was restrained from his awful plan by the sweet and deep sleep from the Lord. He was disappointed in his lawless and unbending scheme. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 13. But when the Jews escaped the appointed hour, they praised their holy God, and again beseeched Him who is easily reconciled to show the strength of His almighty hand to the haughty Gentiles. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 14. By now it was almost the middle of the tenth hour, and the man in charge of banquet invitations arranged the guests together, came forward, and nudged the king. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 15. As soon as he finally roused him, he made a report about what was happening and informed him that the hour of the banquet had already passed. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 16. But as the king considered this, he returned to his drinking, and commanded those around him at the banquet to locate opposite him. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 17. When this was done, he urged them to give themselves to still more eating and drinking, so the effect of the banquet would be still more raucous. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 18. As the festivities progressed, the king summoned Hermon and with a direct threat asked why the Jews had made it alive through the present day. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 19. But when Hermon declared that while it was still night he had done what was ordered, the king's friends confirmed this. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 20. Then overcome with a savagery worse than that of Phalaris, the king said that because of the day's sleep they received favor; but without delay on the coming day, Hermon must ready the elephants for the extermination of the godless Jews. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 21. So when the king had spoken, all the guests present willingly and joyfully agreed with the plan; then each departed for home. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 22. However, they did not use the night for sleep, but to devise all sorts of insults for those they assumed had met their doom.
God Delivers His People
3 Maccabees 5, verse 23. As soon as the cock crowed at dawn, Hermon harnessed the beasts and set them in motion in the great colonnade. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 24. Crowds had gathered around the city for this pitiful sight, even before dawn. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 25. But the Jews, at their last breath and at the last moment, made a tearful supplication in mournful songs. They stretched out their hands to heaven, and prayed to the Almighty God to quickly help them again. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 26. The rays of the sun were not yet spreading when Hermon stood by and called the king and his friends, who were waiting. He pointed to the door and showed that what the king desired was ready. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 27. But when the king received the report, he was terrified at the unusual invitation to come out. Completely overcome with bewilderment, he asked what this was which had been done so quickly. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 28. This was an act of God, Master over all things, who placed a forgetfulness in the king's mind about what had been plotted before. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 29. But Hermon and all the king's friends told him, “The beasts and the troops are ready, O king, according to your eager purpose.” 3 Maccabees 5, verse 30. But at these words, he was filled with deep anger, because his whole plot had been scattered from his mind by God's providence. Then he glared at them and threatened, 3 Maccabees 5, verse 31. “If your parents or children were here, I would furnish them as a lavish feast for the wild beasts, instead of these innocent people, who have shown me and my fathers complete and unbending loyalty in everything asked of them. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 32. In fact, if it were not for my familiarity with you and your usefulness, you would be deprived of life rather than them.” 3 Maccabees 5, verse 33. Thus, Hermon endured an unexpected and dangerous threat, and his eyes shifted and his countenance fell. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 34. Then one by one the king's friends slunk away sullenly, and each one returned to his own business. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 35. But when the Jews heard what the king said, they praised God as the revealed Lord and King of kings, since this happened to them because of His help.
The Ambivalent King
3 Maccabees 5, verse 36. Meanwhile, the king restarted the banquet. He encouraged the guests to resume their merrymaking as before. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 37. Then he summoned Hermon and threatened him, saying, “How many times must you be given orders about these same things, you worthless wretch? 3 Maccabees 5, verse 38. Equip the elephants once again to crush the Jews tomorrow.” 3 Maccabees 5, verse 39. But his administrators who were reclining together with him, curious as to his unstable mind, urged him, saying, 3 Maccabees 5, verse 40. “How long, O king, are you going to tease us as if we were irrational, for you commanded now for the third time to destroy them? Then again you took back your command and what seemed good to you. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 41. Because of this, the city is in turmoil, expecting you to act, and is in danger of being torn apart by the growing crowds.” 3 Maccabees 5, verse 42. At this point, the king, a Phalaris in every way, was filled with insanity, and counting as nothing his changes of mind concerning the care of the Jews, swore a firm oath to send them to Hades without delay, mangled by the feet and knees of the wild beasts. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 43. He would then attack the Jewish land and abruptly level it to the ground with fire and the spear, and burn down for all time the temple where they made sacrifices, which had been made inaccessible to him. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 44. Then his friends and officials departed joyfully, and confidently assigned the forces to the key places in the city to keep watch. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 45. Then the keeper of the elephants brought the beasts almost to a state of madness, so to speak, with the sweetest drinks of wine mixed with frankincense; and he equipped them with frightful devices. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 46. So about dawn, when the city was filled with countless hordes of onlookers filling the hippodrome, he went into the court and urged the king to fulfill his purpose. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 47. The king then worked up his depraved mind into a fit of wrath, and rushed out in full strength with all the beasts. With hardened heart, he wanted to see with his own eyes the lamentable and evil crushing of the Jews. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 48. The Jews saw the cloud of dust stirred up by the elephants as they came out of the gate, the armed forces behind them. They also heard the trampling of the throng and loud, boisterous noise. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 49. They considered this the last moment of their lives and the end of their wretched uncertainty. Turning to one another in sorrow, they kissed each other with tears, and embracing their loved ones, they fell on their necks, parents and children and mothers and daughters, women with infants at their breasts drawing their last milk. 3 Maccabees 5, verse 50. Nonetheless, when they recalled the help from heaven they had received earlier, they suddenly threw themselves face down, women taking the infants from their breasts, 3 Maccabees 5, verse 51. and they cried out in a loud voice, beseeching the Master of all to have mercy on them. For they were standing at the very gates of Hades.