The Prayer of Eleazar
3 Maccabees 6, verse 1. Now there was a certain man, Eleazar, famous among the priests of the land, who reached the prime of his life in old age and adorned his life with every virtue. He directed the elders around him to call on the holy God, and he prayed as follows: 3 Maccabees 6, verse 2. “O King, mighty in power, O Most High, the Almighty God, who governs all creation in mercy, 3 Maccabees 6, verse 3. look upon the seed of Abraham and the descendants of the saintly man Jacob, because a dedicated portion of Your people, O Father, are being unjustly destroyed as strangers in a foreign land. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 4. Pharaoh abounded in chariots and was the master of this Egypt when he arose with unlawful boldness, a boasting tongue, and an arrogant army. But You destroyed him by drowning him in the sea and appeared as a light of mercy to the nation Israel. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 5. Sennacherib also boasted in his countless forces, because this oppressive king of the Assyrians had already taken the whole world under his authority by the spear. Then he was lifted up against Your holy city and spoke grievously with pride and insults. But You shattered him, O Master, and made Your power visible to many nations. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 6. Then when the three companions in Babylon willingly gave their lives to fire—for they would not bow to vain things—You sent dew upon the fiery furnace and saved them to their last hair. You sent them back unharmed and turned the flames against their adversaries. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 7. Daniel was thrown to the lions below ground as food for lions because of jealous slander. But You brought him unharmed back up to daylight. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 8. Jonah was decomposing in the belly of the deep-sea monster. But You, O Father, watched over him and returned him unharmed to all his kin. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 9. So now, O hater of insolence, O merciful Defender of all, appear speedily to those of the family of Israel, under outrageous abuse by abominable and lawless Gentiles. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 10. “Even if our life has become enmeshed in unrighteousness during our captivity, save us from the hand of our adversaries, O Master, and destroy us by whatever death You choose. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 11. Only do not allow these vain-minded men to praise their useless things as they destroy those You love, saying, ‘Not even their God could rescue them.’ 3 Maccabees 6, verse 12. But You, who have all strength and authority, O Eternal One, look down on us now. Have mercy on us, who are being deprived of life like traitors by the thoughtless insults of lawless men. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 13. Let the Gentiles cower at Your unconquerable power this day, O Honorable One who has the power to save the race of Jacob. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 14. This entire multitude of babes and their parents beseech You with tears. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 15. Let it be revealed to all the Gentiles, O Lord, that You are with us, and that You did not turn Your face from us. For as You said, ‘Not even in the land of their enemies did I neglect them.’ Do this for us, O Lord.”
The Jews Are Delivered
3 Maccabees 6, verse 16. When Eleazar finished his prayer, the king arrived at the hippodrome with the beasts and with all the haughtiness of his army. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 17. Then the Jews who saw him cried out in a loud voice to heaven, so much so that the valleys nearby echoed and brought unrestrained fear on the whole army. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 18. Then the Almighty God, most glorious and full of truth, manifested His holy face and thrust open the doors of heaven, from which two glorious angels descended, terrible in form, and visible to all except the Jews. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 19. They attacked the enemy forces, filled them with confusion and fright, and bound them with immovable fetters. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 20. The king's body was seized with a tremor, and he even forgot his contemptible vocabulary. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 21. Then the beasts turned against the armed forces who were behind them, and they trampled and killed them.
Ptolemy's Change of Heart
3 Maccabees 6, verse 22. The king's wrath was turned to compassion and tears because of the plot he devised earlier, 3 Maccabees 6, verse 23. for he heard the wailing and saw all the people who fell to destruction. So, weeping with anger, he threatened his friends, shouting, 3 Maccabees 6, verse 24. “You act as if you were the king yourselves, and you exceed tyrants in your savagery and attack even me, your benefactor. You scheme to deprive me of my reign and my life itself with secret plots which are unprofitable to the kingdom. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 25. Who drove these people from their houses—who faithfully kept our strongholds—and stupidly gathered all of them here? 3 Maccabees 6, verse 26. Who so unlawfully entangled in terrible dangers these, who from the beginning differed from all other nations in their goodwill toward us and repeatedly accepted the worst pitfalls known to man? 3 Maccabees 6, verse 27. Release them! Undo their unjust bonds. Send them back home in peace and beg forgiveness for what you did to them. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 28. Set free the sons of the heavenly and living Almighty God, who has provided uninterrupted tranquility for our affairs from the time of our fathers until now.” 3 Maccabees 6, verse 29. Thus he said these things. So the Jews, who were released immediately, kept praising their holy God and Savior, for they had at last escaped death. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 30. Then the king returned to the city and summoned the man in charge of the treasury. He commanded that he provide wine and everything else necessary so the Jews could feast for seven days. For the king thought it fitting that they celebrate their deliverance and rejoice in the very place they expected to meet their doom. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 31. Then those who had been treated disgracefully and were close to death, or rather stood at death's door, were given a special invitation. They organized a feast of deliverance from the bitter and mournful fate of death. Filled with joy, their celebration took the place of desolation and grave clothes. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 32. They ceased their chanting of lamentations and took up an ode of their fathers, praising their wonderworking God and Savior. They halted all wailing and lamenting and formed choirs as a symbol of joy and peace. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 33. Similarly, the king called a great feast to celebrate these things, and ceaselessly and magnificently gave thanks to heaven for his unplanned experience of personal salvation. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 34. Those who believed previously that the Jews were going to be made food for the birds unto destruction, and thus registered them with glee, sighed as they were covered with shame, for their fire-breathing aggression was shamefully extinguished. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 35. But the Jews, as we said before, formed the aforementioned choir and spent their time feasting with psalms of a joyful thanksgiving. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 36. They established a public ritual to commemorate these things within their entire community for the generations to come. They structured this observance as a festival, not for drunkenness and gluttony, but because of the salvation which they received from God. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 37. They then requested that the king dismiss them to return back home. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 38. Now their registration took place from the twenty-fifth of Pachon until the fourth of Epiphi, that is, forty days. They faced destruction from the fifth of Epiphi until the seventh, that is, three days. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 39. During this time the Lord over all things manifested His mercy with great glory and saved them all, together and unharmed. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 40. Thus they feasted with everything provided by the king until the fourteenth day, when they also petitioned to be sent away. 3 Maccabees 6, verse 41. The king immediately granted their request and wrote for them the letter, copied below, to the commanders in each city, magnanimously stating his concern for them: