Глава V

The king's three-fold, unfulfilled order to trample the Jews by elephants. ( 3Mac 5:1-36 ). 3Mac.5:1 Then the king, filled with intense anger and unchanging in his hatred, called Hermon, who was in charge of the elephants, and ordered the next day all the elephants, five hundred in number, to be fed with incense in the largest possible receptions and given plenty of whole wine to drink, and when they became enraged from the abundance of drink given to them, to lead them out against the Jews, doomed to meet death. The highly stimulating effect of incense, in large doses, is also known from other sources (Dioscorid. I, 70). 30 tbsp. elephants were driven “into a frenzied state by drinking fragrant wine flavored with incense.” – The number of elephants (500) seems to be greatly exaggerated. Ptolemy II Philadelphus had only 300 of them by the end of his reign. – Ptolemy Philopator had only 73 elephants at the Battle of Raphia. - “Bring them out against the Jews, doomed to meet death...” Greek: εισαγαγείν προς συνάντησιν τού μόρου τών Ιουδαίων..., glor.: “tale of the meeting of the death of the Jews...”. The writer personifies the death of the Jews, and depicts elephants as its instruments, which came to meet it in order to become the executors of its terrible work. 3Mac.5:2-3 Having given such an order, he went to the feast, inviting especially those of his friends and soldiers who were at enmity against the Jews; and Hermon, the commander of the elephants, carried out his command exactly. The ministers appointed at this time went in the evening to tie the hands of the unfortunate ones, and others took precautions against them, thinking that through the night the whole people would suffer final destruction. “Let’s go... tie the hands of the unfortunate...” By order of the king, this should have been done even earlier (III: 18), and is indeed mentioned as having already been done (IV: 8). Here the mention of this once again causes only one bewilderment. 3Mac.5:4 The Jews, who seemed to the pagans to be deprived of all protection, for they were constrained everywhere by heavy bonds, called on the almighty Lord, who rules over all power, their merciful God and Father, calling on everyone with an incessant cry with tears, begging him to turn away the wicked intent from them and save them from His death prepared for them a glorious phenomenon. God is called here the Father of Israel, as its Creator, loving Educator, Leader and Trustee; Wed Deut. XXXII: 18; Isa LXIV: 8, 16; LXIII: 8; Comrade XIII: 4 and in many other places - especially later books. 3Mac 5:5-6 Their earnest prayer ascended into heaven. Hermon, having given water to the indomitable elephants, after giving them plenty of wine and incense, came to the palace in the morning to report this to the king. But God sent the king sound sleep, this good gift, sent down by Him from time immemorial, night and day, to everyone to whom He wants. “Sound sleep…”, Greek, υανου μέρος…, slav. “part of the dream...” Perhaps here the writer wanted to express the thought this way: God sent the king a fit of sleep, that is, a dream of some abnormal strength and pleasantness. 3Mac.5:7-8 By God's dispensation, immersed in a pleasant and deep sleep, he forgot about his lawless enterprise and was completely deceived in his inevitable decision. The Jews, having escaped the appointed hour, praised their Holy God and again begged the Compassionate One to show the proud pagans the power of His almighty right hand. “By getting rid of the appointed hour...”, that is, the misfortune that awaited them at the appointed hour. - “They begged the Benevolent One...”, Who could have allowed this misfortune in His anger at the people, but by heeding the prayers of this people, could just as quickly reconcile with them and save them (cf. 2 Mac VII: 33). 3Mac.5:9 When half-past ten o'clock had already passed, the servant to whom the invitations were entrusted, seeing that those invited had already gathered, went in to the king to wake him up. Waking him up with difficulty, he announced that the time for the feast was passing, and gave an account of his instructions. Having believed him and gone to drink, the king ordered those who came to the feast to recline directly opposite him. “Half past ten o’clock...” – our fourth in the afternoon. The royal table began, therefore, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon - the usual time of feasts. The proposed execution of the Jews was supposed to be a kind of “dessert” or the end of the royal feast. But the tardiness of the king and the intemperate prolongation of the feast would significantly reduce the pleasure of the final spectacle, and therefore it is postponed. 3Mac 5:10-12 When this was accomplished, he encouraged those gathered at the feast to spend the actual part of the feast in full joy. During a long conversation, the king, calling Hermon, sternly and menacingly asked, for what reason were the Jews allowed to survive this day? He announced that he had fulfilled what was entrusted to him that night, and the king’s friends confirmed this. Then the king, more cruel in cruelty than Phalaris, said that they should be grateful for today's dream: An undesirable connotation of speech is given here by the expression “still at night...” This “still,” according to some interpreters, should not have a place here, because it is nothing more than an incorrectly read ότι (read as έτι). Hermon simply reports that (οτι) he “brought to an end what was commanded at night...” (glorious text), that is, everything that he needed to do during the night (prepare the elephants, bandage the Jews for precaution, etc.) was done, and the rest no longer depended on him. – Phalaris is the famous cruel tyrant of Akragas (Agrigenta), who lived in the 6th century. (565–549 BC). In his name, even the most cruelty is called by the ancient writers φαλαρισμός (Tsits. ad Att. 7, 12). 3Mac.5:13-15 “But you must also prepare elephants tomorrow to destroy the lawless Jews.” When the king said this, all those present with pleasure and joy expressed their approval to him, and each went to his own home. The time of night was used not so much for sleep as for inventing all sorts of insults against imaginary criminals. Early in the morning, as soon as the rooster crowed, Hermon took out the animals and began to irritate them in the vast courtyard. In the city, crowds of people gathered for the deplorable spectacle, eagerly awaiting dawn. 3Mac.5:16-18 The Jews continually, weary in spirit, prayed with many tears and lamentable songs and, stretching out their hands to heaven, begged the greatest God to again send them ambulance. The rays of the sun had not yet spread, and the king was still receiving his friends, when Hermon appeared before him and invited him to go out, conveying that everything was ready, what the king wanted. Having heard this and being amazed at the offer of an unusual way out, he completely forgot about everything and asked: what is this business that he carried out with such haste? This was the action of the God who rules over everything, who brought into his mind oblivion of everything that he himself had previously invented. 3Mak.5:19-21 Hermon and all his friends explained, saying: King! animals and troops are prepared according to your urgent command. He was filled with strong anger at such speeches - for by the providence of God all his intentions were destroyed - and, sparkling with his eyes, he said with a threat: if you had parents or children, they would serve as abundant food for wild animals instead of the innocent Jews, who remained unfailingly and completely faithful to me and my ancestors. If it were not for my attachment to you due to my upbringing and not for your merits, then instead of them you would have been deprived of life. 3Mac.5:22-24 Thus Hermon met an unexpected and terrible threat and changed in his gaze and face, and each of his friends left with displeasure, and all those gathered were sent away to each do their own thing. When the Jews heard about such favor from the king, they praised God and the King of kings for the help they received from Him. After such decisions, the king again instituted a feast and invited them to indulge in fun. Having called Hermon, he said menacingly: how many times must I order you, you worthless one, about the same thing? Arm the elephants again in the morning to destroy the Jews. “After such decisions...”, Greek; κατά δέ τούτους τούς νόμους ..., glor.: “according to this custom...”, i.e. in the same way as before - the king again appoints a feast ... 3Mac.5:25 Then the relatives who were reclining with him, amazed at his fickle thoughts, said: How long, O king, will you tempt us as fools, commanding us for the third time to destroy them, and again, when it comes to the point, canceling and destroying your commands? “Relatives...”, συγγενείς - designation of persons of the highest rank closest to the king (even if they were not in actual carnal relationship with him), according to the customs of the Egyptian court. 3Mac.5:26-28 Because of this, the city is in anxiety, filled with crowds of people and often in danger of being plundered. After this, the king, completely, like Phalaris, filled with recklessness and considering as nothing the spiritual changes that had taken place in him in favor of the Jews, confirmed with an unholy oath and determined to immediately send them to hell, mutilated by the legs and feet of animals, then take a campaign against Judea, soon devastate it with fire and sword, and, inaccessible to us, he said, burn their church with fire and make it forever empty for everyone who wants to make sacrifices there. “Send them to hell...”, that is, put them to death. - “Inaccessible to us,” he said, is their church...” Here the words “he said” should be placed in brackets, as not existing in the original and inserted, so to speak, to legitimize the unexpectedly appearing “to us.” 3Mac 5:29 Then the friends and relatives, greatly rejoicing, parted in confidence and stationed troops in the city in the most convenient places for guarding. “In the most convenient places...” - probably in squares and streets, next to the hippodrome. - “For the guard...”, that is, to prevent an attempt to save the Jews from being made by their friends among the pagans (III: 5 etc.). 3Mac.5:30 And the commander of the elephants, having driven the animals, one might say, into a frenzied state by drinking fragrant wine flavored with incense, armed them with terrible weapons, and early in the morning, when countless crowds were already rushing from the city to the horse lists, he came to the palace and reminded the king of what had to be done, “He armed them with terrible tools,” that is, probably some sharp, cutting devices, which, being tied to the elephants, cut and stabbed everything they encountered as they moved. 3Mac.5:31 The king, full of strong anger, with a wicked plan, went out in a whole campaign with wild animals, wanting, out of the hardness of his heart, to see with his own eyes the deplorable and disastrous death of the mentioned people. “With a whole march...”, Greek: παντί τώ βάρει..., Slav.: “with all the strength...”, more precisely, “with all the heaviness”, the impression made by the elephants moving through the streets of the city. 3Mac.5:32-34 When the Jews saw the dust rising from the elephants coming out of the gate, and the armed army following with them, and also from the multitude of people, and heard loud shouts, they thought that the last minute of their life had come and the end of their most miserable waiting. Raising up crying and screaming, they kissed each other, hugged their relatives, throwing themselves on the necks - fathers to sons, and mothers to daughters, while others held newborn babies at their breasts, sucking the last milk. 3Mac.5:35-36 Knowing, however, the intercessions that had previously come to them from heaven, they fell down with one accord, weaning their babies from their breasts, and loudly cried out to the One who rules over all power, begging Him to have mercy on them and to show help to them, already standing at the gates of hell. Hell, as the place of residence of the souls of the dead, is known not only to the Jews and early Christian times, but also to the Greeks and Romans. This hell seems to have gates, through which, however, hell does not give exit to the contents in it, but only uses them to enter new figures.