Literal Commentary on Zechariah

Literal Commentary on Zechariah — Dionysius bar Salibi Again, a literal commentary on Zechariah the prophet. After the commentary on Hosea, Zechariah also follows, as much as he prophesied in their land. For not all the people had returned, and those who had returned were not steadfast. And Zechariah taught the people that that return which the prophets had proclaimed was true, and he urged those who had not returned, by prophecy, to turn back to their law and to the many things with those who were, as he was about to say to them: "The first vision in the month of Shebat marked the time in which he received the revelation. The Lord's wrath against their fathers, against those who had been taken captive to Babylon, he called 'wrath' against her whom he uprooted and destroyed their cities together with their land by captivity. They returned to me, and he added, 'Your own I saw at night,' a manifest vision that examines the good things that were with the people. A man who was riding—I received a revelation in which it was formed before my eyes that it was like these. At night he said, not while he slept. For a vision like this is not a dream, nor is it a revelation that appears through the senses. Upon a red horse. Dappled and white horses were riding upon all the steeds, like that which lived among the trees. And these are the angels who are appointed with God over the deeds of the wicked, by means of red things indicating wrath and blood over the nations. By the white things, however, over the completion of the return, over the repentance, over the governance of both sides. By the steeds he signified their swiftness and that they easily fulfill all that is commanded of them, the spirits.

prophets of the shade who examine the secret and the hidden things in which God walks and shelters his people. For the Jews, instead of the prophets, the mountains spoke. It was fitting that the angel who was speaking—that one who was riding a red horse—should speak through me, he said, because not outside his mouth was the voice of the one crying heard, but openly within his mouth it was being inscribed, as it were, in his mind. Until when would he not have mercy? Seventy weeks of years—this angel who was standing among the prophets was the one who had been zealous for the people. And when he heard, along with his companions, that all the peoples were sitting in peace while his people were troubled, he felt pain and grief, and over them he began to seek and plead on their behalf. He proclaimed and said, "The angel will come upon good words," for God answered him on behalf of his request and commanded the prophet to proclaim to the people. You erred in Jerusalem, he said, on account of her and for her sake; you went astray and sought after those who showed you hostility. For more than my own anger, they were worthy of being put at the head. You were answered concerning Jerusalem, he said, with mercy. Now, then, does Jerusalem know where she will be hidden? And a net will be spread and cast over all the righteous with many causes of those who are troubled for her; the net is a destruction that is cast over the house. And he mentioned a net like that which in a net spreads out and broadens places. You lifted up your eyes, he said, as if to the truth of these things. Another revelation is revealed. And behold, four horns—that is, four kingdoms: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians. The Hebrews said that it does not refer to these, because these, when one had passed into another, were passing and ceasing.

and because of this, the four did not go upon the chariot of the hidden mystery, but because the four winds were scattered, the people went according to the vision of those who saw them, saying, "When all the land and the winds turned again to their earth, for even the Assyrians and Babylonians saw the sign, but they were scattered to the four winds." He calls the four winds "angels" who are appointed over the four winds from God, and he calls the sign "according to the forms in which they appeared and came, those who were disturbed to the cities of the days of Judah." For he says that they were like the peoples who enslaved the people and set up the sign in shame, in the manner of a chariot whose head is bowed in shame, and not that he spoke of the Messiah. [Section 80] And the angel who was speaking in me went out when a single rumor was heard in the city that war was approaching Jerusalem. And another angel came and commanded him to run, and he said to the young man who held the measure of the rod and went to Jerusalem, a measure as great as the multitude of people who were about to go to her. He called the young man according to the form in which he appeared. It was fitting that he was sufficient in power to complete those things that the prophet was commanded when he was encouraged by those things that appeared to him; he began to encourage them that they should not fear to go to their land, as that proclamation which the prophets proclaimed, and while hastening, he said, "O Zion, be saved, my beginning is from you with my enslavement; O Zion, or be saved, Jerusalem, the sign that you are a dwelling and a hiding place among the Babylonians. Send me, Lord, send me to you, Lord, that I may show you that all the honor of the peoples who entered into you is scattered and becomes yours.

and because this was taken away from your land, he said concerning the nations that were around them, that he showed to Joshua the high priest the mystery of the priesthood and the kingdom, and that their heads were the first to go up to the ascent of the interior concerning them, it was fitting that they be added to him with the others, and he first examines the priesthood of the high priest with the kingdom. The great one called him as when Aaron was brought, when he stood before the angel who was appointed over his mountain by God, as also for each one there is an angel who is attached to him as over his mountain that stands at his right hand, because that servant of Satan from the beginning of your work for the beautiful ones. Satan will roar at you, O Lord, he is hindered and you are separated from him to a great distance. This is the roar at you, O Lord. That oven is the oven that was broken into seventy pieces with its brick from Babylon that was near the wall and was delayed in the captivity of the Jews like an oven and was snatched from the fire in the form of an oven. The signs of mourning and impurity in which it was turned in captivity, while it was hidden from the service and performed servitude. You will acknowledge him to my house, you will rule in my house and guard all its doors, and with one command over all of them, and I will give you those who walk in the ways that are held and bring the priesthood after you. In these houses are the houses of this people that stand and grow rich all the time of the world. Joshua heard, he wanted to say now concerning the kingdom, you and your companions, he called his companions the priests who were subject to him and served with him.

to his servants, he showed to Zerubbabel and also to the one who came with him, but now it is revealed to him and prepared for him, ready like the sun in the hand of the servants of the house of Gog. He called it the stone of victory over the truth of his kingdom. And he placed it before the priest so that when he leaned upon it by his prayers, he would conquer in battles. And concerning one stone, he teaches in this that it is fitting for the priest to lean upon it. He said, "Why do you come in great vanity in the form of eyes with you, when he looks at you and protects you?" Other eyes interpret that of the men of the name of wonder, as also those who were with Jesus were looking at it. Of the vision of the golden lampstand, this indicates the divine grace that was dwelling among the people, and everything stands and is spread out by it. He saw also above with the lampstand a bowl that indicates the abundance of grace that from above and below moves that bowl like a measure and like a balance. The seven branches on the bowl signify the fullness of grace. And the seven mouths on the branch indicate the abundance of grace. The lampstand was of gold because gold is superior to all metals in the earth. The two olives are Jesus and Zerubbabel, and he calls them sons of oil, for one was anointed for the priesthood and the other for the kingdom, and they were near to grace. The other two are the priest and the king, and the branches are Jesus and Zerubbabel, who guide the two headships, which are their name and that of the world. This is his word. The Lord said, "This vision of the lampstand that you saw is the work of grace, and not of the nations and the branches that are kindled in it, which are not the anointing of fire.

Thus also Zerubbabel did not succeed in battle by his own power or by the might of his people, but by the Spirit of God he succeeded, like the sun of David. The great mountain which he called Gog, the mountain that would humble Zerubbabel, he made like a bowl. And he brought out the chief stone; he brought it out and showed it to Zerubbabel, prepared like a chief stone, indeed like a good one. Because the chief cornerstone of David was brought. The equality and the mercies that the power which was equal with David, the head of his army, took in battle. And to the divine mercies he was equal in his likeness. Again, equality was his with the priest and with the whole people in his kingdom. The hours of the lamps, the hours of the kingdom of Zerubbabel, they interpret as forty-nine hours. It was clear that seven times seven hours. Because when it is cast, it is not turned back, lest those hours be for labor. And they run to the words because in the short days the hours are completed. And they saw the stone, the stone in his hands which called the hidden power that stood with God and ruled the kingdom like a stone. That which in their eyes was ready to be seen. In the heat of battle, he also called Joshua to Zerubbabel, that they might be united and bound together. And he took the rod of gold from them, indeed the grace that was poured out from within them. And I saw the scroll, in this revelation it teaches about the pursuit of the bird for the workers of iniquity. By means of the scroll it shows the emptiness of the decree of judgment, like the sword of two mouths. That it was a flight, in this it hinted at the swiftness of the pursuit.

its length and breadth indicate the place where he set the listeners in its greatness. Everything that is conquered by it is conquered like it; from it is cut off and according to its greatness is followed that which is conquered. It is not that it is conquered, but rather it is compelled; the Hebrew is used instead of "conquered" and it is said "and it will finish its stones and its wood." In this, it is more terrifying that if it finishes stones and its wood, in this it is more terrifying that if it finishes stones and wood, how much more so the wicked. This is the measure that he wanted to teach, that Gog would come upon the beginning of their former sins, and upon them he showed the measure of the punishment in which the sins of the whole land are bound. In this, then, God punishes the sins of all, and according to the sins he sets a chief, and it is again a measure, a sign of sorrow and that God does not drive men like cattle. The talent of lead was placed upon the mouth of the measure, and the woman in the likeness of a woman, as it is written, by the talent of lead upon the weight of the chief, he hinted that he gave her to the woman in the measure and placed upon her mouth the talent of lead, to show that the sinful woman is silenced and passes over the chief from her, and her mouth is stopped as if she were unable to speak. Behold, these two are sorrow and her chief, and he took the measure between earth and heaven, to show that the sinful woman was cast down from her pursuit. From within the people, against their enemies, those who built her a house, those who did not uproot Babylon, because at the death of Belshazzar it was uprooted by the Medes, so that she might remain in it as long as Babylon or the kingdom would not be sought again. And behold, four chariots are kings who rule over the four directions, and the mountains are the mountains upon the fortresses of their power, making known.

and by the severity of the hardship and the truth of their service. The four winds also cut off the four corners; the four winds prepare the reader. Heaven is because it is higher than the angels. To the land of the north is Assyria and Babylon. To clothe them with mourning and lamentations for those who are there, according to the pattern of their black garments. And the white ones are those that give peace and rest to the rest of the people who are not divided. To the land of the south is to destroy the Edomites. And the red ones went out and sought also those who are the weavers, the Persian-like openers of the garments, and not the red ones. Those are the weavers. They went out to go and walk in the land while subduing the nations and bringing the people to the opening of their garments. And he said to me, "See these." For the north hints at the red ones. That they were also sent to the south, because of them he said "see" and not about the weavers. They refresh the winds, that is, the gates, like the breeze of my desire. "Joy instead of my wind, my anger," he said. "Take from the captivity," that is, from my child, as for the truth of his history, he also sets the names of those who are known among them, it was commanded that he take from them gold and make a crown and place it on the head of Jesus. And the name of the brother is from them of the actions, named the brother. And what is beneath the brother is humility and not knowledge, grows and rejoices my foolish one and becomes known to all, and what is the war against Gog. And the priest is, that is, Jesus the priest sits at the right hand of Zerubbabel on the throne of the priesthood, and the crown is in the temple of the Lord.

This is because it was for a memorial in the whole Temple of the Lord, as a great reward was fitting for this gift, that ZZZ was at the time, and it marks the history of Elijah of the events that happened to him at that time. The four of Darius the first places the history of that which was because of them before the revelation. And he sent to the house of El. To Sareser, these were the princes who were ruling with Darius the king when he crossed the Euphrates River. Darius sent, moreover, by means of these sacrifices and gifts to the house of God on that account, the treasure made known. And the king sent. Before the Lord, he sent to us by the hands of Sareser and Rambeg, that king and the nobles of his who fought on his behalf for the captives and prayed over him. The king commanded, moreover, to say also to the priests and to the prophets who were in the house of the Lord, that they should weep in the fifth month over the face of the ruin of Jerusalem and be girt. As he had done for some hours. The fifth month is called Ab, because in it Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, and at the time of Cyrus it ceased with this, because the house of God of the captivity had begun. But because it was delayed and remained until Darius, this they added again and renewed the custom of mourning. The peoples, moreover, participated with them in mourning because of the wonders that were happening in their writings, and many of their men were circumcised. When, however, he was sick in the house and they turned the customs of mourning into joy, Darius sent. Whether it is righteous to weep in the fifth month over the ruin of Jerusalem according to custom or that sin. When the house was built, he made a custom of mourning and of ruin. The prophet placed this history to show the clear change that overtook the people and how the king loved the people.

God said. He spoke to the whole people. God commanded the prophet when the people and the king's messengers were present, and he proclaimed as they had come. "You fasted and you danced in the fifth and seventh months. That seventh of the waters, even the memorial of that day of mercy, they made among the Babylonians, not because of your fasting. Rather, you made a memorial of the afflictions of my enemies upon you. I scattered them in their own courts. And the land was laid waste and became a desert." (Zech. 7:3-5) Before those days, before you began the building of the Lord's house, there was no reward for a man from his labor, nor was there any place where one could be hired and go in to work and be hired, and there was no peace before the enemies who would destroy you. And all these things were because of your trust at that time in the house of my will. Behold, now that you have begun to gather the building, I will now bring it about through your will that they destroy one another and perish, as he hinted concerning the house of Gog. The fourth fast is in response to the questions that those who were sent from Darius asked them. As for the fifth fast, concerning that which is about the destruction of Jerusalem, he said the seventh is for the day of mercy. The fourth of the tenth is not observed according to the law, but because of other reasons they separated from it and fasted on their own, to the point of exhaustion. And for the good festivals, not for the festivals of mourning, because the Temple was sought and the people began to be strengthened. They took ten men. Now he makes known about the remnant that remained among the peoples.

...go with you in that honor, as many of the peoples who are with you, and they are subjugated. And they added that they went up with them to Jerusalem, which was a sign against the many and not against the few. Concerning the land of your surroundings, it is, and it said that you received revelation also concerning the peoples in your surroundings, that they also are subjugated to God and offer sacrifices and oblations like you. The purity of the ninth and the heat of my anger, you will be heated, you will be heated, it is heated also in this beautiful one of the Damascenes, while she also is subjugated along with the rest to God. The heat, it is a fever. Tyre and Sidon, they are those who, because of their height, did not wish to be subjugated to God like those, because they trusted in their wisdom and their strength and they received a chief. And the goat will be enraged against the service of God, and he will pass over them, the Philistines with their mouths, over the shedding of the blood of the Israelites. And their abundance, it will destroy their name for you, also the service of idols, which like a deception was considered by them. And they will uproot, it will be like their companions, the uprooting of the Philistines, which is seen in the fear of God, like their companions, the cities of Judah, a changed sign of the one in the sixty-one. The Jebusites instead of their crossing, Jebus, he says, "Oukith of Jerusalem." In these, he makes known concerning the Philistines that they also, like the rest, know God. Upon my house, the covenant, it is in my vanity, which like a negligent covenant preserves their land. When the passing of the bear, Oukith turns with the peoples to the subjugation of their brothers. The house, he calls the land of the kingdom. I saw with my eyes, with those whom I saw that are being stirred up now from them.

...go with you in that honor, as many of the peoples who are with you, and they are subjugated. And they added that they went up with them to Jerusalem, which was a sign against the many and not against the few. Concerning that which is good for me and acceptable, I have learned what is right for me to do with them. Good is the one who offers concerning his kingdom, these are completed. After the thirst, good is to rejoice with King Zerubbabel and to ride on an ass, that is, now that he has been freed from captivity. Not chariots and horses, but the making of chariots with Ephraim, that is, he said concerning the house of Gog that with chariots and horses they did not come up against Jerusalem. And the bow of the house of Gog was broken in battle. And he spoke peace with the tribes. He spoke and did as he said. All these things are spiritually concerning the Messiah, as types, while in the spiritual interpretation concerning each one of them, he rules from sea, that is, from the western sea to the eastern. The ends of the earth, that is, of the kingdom, when Zerubbabel destroyed the peoples and gave their land to the people. Also with blood, that is, he said concerning those who were in the sacrifice. Also Zerubbabel with the blood of the house of Gog, which is fitting, as the covenant establishes something. You are for your kingdom over the people. And from here to those of Assyria of the hour in captivity among the peoples, as in the pit of the sword of Galizia with all the good, you loosed and freed them. They came in need, that is, need to Jerusalem, a city that is in need by divine power. The prisoners of Kush to those who were prisoners in Babylon, and for one day, that is, that they endured affliction in captivity. Two fruits I give you, that is, brothers in many places, because under my bow, that is, I placed my bow in their hands when it was full, and they destroyed the house of Gog. And I cast upon your shoulders, that is, because he who fills the bow and casts is prepared.

This which was cast, its fruit was for this which was full, the sender sent to the sons of Ṣehyon against the sons of the Jews like swords, and in their hands he destroyed the Jews, and they ate and they trampled and they laid waste to them secretly like a man who eats bread while hungry. And they trampled and they buried them in the stones of the sling. In a brotherly manner, for those who were remaining in it, they cast them like stones of the sling. In another manner, and they filled like a cup, and they filled, placing on the head in the likeness of a cup, which purifies and arranges and subdues and pours out their blood. And the sound of their flesh like the corner of the altar which is offered up from the sound of the sacrifices which are offered with a great hand from the people and the peoples who hear the Lord of victory. And he saved them, the Lord, and that which is the cause by which they are saved, he said because the stones were holy, because there were in them holy men, those who in the likeness of stones on the earth with the rest were cast and trampled in the depths, God did to those when he saved also those who remained because of them. Ṣḥ d-y because the Lord commanded to his portion until now it has raged against kings and peoples because of their evil deeds, and now he commanded and he subdued them like a portion to Jerusalem. Like a horse, he made them, the armies which are prepared for battle with them, a corner from them of the house of Judah, which is Zerubbabel, he who in the likeness of a corner hides the whole people with the force of battles, and like a peg which is fixed, all of them are hung on him and he conquers them in the times of battle.

And they went out, those who were armed, and they went out with him to battle, saying that all those who fought were from the house of Judah who went out. And he sowed them, and because their land did not hold them, they were sown among the peoples, while they were held and their lands were firm. And the kingdoms that resemble the sea passed through the sea. God passed through them and cast them down like the waves of the sea cast upon the people. And the depths of the river called the peoples who resemble a deep river. The laughter of the Lord: "Open the gates of your heart," he said commandingly to the oppressors, "Why are you strong? You are in the form of the cedars of Lebanon. Open the gates of the roads of the passages of your lands, which are held before the people." So that Jerusalem would be saved before, not like a fire that sets a divine beginning to your path and your destruction. Woe to the beginning! The beginning calls to the powers that speak when they see the powers that are broken. He calls the lions the kings who roar when they strike with their jaws. That the strength of the Jordan was plundered, because of its plunder and captivity of the land of the kingdom through which the Jordan passes. Concerning this, they were perplexed about the beginning that would guide them. And the Lord said to me, he wished to narrate concerning the confusion that the priests brought upon the people in the days of the Greek kings, and they bought the priesthood with silver and went out to the priesthood and were known to be governed by the custom of paganism, and from there the Maccabees arose against those who were not rightly acting. "I will pasture the cut-off flock," he said commandingly to this which is destined to be cut off, the cut-off one. The sign that this flock will be left. From the hand of the evil shepherds.

And they were delivered over to evil shepherds who scattered them, because their buyers had killed them. Those buyers were the priests who had bought the priesthood with money from the kings of Judah, when they did not fear that they might be condemned by God on account of this. And their sellers were the kings of Judah who sold the high priesthood, saying, "Blessed is the Lord, I will not spare, that I may become rich through the cause." Therefore also this Lord did not spare the inhabitants of the land of the kingdom. And behold, it was delivered by the wicked priest who loved the priestly office over him, to whom he called his companion. And by the king of Judah who went and was baptized in it. And he said that they should not be established in the order of the water and its half, the land, when they went to it and snatched it, each man to his side. And they did not release it from their hands, the people, its small portion, a small portion, a slain portion. Again, a small portion is said because from the thickness of the force it came to smallness and diminution. And I saw the people, that Lord saw for them, this Lord, shepherds, contentious opinions, because all of them were one rebellious and embittered Kushite of my will. Others, because of the grief that I saw, and I was ashamed of their own, because of the small grief of the saints, in whose house two rods, the kingdom and the priesthood, he said, "Take this for those by placing a head." For one, he called it pleasant, for those he separated the priest and the king, so that one would delight the people through his priesthood, and another would guard the land with a rope for the people, so that no man would enter against his companion. And it destroyed three opinions, it left those opinions to be destroyed, the evil ones, from the time of Jesus son of Jozadak until that time, they were shepherding them.

from the hands of the wicked priests, like chaste men are led astray without understanding. They died without understanding, from the hands of the evil ones, as if they were not left to be healed in the afflictions of the world. This is what he said in one place concerning the sacrifice, as he said: "And by means of the third, he signified the many." And this he said: "With small sacrifices, he abolished their worship of the idol of good pasture." And he delivered them to evil shepherds, as they deserved. And they themselves perished because they were led to wickedness; they perished, I say, to their destruction. And their own selves show that he cast them out in a fitting manner. Woe to them! In the manner of dogs, they barked against the sacrifice that came from their Lord, and against the priests who were appointed to pasture them. Woe to them! Their clamor, said the Jew. And I took my staff and broke the priesthood, a sweet fragrance among them, and it was confessed from above that the peoples of the cities came to offer sacrifices before me. This he said not in a causal manner, but that which conceals the deeds of what was seen among the turbulent peoples that exist among the people, and they do not go up as is customary to the temple. And in that sacrifice, the peoples were abolished from this, as by a command of God. And the humble ones, the humble of the people, called the Maccabees, who were guarding me, that is, who were watching, guarding, when God would bring forth these works that were previously decreed by the prophets, who, when they saw that they were being made known, were as the decree of God. And I said to them: "God also came to the Maccabees and to the rest of the excellent ones.

If it is good that you should be for me as chaste men, while you are not like your companions. You brought to me the fruits of the purity of the shepherds who are guilty; you gave to me the reward of the victory which I gave you over the kings of the Jews. Or have you wronged me, even you, like your companions, because by your will it was placed and it was not difficult for you in the noose? And the weight of my reward is in the hand of the thirty. Concerning the pure shepherds who brought near to God, he makes known, and this which weighs upon the chosenness of good will teaches, because in the balance the principalities of silver are chosen. He cast it into the house of the treasury which is thrown into the treasury of God; their offering is that which they exchanged, who were offering, that when they go out from there, help and victory go out to them. The glory of the honor which you honored is praised and honored from them in place of that which you honored and gave them victory. And it broke to destruction because he said above that it would break the kingdom which in destruction the earth was anointed and divided. Take for yourself the entrails; a type is marked in your standing of those who are future. And by your entrails, examine the shepherdship of the foolish, those who, when the deeds of the bread are not fixed for the multitude of the priesthoods, outside the divine laws they become priests. By the entrails, the righteousness of the shepherdship of deeds which are not fitting for the priesthood becomes. Behold, I stand, not that which stood, but that which left. And the flesh, in that which goes and takes their wealth. And his knees call to the thresholds, knees in that which, like deceivers, they are in the coal of the heads and the great ones.

I obtained the victory which I had sought, and I also took the sheaves of the guilty ones like a hungry dog that runs to a bone that has no flesh on it. O foolish shepherd, are you not ashamed of the foolish request of your shepherds? You are foolish, and you despise the fear of God, and you are foolish. The vision of his words is clear, which was shown to me with God concerning Israel. The gate of the trembling ones leaves an opening for foreign peoples who entered through its gates and trembled at its inhabitants. The stone of the threshing-floor is renewed with the peoples in the likeness of a stone placed in a gate. The stratagems and the stratagems are thus considered by you as night and an easy battle with them, like a man who is healed by medicines through the hands of physicians. On that day he hinted at the victory of the people who had no hope through the Maccabees. He struck all their horses in that sacrifice, but he did not strike all the horses together with their riders in the twins and in the blind, because through the few and the weak they lived. Because the praise should not be abundant. The house of Judah says that the victory of the first fathers, all of them of the house of David, is not surpassed; together with this praise which the Maccabees accomplished, like that which they conquered by their strength, while it is known that God is the cause of their victory. And the sick one among them is like David who killed Goliath. And the house of David is like the angel of the Lord who was before them, so that all this is accomplished by the Maccabees, who are with David against the Greeks, where all the rest of them are gathered in him like in the house of God, where when Hezekiah prayed in it, an angel went out and destroyed the Assyrians.

that on the day when I destroyed the nations that came against Jerusalem, I cast upon the house of the Hasmoneans my folly and my favor upon all those within it. And all of them turned to me with a love that was not just, while it was clearly known what suffering came upon the wretched priests of iniquity who summoned him and killed him, and they grieved over them and repented of their iniquity. Finally, and they turned to me through the hands of Maccabeus, whom the Romans struck in battle and killed, and they were dancing and rejoicing with all the people and were shattered over his death. The dance that they danced over the slain Judas is like the dance that was over Josiah son of Amon at the pass of Megiddo. He brought the suffering upon himself for Josiah because both of them were righteous, and they were slain impiously. Then he says: It became a source of murmuring and purification, and it examines through these things the change for the better that was accomplished by the hand of Jonathan, the brother of Judas Maccabeus, who arose after him. Thus he was vigorous in his leadership because it was said that he also purified the city and the house of God from the defilement of idols. The source is named for the salvation that occurred through his hands, as all of them ran to him to quench the thirst of their distress, and victory was achieved through his hands and those of the Maccabean brothers, the fear of God. The sword was drawn, the sword of the Maccabees and the Jews was drawn against the thoughts that were mine, because they did not succeed. And the merciful man is understood as mercy when he is an enemy of the laws through one sign against many. And he turned his hand against the priests who were under their hands.

and they finished and destroyed Antiochus with forty thousand swords in that time in Jerusalem, and forty thousand he took captive, as the book of Maccabees makes known. This Antiochus Epiphanes, when he went out from Egypt in victory, took the pretext of wanting to wage war against the Temple of God, and when he entered, he destroyed forty thousand, as the book of Maccabees makes known. And the remainder that was left, because of the excellence of their faith, they were crowned. He tested and refined them in the furnace of the Maccabean faith. He also spoke concerning the Maccabees, that they were strengthened in afflictions. Again he spoke concerning the afflictions that Jerusalem endured with Antiochus Epiphanes. And it shall be divided in your victory, the plunder that came with the Greeks, and the half of the people that was not that remainder that was left in the land. And the Lord went out with his Temple and was arrayed for battle by the hand of the Maccabees against the Greeks, as he was arrayed for battle against the house of Gog on the day of war. And his feet stood. And the half to the west he showed us, and God stood upon the mountain and made the whole mountain tremble, as if it were divided in two, and he confounded the Greeks who were settled around him, and he finished and immediately delivered the people. There was no light in that time; it seemed to the enemies with many evils that there was no light in that day, nor humility. And it was a single day that was unlike the rest, by the things that were accomplished in it, by the placing of a head upon the enemies and the deliverance of the householders. There was no night, by the afflictions that were poured out in it.

neither by night nor by day was it discernible, and at evening, when the enemies were destroyed at the end, the splendor of the salvation of the Babylonians. And the waters of the teaching of the preacher in Jerusalem were mingled and set with the people against the nations of the East and the West, the Greeks. And the first day and the last day, summer and winter, were equally without ceasing with their need. And he surrounded all of it like a wall for a breach; God surrounded all the land of the kingdom with his inactivity. With the assembly that is to the north with Jerusalem and as far as the height of the south with it. And again, a ban, not that I remember God; this ban is like that which, when he did not love his Lord, became a ban. And this shall be a sign, he says, against the house of Gog. Also Judah fought on the face of Jerusalem, fighting valiantly with the house of Gog by the hand of Zerubbabel, who is of the tribe of Judah. At the command of Susiya, with the command he placed upon all the instruments of war that were set apart for God with the spoils of Gog, as David did with the sword of Goliath and the Philistines with the armor of Saul; his horsemen for the armies. The holy ones who were offered to God with the spoils of Gog were many, like the thresholds before the altar, by the holy ones upon the entrails that they had erred and brought the enemies as for their need, all of them being set apart for God. And there was no priestly order of the word and likeness in the customs of the Hebrew priests; the merchant said instead of the priestly order: Peace, the completion of the interpretation of Zechariah the prophet.