Page 325 - Bible History

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298 GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE IN CAPTIVITY
the generals of Antiochus in four battles. After the fourth victory the Jews enjoyed peace for a while. They began at once to purify the Temple, which had been used for the sacri ces of the heathe. They consecrated a new altar of sacri ce by o ering victims upon it for eight days. This was afterwards annua y commemorated.
A number of the Jews had ed to the territory of neighboring nations for protection, but they were ot welcome, and these nations began to persecute them. Judas came to their rescue. He defeated the Edom­ ites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines, and brought the refugees back to Jerusalem.
After one of the battles with the Edomites, Judas discovered that some of his soldiers who had been killed in battle had carried under their coats votive o erings which they had stolen from one of the - heathen temples. They had been forbidden to touch any of these things, and Judas felt that they had been slain for their disobedience. Yet he knew that they had been good and brave soldiers and that they had sinned through human weakness. Therefore, he ordered that a large sum of money be sent to Jen1- salem in order that sacri ce might be o ered or the sins of the dead, for "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed
P ish- to1 Anti hus
from sin.''
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Antiochus was in Persia when he heard that his army had been defeated by Judas Machabeus.
himself had just been defeated in a battle with an