Antiochus, king of Syria, who had rule over many peoples and over the
Jews, wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people, and
that each should forsake his own laws. And all the nations agreed
according to the word of the king, and many of Israel consented to his
worship, and sacrificed to the idols, and profaned the sabbath. And the
king sent letters by the hand of messengers unto Jerusalem and the
cities of Judah, that they should follow laws strange to the land, and
should profane the sabbaths and feasts, and pollute the sanctuary; that
they should build altars, and temples for idols, and should sacrifice
swine's flesh and unclean beasts. And whosoever shall not do according
to the word of the king, he shall die.
And they built an abomination of desolation upon the altar, and in the
cities of Judah they built idol altars. And they rent in pieces the
books of the law which they found, and set them on fire. And wheresoever
was found with any a book of the covenant, and if any consented to the
law, the king's sentence delivered him to death.