Although the effort of this Egyptian ruler to impose the worship of one God upon his people appeared to fail, it should be recorded that the repercussions of his work persisted for centuries both in Palestine and Greece, and that Egypt thus became the agent for transmitting the combined evolutionary culture of the Nile and the revelatory religion of the Euphrates to all of the subsequent peoples of the Occident.
Close in meaning, found by a language model. A match does not mean the teachings are the same.
He proceeded to Egypt, grew worse in wickedness through his previously mentioned companions in wine, who were lost to all goodness, and not satisfied with countless acts of impiety, his audacity so increased that he raised evil reports there, and many of his friends, watching his purpose attentively, joined in furthering his will. His purpose was to inflict a public stigma upon our race. Therefore he erected a stone pillar in the courtyard, and caused the following inscription to be engraved upon it: “Entrance to this temple is to be refused to all those who would not sacrifice. All the Jews were to be registered among the slaves. Those who resisted are to be forcibly seized and put to death. Those who are thus registered are to be marked on their persons by the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus, and to be reduced to these limited rights.” To do away with the appearance of hating them all, he had it written underneath, that if any of them should elect to enter the community of those initiated in the rites, these should have equal rights with the Alexandrians.
They were carried like this in this vessel, and at the end of it arrived at Schedia. The king had ordered them to be cast into the vast hippodrome, which was built in front of the city. This place was well adapted by its situation to expose them to the gaze of all comers into the city, and of those who went from the city into the country. Thus they could hold no communication with his forces. They weren’t deemed worthy of any civilized accommodation. When this was done, the king, hearing that their kindred in the city often went out and lamented the melancholy distress of these victims, was full of rage, and commanded that they should be carefully subjected to the same—and not one bit milder—treatment. The whole nation was now to be registered. Every individual was to be specified by name, not for that hard servitude of labor which we have a little before mentioned, but that he might expose them to the before-mentioned tortures; and finally, in the short space of a day, might exterminate them by his cruelties. The registering of these men was carried on cruelly, zealously, assiduously, from the rising of the sun to its going down, and was not brought to an end in forty days. The king was filled with great and constant joy, and celebrated banquets before the temple idols. His erring heart, far from the truth, and his profane mouth gave glory to idols, deaf and incapable of speaking or aiding, and uttered unworthy speech against the Greatest God. At the end of the above-mentioned interval of time, the registrars brought word to the king that the multitude of the Jews was too great for registration, inasmuch as there were many still left in the land, of whom some were in inhabited houses, and others were scattered about in various places, so that all the commanders in Egypt were insufficient for the work. The king threatened them, and charged them with taking bribes, in order to contrive the escape of the Jews, but was clearly convinced of the truth of what had been said. They said, and proved, that paper and pens had failed them for the carrying out of their purpose. Now this was an active interference of the unconquerable Providence which assisted the Jews from heaven.
The kingdom was established in the sight of Antiochus, and he planned to reign over Egypt, that he might reign over both kingdoms. He entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots, with elephants, with cavalry, and with a great navy. He made war against Ptolemy king of Egypt. Ptolemy was put to shame before him, and fled; and many fell wounded to death. They took possession of the strong cities in the land of Egypt, and he took the spoils of Egypt.