Episode 509 - Standing up, no more Babylon!

<p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/6?1">1 Mc 6:1-13</a></p> <p>As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces,<br> he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais,<br> famous for its wealth in silver and gold,<br> and that its temple was very rich,<br> containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons<br> left there by Alexander, son of Philip,<br> king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.<br> He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city.<br> But he could not do so,<br> because his plan became known to the people of the city<br> who rose up in battle against him.<br> So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there<br> to return to Babylon.</p> <p>While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news<br> that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight;<br> that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army<br> and been driven back by the children of Israel;<br> that they had grown strong<br> by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions<br> taken from the armies they had destroyed;<br> that they had pulled down the Abomination<br> which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem;<br> and that they had surrounded with high walls<br> both the sanctuary, as it had been before,<br> and his city of Beth-zur.</p> <p>When the king heard this news,<br> he was struck with fear and very much shaken.<br> Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.<br> There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow,<br> for he knew he was going to die.</p> <p>So he called in all his Friends and said to them:<br> “Sleep has departed from my eyes,<br> for my heart is sinking with anxiety.<br> I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come,<br> and in what floods of sorrow am I now!<br> Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’<br> But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem,<br> when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver<br> that were in it, and for no cause<br> gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroy