This Thursday night at 7 PM Central, Dr. Douglas Petrovich will join Common Sense Bible Study to talk about the evidence of the Hebrews in Egypt. All CSBS members will be able to participate in the conversation!

https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com

FIRST MACCABEES

CHAPTER 12

When Yonathan saw that the time was right, he chose men and sent them to Rome to confirm and renew the friendship with the Romans.He also sent letters to the Spartans and other places to the same effect.

After reaching Rome, the men entered the senate chamber and said, “The Koheyn Gadol Yonathan and the Yehudy people have sent us to renew the friendship and alliance of earlier times with them.” The Romans gave them letters addressed to authorities in various places, with the request to provide them with safe conduct to the land of Yehudah.

This is a copy of the letter that Yonathan wrote to the Spartans: “Yonathan the Koheyn Gadol, the senate of the nation, the kohanym, and the rest of the Yehudy people send greetings to their brothers the Spartans. Long ago a letter was sent to the Koheyn Gadol Chon'yah from Arius, who then reigned over you, stating that you are our brothers, as the attached copy shows. Chon'yah welcomed the envoy with honor and received the letter, which spoke clearly of alliance and friendship. Though we have no need of these things, since we have for our encouragement the set-apart books that are in our possession, we have ventured to send word to you for the renewal of brotherhood and friendship, lest we become strangers to you; a long time has passed since you sent your message to us. We, on our part, have unceasingly remembered you in the sacrifices and prayers that we offer on our feasts and other appropriate days, as it is right and proper to remember brothers. We likewise rejoice in your renown. But many tribulations and many wars have beset us, and the kings around us have attacked us. We did not wish to be troublesome to you and to the rest of our allies and friends in these wars. For we have the help of Heaven for our support, and we have been saved from our enemies, and our enemies have been humbled. So we have chosen Numenius, son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Yason, and we have sent them to the Romans to renew with them the friendship and alliance of earlier times. We have also ordered them to come to you and greet you, and to deliver to you our letter concerning the renewal of our brotherhood. Therefore kindly send us an answer on this matter.”

This is a copy of the letter that they sent to Chon'yah: “Arius, king of the Spartans, sends greetings to Chon'yah the Koheyn Gadol. A document has been found stating that the Spartans and the Yehudym are brothers and that they are of the family of Avraham. Now that we have learned this, kindly write to us about your welfare. We, for our part, declare to you that your animals and your possessions are ours, and ours are yours. We have, therefore, given orders that you should be told of this.”

Then Yonathan heard that the officers of Demetrius had returned to attack him with a stronger army than before. So he set out from Yerushalayim and met them in the territory of Chamath, giving them no opportunity to enter his province. The spies he had sent into their camp came back and reported to him that the enemy were preparing to attack them that night. Therefore, when the sun set, Yonathan ordered his men to keep watch, with their weapons at the ready for battle, throughout the night; and he set outposts around the camp. When the enemy heard that Yonathan and his men were ready for battle, their hearts sank with fear and dread. They lighted fires in their camp and then withdrew. But because Yonathan and his men were watching the campfires burning, they did not know until the morning what had happened. Then Yonathan pursued them, but he could not overtake them, for they had crossed the river Eleutherus. So Yonathan turned aside against the Arabians who are called Zabadeans, and he struck them down and plundered them. Then he broke camp, marched on toward Damasek and traveled through the whole region.

Shimon also set out and traveled as far as Ashkelon and its neighboring strongholds. He then turned to Yapha and took it by surprise, for he heard that its people intended to hand over the stronghold to the supporters of Demetrius. He left a garrison there to guard it.

When Yonathan returned, he assembled the elders of the people, and with them he made plans for building strongholds in Yehudah, for making the walls of Yerushalayim still higher, and for erecting a high barrier between the citadel and the city, to separate it from the city and isolate it, so that its garrison could neither buy nor sell. The people therefore gathered together to build up the city, for part of the wall of the eastern valley had collapsed. And Yonathan repaired the quarter called Chaphenatha. Shimon likewise built up Adida in the Shephelah, and fortified it by installing gates and bars.

Then Trypho sought to become king of Asia, assume the diadem, and do violence to King Antiochus. But he was afraid that Yonathan would not permit him, but would fight against him. Looking for a way to seize and kill him, he set out and came to Beth-shan. Yonathan marched out to meet him with forty thousand picked fighting men and came to Beth-shan. But when Trypho saw that Yonathan had arrived with a large army he was afraid to do him violence. Instead, he received him with honor, introduced him to all his friends, and gave him presents. He also ordered his friends and soldiers to obey him as they would himself. Then he said to Yonathan: “Why have you put all these people to so much trouble when we are not at war? Now pick out a few men to stay with you, send the rest to their homes, and then come with me to Ptolemais. I will hand it over to you together with other strongholds and the remaining troops, as well as all the officials; then I will turn back and go home. That is why I came here.”

Yonathan trusted him and did as he said. He dismissed his troops, and they returned to the land of Yehudah. But he kept with him three thousand men, of whom he left two thousand in The Galil while one thousand accompanied him. Then as soon as Yonathan entered Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais closed the gates and seized him; all who had entered with him, they killed with the sword.

Then Trypho sent soldiers and cavalry to The Galil and the Great Plainto destroy all Yonathan’s men. These, upon learning that Yonathan had been captured and killed along with his companions, encouraged one another and went out in close formation, ready to fight. As their pursuers saw that they were ready to fight for their lives, they turned back. Thus all Yonathan’s men came safely into the land of Yehudah. They mourned Yonathan and those who were with him. They were in great fear, and all Yisrael fell into deep mourning. All the nations round about sought to crush them. They said, “Now that they have no leader or helper, let us make war on them and wipe out their memory from the earth.”

FIRST MACCABEES

CHAPTER 11

Then the king of Mitzrayim gathered forces as numerous as the sands of the seashore, and many ships; and he sought by deceit to take Alexander’s kingdom and add it to his own. He set out for Syria with peaceful words, and the people in the cities opened their gates to welcome him, as King Alexander had ordered them to do, since Ptolemy was his father-in-law. But when Ptolemy entered the cities, he stationed a garrison of troops in each one.

As they neared Azotus, they showed him the temple of Dagon destroyed by fire, Azotus and its suburbs demolished, corpses lying about, and the charred bodies of those burned in the war, for they had heaped them up along his route. They told the king what Yonathan had done in order to denigrate him; but the king said nothing. Yonathan met the king with pomp at Yapha, and they greeted each other and spent the night there. Yonathan accompanied the king as far as the river called Eleutherusand then returned to Yerushalayim.

And so King Ptolemy took possession of the cities along the seacoast as far as Seleucia by the sea, plotting evil schemes against Alexander all the while. He sent ambassadors to King Demetrius, saying: “Come, let us make a covenant with each other; I will give you my daughter whom Alexander has married, and you shall reign over your father’s kingdom. I regret that I gave him my daughter, for he has sought to kill me.” He was criticizing Alexander, however, because he coveted his kingdom. After taking his daughter away, Ptolemy gave her to Demetrius and broke with Alexander; the enmity between them was now evident. Then Ptolemy entered Antioch and assumed the crown of Asia; thus he set upon his head two crowns, that of Mitzrayim and that of Asia.

Now King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people of that region had revolted. When Alexander heard the news, he came against Ptolemy in battle. Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force and routed him. When Alexander fled to Arabia to seek protection, King Ptolemy was triumphant. Zabdiel the Arabian cut off Alexander’s head and sent it to Ptolemy. But three days later King Ptolemy himself died, and his troops in the strongholds were killed by the inhabitants of the strongholds. Thus Demetrius became king in the one hundred and sixty-seventh year.

In those days Yonathan gathered together the people of Yehudah to attack the citadel in Yerushalayim, and they set up many siege engines against it. But some transgressors of the law, enemies of their own nation, went to the king and informed him that Yonathan was besieging the citadel. When Demetrius heard this, he was enraged; and as soon as he heard it, he set out and came to Ptolemais. He wrote to Yonathan to discontinue the siege and to meet him for a conference at Ptolemais as soon as possible.

On hearing this, Yonathan ordered the siege to continue. He selected some elders and kohanym of Yisrael and put himself at risk. Taking with him silver, gold and apparel, and many other presents, he went to the king at Ptolemais, and found favor with him. Although certain renegades of his own nation kept on bringing charges against him, the king treated him just as his predecessors had done and exalted him in the presence of all his friends. He confirmed him in the Kehunnah and in the other honors he had previously held, and had him enrolled among his chief friends.

Yonathan asked the king to exempt Yehudah and the three districts of Shomeron from tribute, promising him in return three hundred talents. The king agreed and wrote a letter to Yonathan about all these matters as follows:

“King Demetrius sends greetings to his brother Yonathan and to the Yehudy nation. We are sending you, for your information, a copy of the letter that we wrote to Lasthenes our Kinsman concerning you. ‘King Demetrius sends greetings to his father Lasthenes. Upon the Yehudy nation, who are our friends and observe their obligations to us, we have decided to bestow benefits because of the excellence they will show us. Therefore we confirm their possession, not only of the territory of Yehudah, but also of the three districts of Aphairema,Lydda, and Ramathaim. These districts, together with all their dependencies, are hereby transferred from Shomeron to Yehudah for those who offer sacrifices in Yerushalayim in lieu of the royal taxes the king used to receive yearly from the produce of earth and trees. From payment of the other things that would henceforth be due to us, namely, the tithes and taxes, as well as the salt tax, and the crown tax—from all these we grant them release. Henceforth and forever not one of these provisions shall ever be revoked. See to it, therefore, that a copy of these instructions be made and given to Yonathan. Let it be displayed on the set-apart mountain in a conspicuous place.’”

When King Demetrius saw that the land was peaceful under his rule and that he had no opposition, he dismissed his entire army, each to his own home, except the foreign troops which he had hired from the islands of the nations. So all the soldiers who had served under his predecessors became hostile to him. When a certain Trypho, who had previously supported Alexander, saw that all the troops were grumbling against Demetrius, he went to Imalkue the Arabian, who was raising Alexander’s young son Antiochus. Trypho kept urging Imalkue to hand over the boy to him, so that he might succeed his father as king. He told him of all that Demetrius had done and of the hostility his soldiers had for him; and he remained there for many days.

Meanwhile Yonathan sent the request to King Demetrius to withdraw the troops in the citadel from Yerushalayim and from the other strongholds, for they were constantly waging war on Yisrael. Demetrius, in turn, sent this word to Yonathan: “I will do not only this for you and your nation, but I will greatly honor you and your nation when I find the opportunity. Now, therefore, you will do well to send men to fight for me, because all my troops have revolted.”

So Yonathan sent three thousand excellent fighting men to him at Antioch. When they came to the king, he was delighted over their arrival. The populace, one hundred and twenty thousand strong, massed in the center of the city in an attempt to kill the king. So the king took refuge in the palace, while the populace gained control of the main streets of the city and prepared for battle. Then the king called the Yehudy force to his aid. They all rallied around him and spread out through the city. On that day they killed about a hundred thousand in the city. At the same time, they set the city on fire and took much spoil. Thus they saved the king. When the populace saw that the Yehudy force controlled the city, they lost courage and cried out to the king in supplication, “Extend the hand of friendship to us, and make the Yehudym stop attacking us and the city.” So they threw down their weapons and made peace. The Yehudym thus gained honor in the eyes of the king and all his subjects, and they became renowned throughout his kingdom. Finally they returned to Yerushalayim with much plunder.

But when King Demetrius was sure of his royal throne, and the land was peaceful under his rule, he broke all his promises and became estranged from Yonathan. Instead of repaying Yonathan for all the favors he had received from him, he caused him much distress.

After this, Trypho returned and brought with him the young boy Antiochus, who became king and put on the diadem. All the soldiers whom Demetrius had discharged rallied around Antiochus and fought against Demetrius, who was routed and fled. Trypho captured the elephants and occupied Antioch. Then young Antiochus wrote to Yonathan: “I confirm you in the Kehunnah and appoint you ruler over the four districts, and to be one of the King’s friends.” He also sent him gold dishes and a table service, gave him the right to drink from gold cups, to dress in royal purple, and to wear a gold buckle. Likewise, he made Yonathan’s brother Shimon governor of the region from the Ladder of Tyre to the borders of Mitzrayim.

Yonathan set out and traveled through the province of West-of-Ephrathand its cities, and all the forces of Syria espoused his cause as allies. When he arrived at Ashkelon, the citizens welcomed him with pomp. But when he set out for Gaza, the people of Gaza shut him out. So he besieged it, and burned and plundered its suburbs. Then the people of Gaza appealed to Yonathan, and he granted them terms of peace. He took the sons of their leaders as hostages and sent them to Yerushalayim. He then traveled on through the province as far as Damasek.

Yonathan heard that the generals of Demetrius had come with a strong force to Qadesh in The Galil, intending to remove him from office. So he went to meet them, leaving his brother Shimon in the province. Shimon encamped against Beth-zur, attacked it for many days, and shut in the inhabitants. They appealed to him, and he granted them terms of peace. He expelled them from the city, took possession of it, and put a garrison there.

Meanwhile, Yonathan and his army pitched their camp near the waters of Gennesareth, and at daybreak they went to the plain of Chatzor. There the army of the foreigners met him on the plain. Having first detached an ambush in the mountains, this army mounted a frontal attack. Then those in ambush rose out of their places and joined in the battle. All of Yonathan’s men fled; no one stayed except the army commanders Mattithyahu, son of Absalom, and Yehudah, son of Chalphi. Yonathan tore his clothes, threw dust on his head, and prayed. Then he went back to the battle and routed them, and they fled. Those of his men who were running away saw it and returned to him; and with him they pursued the enemy as far as their camp in Qadesh, and there they encamped. About three thousand of the foreign troops fell on that day. Then Yonathan returned to Yerushalayim.

Kindle your lights after sunset on 12-02-2024.

In Genesis 30, Jacob put sticks of poplar, chestnut, & almond in his sheeps' water to encourage breeding, especially of speckled sheep. Why these 3 trees?

I've heard that the Greeks associated poplar with paradise, only poplar was allowed to be burned on Zeus' altar, and the Celts associated poplar with fertility. It is mentioned in Hosea 4:13 as a favored shade tree for certain rituals. Its leaves are green on top, white beneath, presenting a high contrast, possibly related to the speckled nature of the sheep Jacob wanted.

Some cultures have associated the chestnut with enhanced male fertility and libido. It thrives in poor soil and grows quickly, so it could also be associated with heartiness.

Aaron carried a staff of almond, and it blossomed and bore fruit as proof of God's anointing (Num 17:8) and Jacob renamed the place of his stairway dream from "Almond" to "House of God".

FROM THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION – VAYYIGGASH

And Yoseph was unable to restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he called out, “Have everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Yoseph made himself known to his brothers.

And he wept aloud, and the Mitsrites and the house of Pharaoh heard it.

And Yoseph said to his brothers, “I am Yoseph, is my father still alive?” But his brothers were unable to answer him, for they trembled before him.

Then Yoseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” And when they came near, he said, “I am Yoseph your brother, whom you sold into Mitsrayim.

“And now, do not be grieved nor displeased with yourselves because you sold me here, for Elohim sent me before you to preserve life.

Have you seen that list of 200+ Bible verses that supposedly prove that the earth is planar? You don't have to read very far to realize that almost none of those verses have anything to do with the shape of the earth, but debating the issue with people has been unproductive in my experience. So, now when I encounter someone making these absurd claims online, instead of arguing with them, I pick a verse off that list and write a short blog post showing how it doesn't say what the FE-ists claim it says.

Argue with me if you want. I'll just dedicate another article to you proving you wrong.

https://soilfromstone.blogspot.....com/search/label/Fl

And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
Matthew 3:9

"Children for Abraham" from stones has three meanings. 1: Being a child of Abraham is more than just being a genetic descendant and isn't limited to that. 2: God gave Jacob marked sheep from unmarked parents, prophesying the grafting of gentiles into Israel. God can create an Israelite out of anyone. 3: The hard hearts of the Pharisees/Sadducees separated them from Abraham, but Yeshua can restore them.

At the start of the Messianic Era, #yeshua will divide sheep from goats, Jacob's flock from Laban's, and the wheat from the tares. Even when false or ignorant teachers can't tell them apart, like Laban's shepherds, Yeshua knows his own and will call them out to join Israel.

"YAH IS ONE"- a new playlist on our YouTube channel where you will be able to find powerful messages from G. Steven Simons that shines light on this subject. Take a look! https://www.youtube.com/playli....st?list=PL-HkmLfaY9Q