Context No. 2634 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 4:30-38: in context

30Now while this was the state of things, it came to pass that the people of Tarsus and Mallus revolted because they were to be given as a present to Antiochis, the king’s concubine. 31The king therefore quickly came to settle matters, leaving for his deputy Andronicus, a man of high rank. 32Then Menelaus, supposing that he had gotten a favorable opportunity, presented to Andronicus certain vessels of gold belonging to the temple, which he had stolen. He had already sold others into Tyre and the neighboring cities. 33When Onias had sure knowledge of this, he sharply reproved him, having withdrawn himself into a sanctuary at Daphne, that lies by Antioch. 34Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, asked him to kill Onias. Coming to Onias, and being persuaded to use treachery, and being received as a friend, Andronicus gave him his right hand with oaths and, though he was suspicious, persuaded him to come out of the sanctuary. Then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him to death. 35For this reason not only Jews, but many also of the other nations, had indignation and displeasure at the unjust murder of the man. 36And when the king had come back from the places in Cilicia, the Jews who were in the city appealed to him against Andronicus (the Greeks also joining with them in hatred of the wickedness), urging that Onias had been wrongfully slain. 37Antiochus therefore was heartily sorry, and was moved to pity, and wept, because of the sober and well ordered life of him who was dead. 38Being inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped off Andronicus’s purple robe, and tore off his under garments, and when he had led him round through the whole city to that very place where he had committed the outrage against Onias, there he put the murderer out of the way, the Lord rendering to him the punishment he had deserved.

The godly high priest Onias had exposed the corruption of Menelaus, who was stealing the temple's gold vessels. In revenge, Menelaus arranges his murder. The official Andronicus lures Onias out of the sanctuary where he had taken refuge, giving him his right hand with oaths of friendship, and then, with no regard for justice, kills him. But the murder does not stay hidden. Even the Gentiles are outraged, and when the king returns, he weeps for the good man and has the murderer executed on the very spot where he did the deed.

Two things stand out. Onias is killed by treachery, a false handshake, an oath of friendship weaponized to lure him to his death, the ugliest kind of betrayal. And yet his blood is not overlooked. The wrong is so plain that even pagans are indignant, and justice comes, remarkably, through a pagan king's conscience, repaying the murderer at the scene of his crime. It is a reminder that the blood of the innocent is not forgotten, and that God's justice can reach through the most unlikely channels, even the conscience of a foreign ruler, to answer a treachery that seemed to have gotten away clean.

Do I trust that treachery against the innocent does not have the last word, that God sees and repays, even through unlikely channels?

Sources

2 Maccabees 4:34: Andronicus... gave him his right hand with oaths, and persuaded him to come out of the sanctuary. Then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him to death.
2 Maccabees 4:35: not only Jews, but many also of the other nations, had indignation and displeasure at the unjust murder of the man.
2 Maccabees 4:38: there he put the murderer out of the way, the Lord rendering to him the punishment he had deserved.