Context No. 2861 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 9:1-12: in context

1Now about that time, Antiochus retreated in disorder from the region of Persia. 2For he had entered into the city called Persepolis, and he attempted to rob a temple and to control the city. Therefore the multitudes rushed in and the people of the country turned to defend themselves with weapons; and it came to pass that Antiochus was put to flight by the people of the country and broke his camp with disgrace. 3While he was at Ecbatana, news was brought to him about what had happened to Nicanor and the forces of Timotheus. 4Being overcome by his anger, he planned to make the Jews suffer for the evil deeds of those who had put him to flight. Therefore, with judgment from heaven even now accompanying him, he ordered his charioteer to drive without ceasing until he completed the journey; for he arrogantly said this: “I will make Jerusalem a common graveyard of Jews when I come there.” 5But the All-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with a fatal and invisible stroke. As soon as he had finished speaking this word, an incurable pain of the bowels seized him, with bitter torments of the inner parts— 6and that most justly, for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange sufferings. 7But he in no way ceased from his rude insolence. No, he was filled with even more arrogance, breathing fire in his passion against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. But it came to pass moreover that he fell from his chariot as it rushed along, and having a grievous fall was tortured in all of the members of his body. 8He who had just supposed himself to have the waves of the sea at his bidding because he was so superhumanly arrogant, and who thought to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance, was now brought to the ground and carried in a litter, showing to all that the power was obviously God’s, 9so that worms swarmed out of the impious man’s body, and while he was still living in anguish and pain, his flesh fell off, and by reason of the stench all the army turned with loathing from his decay. 10The man who a little before supposed himself to touch the stars of heaven, no one could endure to carry because of his intolerable stench. 11Therefore he began in great part to cease from his arrogance, being broken in spirit, and to come to knowledge under the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment. 12When he himself could not stand his own smell, he said these words: “It is right to be subject to God, and that one who is mortal should not think they are equal to God.”

Antiochus, the proud persecutor who had vowed to make Jerusalem a graveyard of Jews, is struck down. Racing north in fury to carry out his threat, he is seized by an incurable agony in his body, thrown from his chariot, and left to rot while still alive, until at last even he cannot endure his own decay. This is grim, and the book does not tell it to gloat but to teach.

The man who imagined he could command the waves of the sea and weigh the mountains in a balance, who reached in his own mind to touch the stars, is reduced to a body no one can bear to carry. And at the end, broken, he says the one true thing he had refused his whole life: it is right to be subject to God, and no mortal should think himself equal to God. That is the logic of pride running to its end. The creature who plays at being God is always, finally, undone by the truth he denied.

Where have I reached, in my own small way, to be my own god, and what would it take to confess, in time rather than too late, that God alone is God?

Sources

2 Maccabees 9:12: "It is right to be subject to God, and one who is mortal should not think they are equal to God."
Isaiah 14:13: "You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven! ... yet you shall be brought down to Sheol."
Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall."