Context No. 3011 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 4:1-6: in context

1The previously mentioned Simon, who had given information about the money against his country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of these evils. 2He dared to call him a conspirator against the state who was actually the benefactor of the city, the guardian of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws. 3When his hatred grew so great that even murders were perpetrated through one of Simon’s approved agents, 4Onias, seeing the danger of the contention, and that Apollonius the son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was increasing Simon’s malice, 5appealed to the king, not to be an accuser of his fellow citizens, but looking to the good of all the people, both public and private; 6for he saw that without the king’s involvement it was impossible for the state to obtain peace any more, and that Simon would not cease from his madness.

The scheming Simon, who had already betrayed the temple treasury, now slanders the godly high priest Onias, accusing him of stirring up the very trouble Simon himself had caused, and even having murders committed through his agents. Onias, seeing the danger and that the governor was fueling Simon's malice, appeals to the king, not to accuse his own countrymen, but for the good of all the people, since without intervention there could be no peace.

The good man is slandered by the one actually guilty of the wrong. Simon, the real troublemaker, pins his own crimes on the innocent Onias, a bitterly familiar injustice. And notice Onias's restraint. Even when he appeals to the king, he does so not to accuse his fellow citizens but for the good of all, seeking not revenge on Simon but the peace of the people. Slandered and endangered, the righteous man still acts for the common good rather than for his own vindication.

When I am wrongly accused, do I seek revenge and vindication, or, like Onias, act with restraint for the good of all?

Sources

2 Maccabees 4:5: "He appealed to the king, not to be an accuser of his fellow citizens, but looking to the good of all the people."
Psalm 37:6: "He will make your righteousness shine out like light, and your justice as the noon day sun."
1 Peter 2:23: "When he was cursed, [he] didn't curse back... but committed himself to him who judges righteously."