Context No. 3367 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 9:13-18: in context

13The vile man vowed to the sovereign Lord, who now no more would have pity upon him, saying 14that the holy city, to which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground and to make it a common graveyard, he would declare free. 15Concerning the Jews, whom he had decided not even to count worthy of burial, but to cast them out to the animals with their infants for the birds to devour, he would make them all equal to citizens of Athens. 16The holy sanctuary, which before he had plundered, he would adorn with the best offerings, and would restore all the sacred vessels many times multiplied, and out of his own revenues would defray the charges that were required for the sacrifices. 17Beside all this, he said that he would become a Jew and would visit every inhabited place, proclaiming the power of God. 18But when his sufferings did in no way cease, for the judgment of God had come upon him in righteousness, having given up all hope for himself, he wrote to the Jews the letter written below, having the nature of a supplication, to this effect:

The arrogant king Antiochus, who had plundered the temple and slaughtered the faithful, now lies dying in agony, and suddenly he is full of promises: he will free the holy city, adorn the sanctuary he had stripped, restore the sacred vessels, become a Jew himself, and proclaim the power of God everywhere. But his change of heart comes only when the torment will not stop and all hope for himself is gone.

The text is unsparing: the vile man vowed to the Lord who would now no longer have pity on him. There is a sobering lesson here about a bargaining that springs not from a changed heart but from terror and the wish to escape pain. Antiochus wanted relief, not God; his sudden piety was a desperate attempt to buy his way out of consequences. Genuine repentance turns to God out of conviction and love, not merely to escape suffering when there is nothing left to lose. A deathbed bargain made only to stop the pain is not the same as a heart truly turned.

Is my turning to God born of a genuinely changed heart, or would it be, like Antiochus's, only a desperate bargain to escape the consequences of my choices?

Sources

2 Maccabees 9:13: "The vile man vowed to the sovereign Lord, who now no more would have pity upon him."
2 Maccabees 9:18: "But when his sufferings did in no way cease, for the judgment of God had come upon him in righteousness, having given up all hope for himself..."
Luke 13:25: "Once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door... you will begin to stand outside and to knock."