Context No. 3432 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 4:39-50: in context

39Now when many sacrileges had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the consent of Menelaus, and when the report of them had spread abroad outside, the people gathered themselves together against Lysimachus, after many vessels of gold had already been stolen. 40When the multitudes were rising against him and were filled with anger, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men, and with unrighteous violence began the attack under the leadership of Hauran, a man far gone in years and no less also in folly. 41But when they perceived the assault of Lysimachus, some caught up stones, others logs of wood, and some took handfuls of the ashes that lay near, and they flung them all in wild confusion at Lysimachus and those who were with him. 42As a result, they wounded many of them, they killed some, and they forced the rest of them to flee, but the author of the sacrilege himself they killed beside the treasury. 43But about these matters, there was an accusation laid against Menelaus. 44When the king had come to Tyre, the three men who were sent by the senate pleaded the cause before him. 45But Menelaus, seeing himself now defeated, promised much money to Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes, that he might win over the king. 46Therefore Ptolemy taking the king aside into a cloister, as if to get some fresh air, convinced him to change his mind. 47He who was the cause of all the evil, Menelaus, he discharged from the accusations; but these hapless men, who, if they had pleaded even before Scythians, would have been discharged uncondemned, them he sentenced to death. 48Those who were spokesmen for the city and the families of Israel and the holy vessels soon suffered that unrighteous penalty. 49Therefore even certain Tyrians, moved with hatred of the wickedness, provided magnificently for their burial. 50But Menelaus, through the covetous dealings of those who were in power, remained still in his office, growing in wickedness, established as a great conspirator against his fellow citizens.

This is a bleak account of justice perverted by money. Lysimachus plunders the temple with the corrupt high priest Menelaus's connivance; the people rise up in rage, and Lysimachus is killed. But when the case comes before the king, Menelaus, the real author of the crime, buys his acquittal with a bribe, while the honest men who accused him are condemned to death.

The text notes bitterly that even pagans were appalled and honored the executed men with a proper burial. And Menelaus, through the greed of those in power, keeps his office and only grows in wickedness. It is a raw picture of a world where the guilty go free and the innocent suffer because money and influence corrupt the judgment. Such injustice is real and painful, and Scripture does not pretend it away. But it also holds elsewhere the assurance that God sees all, that no bribe reaches his court, and that the guilty do not finally escape the Judge who cannot be bought.

When I see the guilty escape and the innocent suffer through the corruption of money and power, do I hold to the assurance that God's justice, unlike ours, cannot be bought?

Sources

2 Maccabees 4:47: "He who was the cause of all the evil, Menelaus, he discharged from the accusations; but these hapless men... he sentenced to death."
2 Maccabees 4:50: "Menelaus, through the covetous dealings of those who were in power, remained still in his office, growing in wickedness."
Ecclesiastes 5:8: "If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice... don't marvel at the matter, for one higher than the high regards."