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Context No. 695 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 12:24-28: in context

24Timotheus himself, falling in with the company of Dositheus and Sosipater, implored them with much crafty guile to let him go with his life, because he had in his power the parents of many of them and the kindred of some. “Otherwise, he said, little regard will be shown to these.” 25So when he had with many words confirmed the agreement to restore them without harm, they let him go that they might save their kindred. 26Then Judas, marching against Carnion and the temple of Atergatis, killed twenty-five thousand people. 27After he had put these to flight and destroyed them, he marched against Ephron also, a strong city, wherein were multitudes of people of all nations. Stalwart young men placed on the walls made a vigorous defense. There were great stores of war engines and darts there. 28But calling upon the Sovereign who with might shatters the strength of the enemy, they took the city into their hands, and killed as many as twenty-five thousand of those who were in it.

Second Maccabees follows Judas on a run of campaigns to rescue Jews scattered in hostile towns, and it tells them with an unflinching taste for the body count. This passage opens with a captured enemy commander, Timothy, talking his way out. He points out that he holds in his power the parents and relatives of many in Judas's own ranks, and warns that if he is harmed, they will get no mercy. So the men agree to let him go, to save their kin. Their love for their families is exactly the lever he uses; the thing that is best in them becomes his escape.

Then the chapter turns to the taking of two cities, Carnion with its pagan temple and the fortress of Ephron, and it records the dead in round, staggering numbers, twenty-five thousand and twenty-five thousand, won by armies that first sprinkled dust on their heads and prayed. The book credits God plainly with the slaughter, and the numbers stand exactly as written. It is hard reading, and it is in the Bible as it is. But the moment that lingers is the smaller one, where an enemy walks free because he knew that these hard men could still be moved by love for their own.

Timothy escaped by turning their love for their families into a weapon against them. Where is the best thing in me, my care for someone, the very handle another person uses to move me?

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