Key Verse Spotlight
2 Maccabees 9:15 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Concerning 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. "
2 Maccabees 9:15
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
13 The vile man vowed to the sovereign Lord, who now no more would have pity upon him, saying
14 that 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.
15 Concerning 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.
16 The 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.
17 Beside all this, he said that he would become a Jew and would visit every inhabited place, proclaiming the power of God.
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2 Maccabees 9:1
"Now about that time, Antiochus retreated in disorder from the region of Persia."
2 Maccabees 9:2
"For 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."
2 Maccabees 9:3
"While he was at Ecbatana, news was brought to him about what had happened to Nicanor and the forces of Timotheus."
2 Maccabees 9:4
"Being 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.”"
2 Maccabees 9:5
"But 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—"
2 Maccabees 9:6
"and that most justly, for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange sufferings."
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