[694] Dan. viii. 22; 2 Macc. v. 25.
[695] Jos., _Antt._, XII. v. 1.
[696] Jerome, _amicitias simulans_.
[697] See 1 Macc. iii. 30; 1 Macc. i. 19; Polyb., xxvii. 17; Diod. Sic., xxx. 22. What his unkingly stratagems were we do not know.
[698] Liv., xliv. 19: "Antiochus per honestam speciem majoris Ptolemæi reducendi in regnum," etc.
[699] Or "Paunch." He was so called from his corpulence. Comp. the name Mirabeau, _Tonneau_.
[700] 2 Macc. v. 5-21; 1 Macc. i. 20-24.
[701] The LXX. render this ἥξουσι Ῥωμαῖοι. Comp. Numb. xxiv. 24; Jerome, _Trieres et Romani_. On "Chittim" (Gen. x. 4) see Jos., _Antt._, I. vi. 1.
[702] Polyb., xxix. 11; Appian, _Syr._, 66; Liv., xlv. 12; Vell. Paterc., i. 10. According to Polybius (xxxi. 5), Epiphanes, by his crafty dissimulation, afterwards completely hoodwinked the ambassador Tiberius Gracchus.
[703] 2 Macc. vi. 2. Our best available historical comments on this chapter are to be found in the two books of Maccabees.
[704] 1 Macc. ii. 42, iii. 11, iv. 14, vii. 13; 2 Macc. xiv. 6.
[705] Diod. Sic, xxxi. 1; 1 Macc. i. 43. Polybius (xxxi. 4) says "he committed sacrilege in most of the temples" (τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἱερῶν).
[706] Jahn (_Heb. Com._, § xcii.) sees in the words "neither shall he regard the desire of women" an allusion to his exclusion of women from the festival at Daphne. Some explain the passage by his robbery of the Temple of Artemis or Aphrodite in Elymais (Polyb., xxxi. 11; Appian, _Syr._, 66; 1 Macc. vi. 1-4; 2 Macc. ix. 2). All is vague and uncertain.
[707] Polyb., xxvi. 10; 2 Macc. vi. 2; Liv., xii. 20. The Hebrew _Eloah Mauzzîm_ is understood by the LXX., Theodotion, the Vulgate, and Luther to be a god called Mauzzim (Μαωζείμ). See Herzog, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "Meussin." Cicero (_c. Verr._, vii. 72) calls the Capitol _arx omnium nationum_. The reader must judge for himself as to the validity of the remark of Pusey (p. 92), that "all this is alien from the character of Antiochus."
[708] R.V. The translation is difficult and uncertain.
[709] The LXX. here render this expression (which puzzled them, and which they omit in vv. 16, 41) by θέλησις. Theodot., τὴν γῆν τοῦ Σαβαείμ.
[710] Ewald takes these for metaphoric designations of the Hellenising Jews. Some (_e.g._, Zöckler) understand these verses as a recapitulation of the exploits of Antiochus. The whole clause is surrounded by historic uncertainties.
[711] The origin of the name Maccabee still remains uncertain. Some make it stand for the initials of the Hebrew words, "Who among the gods is like Jehovah?" in Exod. xv. 11; or of Mattathias Kohen (priest), Ben-Johanan (_Biesenthal_). Others make it mean "the Hammerer" (comp. Charles _Martel_). See Jost, i. 116; Prideaux, ii. 199 (so Grotius, and Buxtorf, _De Abbreviaturis_).
[712] Vulg., Aphadno. The LXX. omit it. Theodot., Apadano; Symm., "his stable."
[713] Porphyry says that "he pitched his tent in a place called Apedno, between the Tigris and Euphrates"; but even if these rivers should be called seas, they have nothing to do with the Holy Mountain. Apedno seems to be a mere guess from the word אפדן, "palace" or "tent," in this verse. See Jer. xliii. 10 (Targum). Roland, however, quotes Procopius (_De ædif. Justiniani_, ii. 4) as authority for a place called Apadnas, near Amida, on the Tigris. See Pusey, p. 39.
[714] Jahn, § xcv.
[715] 2 Macc. ix.; Jos., _Antt._, XII. ix. 1, 2; Milman, _Hist. of the Jews_, ii. 9. Appian describes his lingering and wasting illness by the word φθίνων (_Syriaca_, 66).