March 4, 2026 (Gregorian calendar/3rd month/Day
Wednesday, 25 Yekatit 2018 (Ethiopian calendar/6th month)
Ḥayr Hayir (Hayr) חיר 11 (Enochian calendar/12th month/White of frost)
7 March, 2026 (International Fixed calendar)
Galactic Moon 8, Alpha 26 (13 Moon calendar/Waning Gibbous moon)
~ Galactic Hawk Moon of Integrity, February 7th – March 6th
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Month of the Windy Moon…A nu yi (Cherokee Moon)
13.0.13.7.1 2 Imix 19 K’ayab’ (Mayan Long Count calendar)
~ Old Inauguration Day, in 1789 – The Congress of the United States meets for the first time
1 Maccabees 10:1-50
1 In the one hundred and sixtieth year, Alexander Epiphanes, son of Antiochus, came up and took Ptolemais. They accepted him as king and he began to reign there.
verse 1: The one hundred and sixtieth year: 152 B.C.
Alexander…Antiochus: Alexander Balas claimed
to be a son of Antiochus IV. He had the backing of the Romans,
who had never forgiven Demetrius for becoming king
without their permission. The latter meanwhile
had become unpopular with his own people as well as with the Jews.
2 When King Demetrius heard of it, he mustered a very large army and marched out to engage him in battle.
3 Demetrius sent a letter to Jonathan written in peaceful terms, to exalt him;
4 for he said: “Let us be the first to make peace with him, before he makes peace with Alexander against us,
5since he will remember all the wrongs we have done to him, his brothers, and his nation.”
6 So Demetrius authorized him to gather an army and procure arms as his ally; and he ordered that the hostages in the citadel be released to him.
7 Accordingly Jonathan went to Jerusalem and read the letter to all the people and to those who were in the citadel.
8 They were struck with fear when they heard that the king had given him authority to gather an army.
9 Those in the citadel released the hostages to Jonathan, and he gave them back to their parents.
10 Thereafter Jonathan dwelt in Jerusalem, and began to build and restore the city.
11 He ordered those doing the work to build the walls and to encircle Mount Zion with square stones for its fortification, and they did so.
12 The foreigners in the strongholds that Bacchides had built took flight;
13 all of them left their places and returned to their own lands.
14 Only in Beth-zur did some remain of those who had abandoned the law and the commandments, for it was a place of refuge.
15 King Alexander heard of the promises that Demetrius had made to Jonathan; he was also told of the battles and brave deeds of Jonathan and his brothers and of the troubles that they had endured.
16 He said, “Shall we ever find another man like him? Let us now make him our friend and ally.”
17 So he sent Jonathan a letter written in these terms:
18 “King Alexander sends greetings to his brother Jonathan.
19 We have heard of you, that you are a mighty warrior and worthy to be our friend.
20 We have therefore appointed you today to be high priest of your nation; you are to be called the King’s Friend, and you are to look after our interests and preserve friendship with us.” He also sent him a purple robe and a crown of gold.
21 Jonathan put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the one hundred and sixtieth year at the feast of Booths, and he gathered an army and procured many weapons.
verse 21: Jonathan…feast of Booths:
Jonathan began to discharge the office of high priest
in October 152 B.C. For seven years after the death
of Alcimus there had been no high priest in Jerusalem.
It was taken for granted that the king, though a Gentile,
had the power to appoint one. The Maccabees,
though a priestly family, were not of the line of Zadok,
and some in Israel (perhaps the Qumran community)
regarded Jonathan’s tenure as a usurpation.
A Letter from Demetrius to Jonathan.
22 When Demetrius heard of these things, he was distressed and said:
23 “Why have we allowed Alexander to get ahead of us by gaining the friendship of the Jews and thus strengthening himself?
24 I too will write them encouraging words and offer honors and gifts, so that they may support me.”
25 So he sent them this message: “King Demetrius sends greetings to the Jewish nation.
26 We have heard how you have kept the treaty with us and continued in our friendship and not gone over to our enemies, and we are glad.
27 Continue, therefore, to keep faith with us, and we will reward you with favors in return for what you do in our behalf.
28 We will grant you many exemptions and will bestow gifts on you.
29 “I now free you and exempt all the Jews from the tribute, the salt tax, and the crown levies.
30 Instead of collecting the third of the grain and the half of the fruit of the trees that should be my share, I renounce the right from this day forward. Neither now nor in the future will I collect them from the land of Judah or from the three districts annexed from Samaria.
verse 30: The three districts annexed from Samaria.
The present Greek text, by a scribal error,
has added “and Galilee” after “Samaria.”
31 Let Jerusalem and her territory, her tithes and her tolls, be sacred and free from tax.
32 I also yield my authority over the citadel in Jerusalem, and I transfer it to the high priest, that he may put in it such men as he shall choose to guard it.
33 Every Jew who has been carried into captivity from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom I set at liberty without ransom; and let all their taxes, even those on their cattle, be canceled.
34 Let all feast days, sabbaths, new moon festivals, appointed days, and the three days that precede each feast day, and the three days that follow, be days of immunity and exemption for all Jews in my kingdom.
35 No one will have authority to exact payment from them or to harass any of them in any matter.
36 “Let thirty thousand Jews be enrolled in the king’s army and allowances be given them, as is due to all the king’s soldiers.
37 Let some of them be stationed in the king’s principal strongholds, and of these let some be given positions of trust in the affairs of the kingdom. Let their superiors and their rulers be chosen from among them, and let them follow their own laws, as the king has commanded in the land of Judah.
38 “Let the three districts that have been added to Judea from the province of Samaria be annexed to Judea so that they may be under one rule and obey no other authority than the high priest.
39 Ptolemais and its confines I give as a present to the sanctuary in Jerusalem for the necessary expenses of the sanctuary.
40 I make a yearly personal grant of fifteen thousand silver shekels out of the royal revenues, taken from appropriate places.
41 All the additional funds that the officials did not hand over as they had done in the first years shall henceforth be handed over for the services of the temple.
42 Moreover, the dues of five thousand silver shekels that used to be taken from the revenue of the sanctuary every year shall be canceled, since these funds belong to the priests who perform the services.
43 All who take refuge in the temple of Jerusalem or in any of its precincts, because of money they owe the king, or because of any other debt, shall be released, together with all the goods they possess in my kingdom.
44 The cost of rebuilding and restoring the structures of the sanctuary shall be covered out of the royal revenue.
45 Likewise the cost of building the walls of Jerusalem and fortifying it all around, and of building walls in Judea, shall be donated from the royal revenue.”
46 When Jonathan and the people heard these words, they neither believed nor accepted them, for they remembered the great evil that Demetrius had done in Israel, and the great tribulation he had brought upon them.
47 They therefore decided in favor of Alexander, for he had been the first to address them peaceably, and they remained his allies for the rest of his life.
48 Then King Alexander gathered together a large army and encamped opposite Demetrius.
49 The two kings joined battle, and when the army of Demetrius fled, Alexander pursued him, and overpowered his soldiers.
50 He pressed the battle hard until sunset, and Demetrius fell that day.
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