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March 6, 2026 (Gregorian calendar/3rd month/Day 64)
Friday, 27 Yekatit 2018 (Ethiopian calendar/6th month)
Ḥayr Hayir (Hayr) חיר 13 (Enochian calendar/12th month/White of frost)
9 March, 2026 (International Fixed calendar)
Galactic Moon 8, Silio 28 (13 Moon calendar/Waning Gibbous moon)
~ Galactic Hawk Moon of Integrity, February 7th – March 6th
Ash Moon: February 18 – March 17 (Celtic 13 Month calendar/3rd month)
Month of the Windy Moon…A nu yi (Cherokee Moon)
13.0.13.7.3 4 Akbal 1 Kumk’u (Mayan Long Count calendar)
Day of the Dude, No Homework Day

1 Maccabees 11:1-37

Alliance of Ptolemy and Demetrius II.

1 Then the king of Egypt gathered forces as numerous as the sands of the seashore, and many ships; and he sought by deceit to take Alexander’s kingdom and add it to his own.

2 He set out for Syria with peaceful words, and the people in the cities opened their gates to welcome him, as King Alexander had ordered them to do, since Ptolemy was his father-in-law.

3 But when Ptolemy entered the cities, he stationed a garrison of troops in each one.

4 As they neared Azotus, they showed him the temple of Dagon destroyed by fire, Azotus and its suburbs demolished, corpses lying about, and the charred bodies of those burned in the war, for they had heaped them up along his route.

5 They told the king what Jonathan had done in order to denigrate him; but the king said nothing.

6 Jonathan met the king with pomp at Joppa, and they greeted each other and spent the night there.

7 Jonathan accompanied the king as far as the river called Eleutherus and then returned to Jerusalem.

verse 7: Eleutherus: two hundred miles north of Joppa,
in the second century B.C. the northern limit of Coelesyria.

8 And so King Ptolemy took possession of the cities along the seacoast as far as Seleucia by the sea, plotting evil schemes against Alexander all the while.

verse 8: Seleucia by the sea: at the mouth of the Orontes,
the port city of Antioch.

9 He sent ambassadors to King Demetrius, saying: “Come, let us make a covenant with each other; I will give you my daughter whom Alexander has married, and you shall reign over your father’s kingdom.

10 I regret that I gave him my daughter, for he has sought to kill me.”

verse 10: I regret…to kill me: according to Josephus,
Ammonius, a friend of Alexander, had tried to assassinate Ptolemy,
and the latter claimed that Alexander was the instigator,
thus calumniating him to gain his kingdom

11 He was criticizing Alexander, however, because he coveted his kingdom.

12 After taking his daughter away, Ptolemy gave her to Demetrius and broke with Alexander; the enmity between them was now evident.

13 Then Ptolemy entered Antioch and assumed the crown of Asia; thus he set upon his head two crowns, that of Egypt and that of Asia.

verse 13: Crown: lit., diadem.

14 Now King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people of that region had revolted.

15 When Alexander heard the news, he came against Ptolemy in battle. Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force and routed him.

16 When Alexander fled to Arabia to seek protection, King Ptolemy was triumphant.

17 Zabdiel the Arabian cut off Alexander’s head and sent it to Ptolemy.

18 But three days later King Ptolemy himself died, and his troops in the strongholds were killed by the inhabitants of the strongholds.

19 Thus Demetrius became king in the one hundred and sixty-seventh year.

verse 19: The one hundred and sixty-seventh year: 146/145 B.C.
The two deaths (vv. 17–18) occurred in the summer of 145 B.C.

Alliance of Jonathan and Demetrius II.

20 In those days Jonathan gathered together the people of Judea to attack the citadel in Jerusalem, and they set up many siege engines against it.

21 But some transgressors of the law, enemies of their own nation, went to the king and informed him that Jonathan was besieging the citadel.

22 When Demetrius heard this, he was enraged; and as soon as he heard it, he set out and came to Ptolemais. He wrote to Jonathan to discontinue the siege and to meet him for a conference at Ptolemais as soon as possible.

23 On hearing this, Jonathan ordered the siege to continue. He selected some elders and priests of Israel and put himself at risk.

24 Taking with him silver, gold and apparel, and many other presents, he went to the king at Ptolemais, and found favor with him.

25 Although certain renegades of his own nation kept on bringing charges against him,

26 the king treated him just as his predecessors had done and exalted him in the presence of all his Friends.

27 He confirmed him in the high priesthood and in the other honors he had previously held, and had him enrolled among his Chief Friends.

28 Jonathan asked the king to exempt Judea and the three districts of Samaria from tribute, promising him in return three hundred talents.

29 The king agreed and wrote a letter to Jonathan about all these matters as follows:

30 “King Demetrius sends greetings to his brother Jonathan and to the Jewish nation.

verse 30: Brother: this term and “father” in v. 32
are honorific expressions used of the Kinsmen.

31 We are sending you, for your information, a copy of the letter that we wrote to Lasthenes our Kinsman concerning you.

verse 31: Lasthenes: leader of the mercenary troops
who had come with Demetrius from Crete.
He was now the young king’s chief minister
and was apparently responsible for the disastrous policy
(v. 38) of disbanding the national army.
verse 38: When King Demetrius saw that the land was peaceful
under his rule and that he had no opposition, he dismissed his entire army,
each to his own home, except the foreign troops
which he had hired from the islands of the nations.
So all the soldiers who had served
under his predecessors became hostile to him.

32 ‘King Demetrius sends greetings to his father Lasthenes.

33 Upon the Jewish nation, who are our friends and observe their obligations to us, we have decided to bestow benefits because of the good will they show us.

34 Therefore we confirm their possession, not only of the territory of Judea, but also of the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda, and Ramathaim. These districts, together with all their dependencies, are hereby transferred from Samaria to Judea for those who offer sacrifices in Jerusalem in lieu of the royal taxes the king used to receive yearly from the produce of earth and trees.

verse 34: Aphairema: the Ophrah of Jos 18:23; 1 Sm 13:17;
the Ephron of 2 Chr 13:19; and the Ephraim of Jn 11:54
– modern et-Taiyibeh, five miles northeast of Bethel.
Lydda: the Lod of the postexilic Jews (Ezr 2:33; Neh 11:35)
and the hometown of Aeneas,
who was cured by Peter (Acts 9:32–34).
It is ten miles southeast of Joppa.
Ramathaim: the Ramathaim-zophim of 1 Sm 1:1,
and the Arimathea of Mt 27:57, modern Rentis,
nine miles northeast of Lydda.

35 From payment of the other things that would henceforth be due to us, namely, the tithes and taxes, as well as the salt tax, and the crown tax—from all these we grant them release.

36 Henceforth and forever not one of these provisions shall ever be revoked.

37 See to it, therefore, that a copy of these instructions be made and given to Jonathan. Let it be displayed on the holy mountain in a conspicuous place.’”

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