He died
when only thirty-seven years of age, worn out by drunkenness; and the
Jews, who had learnt to hate the Egyptian dominion, gladly received the
soldiers of his enemy, Antiochus the Great, into Jerusalem, deserting
his young son, who was only five years old; and thus, in the year 197,
Jerusalem came to belong to the Seleucidae of Syria, instead of to the
Ptolemies of Egypt. The history of Ptolemy Philopator in predicted from
the 10th to the 13th verse of the 11th chapter of Daniel's prophecy. The
Jews suffered terribly all through these wars, which were usually fought
out on their soil. Each sovereign robbed them in turn, while they were
too few to guard themselves, and could do no otherwise than fall to the
strongest.
LESSON XVII.
THE SYRIAN PERSECUTION.
"The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the
fowls of the air, and the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the
land."--_Ps_. lxxix. 2.
The history of Antiochus the Great is foretold in the 11th chapter of
the prophet Daniel, from the 14th to the 19th verse. On the death of
Ptolemy Philopator, this king entered Palestine with a great army, and
easily obtained from the time-serving Jews the surrender of Jerusalem.
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