y shall be stubble: and the day that
cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not
leave them root, nor branch.

4:2. But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and
health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves
of the herd.

4:3. And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under
the sole of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of
hosts. 4:4. Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him
in Horeb for all Israel, the precepts, and judgments.

4:5. Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord.

4:6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the
heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the
earth with anathema.

He shall turn the heart, etc... By bringing over the Jews to the faith
of Christ, he shall reconcile them to their fathers, viz., the
partiarchs and prophets; whose hearts for many ages have been turned
away from them, because of their refusing to believe in Christ.-Ibid.
With anathema... In the Hebrew, Cherem, that is, with utter destruction.

THE FIRST BOOK OF MACHABEES

These books are so called, because they contain the history of the
people of God under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren: and
he, as some will have it, was surnamed Machabeus, from carrying in his
ensigns, or standards, those words of Exodus 15.11, Who is like to thee
among the strong, O Lord: in which the initial letters, in the Hebrew,
are M. C. B. E. I. It is not known who is the author of these books. But
as to their authority, though they are not received by the Jews, saith
St. Augustine, (lib. 18, De Civ. Dei, c. 36,) they are received by the
church: who, in settling her canon of the scriptures, chose rather to be
directed by the tradition she had received from the apostles of Christ,
than by that of the scribes and Pharisees. And as the church has
declared these two Books canonical, even in two general councils, viz.,
Florence and Trent, there can be no doubt of their authenticity.

1 Machabees Chapter 1

The reign of Alexander and his successors: Antiochus rifles and profanes
the temple of God: and persecutes unto death all that will not forsake
the law of God, and the religion of their fathers.

1:1. Now it came to pass, after that Alexander the son of Philip the
Macedonian, who first r