estow on them, as
a pension, for their sacrifices of animals that are fit for sacrifice,
for wine, and oil, and frankincense, the value of twenty thousand pieces
of silver, and [six] sacred artabrae of fine flour, with one thousand
four hundred and sixty medimni of wheat, and three hundred and
seventy-five medimni of salt. And these payments I would have fully paid
them, as I have sent orders to you. I would also have the work about the
temple finished, and the cloisters, and if there be any thing else that
ought to be rebuilt. And for the materials of wood, let it be brought
them out of Judea itself and out of the other countries, and out of
Libanus tax free; and the same I would have observed as to those other
materials which will be necessary, in order to render the temple more
glorious; and let all of that nation live according to the laws of their
own country; and let the senate, and the priests, and the scribes of the
temple, and the sacred singers, be discharged from poll-money and the
crown tax and other taxes also. And that the city may the sooner recover
its inhabitants, I grant a discharge from taxes for three years to its
present inhabitants, and to such as shall come to it, until the month
Hyperheretus. We also discharge them for the future from a third part
of their taxes, that the losses they have sustained may be repaired. And
all those citizens that have been carried away, and are become slaves,
we grant them and their children their freedom, and give order that
their substance be restored to them."

4. And these were the contents of this epistle. He also published a
decree through all his kingdom in honor of the temple, which contained
what follows: "It shall be lawful for no foreigner to come within the
limits of the temple round about; which thing is forbidden also to the
Jews, unless to those who, according to their own custom, have purified
themselves. Nor let any flesh of horses, or of mules, or of asses,
he brought into the city, whether they be wild or tame; nor that of
leopards, or foxes, or hares; and, in general, that of any animal which
is forbidden for the Jews to eat. Nor let their skins be brought into
it; nor let any such animal be bred up in the city. Let them only be
permitted to use the sacrifices derived from their forefathers, with
which they have been obliged to make acceptable atonements to God. And
he that transgresseth any of these orders, let him pay to the priests
three thousa