de a friendship and league with Ptolemy,
and gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and yielded up to him
Celesyria, and Samaria, and Judea, and Phoenicia, by way of dowry. And
upon the division of the taxes between the two kings, all the principal
men framed the taxes of their several countries, and collecting the sum
that was settled for them, paid the same to the [two] kings. Now at this
time the Samaritans were in a flourishing condition, and much distressed
the Jews, cutting off parts of their land, and carrying off slaves.
This happened when Onias was high priest; for after Eleazar's death,
his uncle Manasseh took the priesthood, and after he had ended his life,
Onias received that dignity. He was the son of Simon, who was called
The Just: which Simon was the brother of Eleazar, as I said before. This
Onias was one of a little soul, and a great lover of money; and for that
reason, because he did not pay that tax of twenty talents of silver,
which his forefathers paid to these things out of their own estates,
he provoked king Ptolemy Euergetes to anger, who was the father of
Philopater. Euergetes sent an ambassador to Jerusalem, and complained
that Onias did not pay his taxes, and threatened, that if he did not
receive them, he would seize upon their land, and send soldiers to
live upon it. When the Jews heard this message of the king, they were
confounded; but so sordidly covetous was Onias, that nothing of things
nature made him ashamed.

2. There was now one Joseph, young in age, but of great reputation
among the people of Jerusalem, for gravity, prudence, and justice. His
father's name was Tobias; and his mother was the sister of Onias the
high priest, who informed him of the coming of the ambassador; for he
was then sojourning at a village named Phicol, [13] where he was born.
Hereupon he came to the city [Jerusalem], and reproved Onias for not
taking care of the preservation of his countrymen, but bringing the
nation into dangers, by not paying this money. For which preservation of
them, he told him he had received the authority over them, and had been
made high priest; but that, in case he was so great a lover of money,
as to endure to see his country in danger on that account, and his
countrymen suffer the greatest damages, he advised him to go to the
king, and petition him to remit either the whole or a part of the
sum demanded. Onias's answer was this: That he did not care for his
authority, and that he