1 Maccabes 41-64
[41] Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people,
[42] and that each should give up his customs.
[43] All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.
[44] And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land,
[45] to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts,
[46] to defile the sanctuary and the priests,
[47] to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals,
[48] and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane,
[49] so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances.
[50] "And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die."
[51] In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice, city by city.
[52] Many of the people, every one who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land;
[53] they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had.
[54] Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah,
[55] and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets.
[56] The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire.
[57] Where the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any one, or if any one adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned him to death.
[58] They kept using violence against Israel, against those found month after month in the cities.
[59] And on the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar which was upon the altar of burnt offering.
[60] According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised,
[61] and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks.
[62] But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food.
[63] They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.
[64] And very great wrath came upon Israel.