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The kindred, the Yehudim (Jews) who are in Yerushalayim and those who are in the country of Yehudah, send greetings and good peace to the kindred, the Yehudim who are throughout Mitzrayim.
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May Elohim do good to you, and remember his covenant with Avraham (Abraham), Yitzchaq (Isaac), and Ya’aqov (Jacob), his faithful servants,
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and give you all a heart to worship him and do his will with a strong heart and a willing soul.
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May Elohim open your heart to his Torah and his statutes, and make peace,
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and listen to your requests, and be reconciled with you, and not forsake you in an evil time.
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Now we are praying for you here.
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In the reign of Demetrios, in the one hundred and sixty-ninth year, we the Yehudim have already written to you in the suffering and in the distress that has come upon us in these years, from the time that Yason (Jason) and his company revolted from the set-apart land and the kingdom,
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and set the gate on fire, and shed innocent blood. We prayed to Yahuah, and were heard. We offered slaughter-offerings and meal offerings. We lit the lamps. We set out the show bread.
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Now see that you keep the days of the feast of tabernacles in the month Kislev in the one hundred and eighty-eighth year.
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The people of Yerushalayim and those who are in Yehudah, with the senate and Yehudah (Judas), to Aristobulus, King Ptolemaios’s teacher, who is also of the stock of the anointed kohenim, and to the Yehudim who are in Mitzrayim, we send greetings and health.
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Having been saved by Elohim out of great perils, as men arrayed against a king, we thank him greatly.
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For he threw out into Paras those who fought against us in the set-apart city.
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For when the prince had come there, with an army that seemed irresistible, they were cut to pieces in the temple of Nanaea by the treachery of Nanaea’s kohenim.
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For Antiyokhos, on the pretence that he would marry her, came into the place, he and his friends who were with him, that they might take a large part of the treasures as a dowry.
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And when the kohenim of Nanaea’s temple had set the treasures out, and he had come there with a small company within the wall of the set-apart precinct, they locked the temple when Antiyokhos had come in.
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Opening the secret door of the panelled ceiling, they threw stones and struck down the prince. They cut him and his company in pieces, and cut off their heads, and threw them to the people who were outside.
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Blessed be our Elohim in all things, who handed over those who had committed impiety.
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Since we are now about to celebrate the purification of the temple in the month Kislev, on the twenty-fifth day, we thought it necessary to notify you, so that you may also keep a feast of tabernacles, and remember the fire which was given when Nechemyah (Nehemiah) offered slaughter-offerings, after he had built both the temple and the altar.
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For indeed when our fathers were about to be led into the land of Paras, the godly kohenim of that time took some of the fire of the altar, and hid it secretly in the hollow of a well that was without water, where they made sure that the place was unknown to anyone.
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Now after many years, when it pleased Elohim, Nechemyah, having received a charge from the king of Paras, sent in quest of the fire the descendants of the kohenim who hid it. When they declared to us that they had found no fire, but thick liquid,
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he commanded them to draw some of it out and bring it to him. When the slaughter-offerings had been offered, Nechemyah commanded the kohenim to sprinkle with that liquid both the wood and the things laid on it.
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When that was done and some time had passed, and the sun shone out, which before was hidden with clouds, a great blaze was kindled, so that all men marvelled.
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The kohenim made a prayer while the slaughter-offering was being consumed—both the kohenim and all the others. Yonatan (Jonathan) led and the rest responded, as Nechemyah did.
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The prayer was like this: “O Yahuah, Yahuah Elohim, the Creator of all things, you are awesome, strong, righteous, and merciful, you alone are King and gracious,
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you alone supply every need, you alone are righteous, almighty, and eternal, you who save Yis’rael out of all evil, who chose the ancestors and set apart them,
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accept the slaughter-offering for all your people Yis’rael, and preserve your own portion, and set apart it.
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Gather together our scattered people, set at liberty those who are in bondage amongst the nations, look upon those who are despised and abhorred, and let the nations know that you are our Elohim.
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Punish those who oppress us and in arrogance shamefully entreat us.
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Plant your people in your set-apart place, even as Mosheh (Moses) said.”
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Then the kohenim sang the hymns.
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As soon as the slaughter-offering was consumed, then Nechemyah commanded that the rest of the liquid be poured on large stones.
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When this was done, a flame was kindled; but when the light from the altar shone back, it went out.
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When the matter became known, and king of the men of Paras was told that in the place where the kohenim who were led away had hid the fire, the liquid appeared which Nechemyah and those who were with him purified the slaughter-offering,
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then the king enclosed the place and set it apart after he had investigated the matter.
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When the king would show favour to any, he would exchange many presents and give them some of this liquid.
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Nechemyah and those who were with him called this thing “Nephthar”, which is by interpretation, “Cleansing”; but most men call it Nephthai.