33 “The Jews are our friends, and I have decided to do them a big favor since they are loyal to us and can be trusted to keep their promises.
34 The three regions of Aphairema, Lydda, and Ramathaim, together with the land around them, used to belong to Samaria. Now they belong to Judea and are an official possession of the Jews.“Those Jews who offer sacrifices in Jerusalem don't have to pay me my share of their grain and fruit each year.
35 And they don't have to pay me a tenth of their crops, the fee on salt, the special royal tax, or any other taxes.
36 “Lasthenes, no one may ever change even one of these orders.
37 Make a copy of this letter and send it to Jonathan. He will put it on God's holy mountain where it can be seen by everyone.”
38 No one opposed King Demetrius the Second, and his kingdom was at peace. So he sent his own soldiers back home and kept only the foreign troops he had hired from the Greek islands. But this made his own soldiers turn against him, because they had fought for many years, first in his father's army and then in his.
39 Trypho had been a follower of Alexander Epiphanes, and when he found out how angry all of Demetrius' troops were, he went to Imalkue the Arab, who was taking care of Antiochus the Sixth, the young son of King Alexander.