2 And him that was the benefactor of the city, and the guardian of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws, he dared to call a conspirator against the state.
3 But when the growing enmity between them waxed so great, that even murders were perpetrated through one of Simon’s trusted followers,
4 Onias, seeing the danger of the contention, and that Apollonius the son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was increasing Simon’s malice,
5 betook himself to the king, not to be an accuser of his fellow-citizens, but looking to the good of all the people, both public and private;
6 for he saw that without the king’s providence it was impossible for the state to obtain peace any more, and that Simon would not cease from his madness.
7 But when Seleucus was deceased, and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias supplanted his brother in the high priesthood,
8 having promised to the king at an audience three hundred and threescore talents of silver, and out of another fund eighty talents;