²²And this is the copy of the epistle which the senate wrote back again in tables of brass, and sent to Jerusalem, that there they might have by them a memorial of peace and confederacy:

²⁰And this is the copy of the letters that the Lacedemonians sent; The rulers of the Lacedemonians, with the city, unto Simon the high priest, and the elders, and priests, and residue of the people of the Jews, our brethren, send greeting: ²¹The ambassadors that were sent unto our people certified us of your glory and honour: wherefore we were glad of their coming, ²²And did register the things that they spake in the council of the people in this manner; Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, the Jews’ ambassadors, came unto us to renew the friendship they had with us. ²³And it pleased the people to entertain the men honourably, and to put the copy of their ambassage in publick records, to the end the people of the Lacedemonians might have a memorial thereof: furthermore we have written a copy thereof unto Simon the high priest. ²⁴After this Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a great shield of gold of a thousand pound weight to confirm the league with them. ²⁵Whereof when the people heard, they said, What thanks shall we give to Simon and his sons? ²⁶For he and his brethren and the house of his father have established Israel, and chased away in fight their enemies from them, and confirmed their liberty. ²⁷So then they wrote it in tables of brass, which they set upon pillars in mount Sion: and this is the copy of the writing; The eighteenth day of the month Elul, in the hundred threescore and twelfth year, being the third year of Simon the high priest,