are these: "King Demetrius to Jonathan, and to the nation of the
Jews, sendeth greeting. Since you have preserved your friendship for
us, and when you have been tempted by our enemies, you have not joined
yourselves to them, I both commend you for this your fidelity, and
exhort you to continue in the same disposition, for which you shall
be repaid, and receive rewards from us; for I will free you from the
greatest part of the tributes and taxes which you formerly paid to the
kings my predecessors, and to myself; and I do now set you free from
those tributes which you have ever paid; and besides, I forgive you the
tax upon salt, and the value of the crowns which you used to offer to me
[3] and instead of the third part of the fruits [of the field], and the
half of the fruits of the trees, I relinquish my part of them from this
day: and as to the poll-money, which ought to be given me for every head
of the inhabitants of Judea, and of the three toparchies that adjoin
to Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, and Peres, that I relinquish to you
for this time, and for all time to come. I will also that the city of
Jerusalem be holy and inviolable, and free from the tithe, and from the
taxes, unto its utmost bounds. And I so far recede from my title to the
citadel, as to permit Jonathan your high priest to possess it, that
he may place such a garrison in it as he approves of for fidelity and
good-will to himself, that they may keep it for us. I also make free all
those Jews who have been made captives and slaves in my kingdom. I also
give order that the beasts of the Jews be not pressed for our service;
and let their sabbaths, and all their festivals, and three days before
each of them, be free from any imposition. In the same manner, I set
free the Jews that are inhabitants of my kingdom, and order that no
injury be done them. I also give leave to such of them as are willing
to list themselves in my army, that they may do it, and those as far as
thirty thousand; which Jewish soldiers, wheresoever they go, shall have
the same pay that my own army hath; and some of them I will place in my
garrisons, and some as guards about mine own body, and as rulers over
those that are in my court. I give them leave also to use the laws of
their forefathers, and to observe them; and I will that they have power
over the three toparchies that are added to Judea; and it shall be in
the power of the high priest to take care that no one Jew shall have any