1 Maccabees 6:19-20 This is the scene immediately following the betrayal that I blogged about in There is No Truth or Justice in Them. Here, having used the traitorous priests and men of Jerusalem to lie to and trick the Israelites into defeat, Bacchides, the leader of the foreign king Demetrius' army, leaves Alcimus in charge of Jerusalem and encamps in Bethzaith. There he sends for the Jews who deserted to him and kills them, throwing their bodies into a great pit. Then he leaves and goes back to King Demetrius.

This is said so matter of factly and succinctly, but here we see the fruits of oath breaking and betrayal - ignoble death. In fact, it doesn't even deserve a long story or description, a couple of lines will do. Having betrayed their people and given allegiance to an earthly foreign king over their God, the traitorous Jews and oath-breaking priests are summoned to the king's general, summarily slaughtered, and their bodies are thrown into a great pit. They are never even brought before the king, they are undeserving of even that. They are traitors, the king knows it, his general knows it, and so they cannot be kept in the king's service. They are untrustworthy, awful people and they get the same earthly fate that they brought on others - slaughter by the sword. But their eternal fate is much worse. The people they betrayed were true to God, so those people will have eternal salvation. These men betrayed even their God, so they are thrown into the eternal pit. Traitors cannot be trusted, and they will always get their just punishment. Maybe it will be here on earth (hopefully, because then they may repent and achieve salvation), but even if not here, they will get their eternal justice.

Speaking of justice, though, as I have said before, there are many leaders right now who we know are lying to us and have betrayed their oaths and have cause incalculable damage to our country and to society. Many people are understandably waiting to see God's just punishment of them, and sometimes we do get to see part of God's justice (just look at Andrew Cuomo!). But here we see that God's justice is not always visible to those who have suffered. The people of Jerusalem who have been conquered because of the traitors do not know that the traitors have all been slaughtered and thrown in a pit. They will never know this. The traitors are forgotten to the world, and rightfully so, but the people they have harmed do not get to rejoice in their death. And this is right, too. We are not to take pleasure in the suffering of others, no matter what they have done to us. We should always pray for our enemies and hope for their redemption, so often it is better for us not to know of our enemies' punishment.