Fire Consumes Nehemiah’s Sacrifice

¹⁸ Since on the twenty-fifth day of Chislev we shall celebrate the purification of the temple, we thought it necessary to notify you, in order that you also may celebrate the Festival of Booths^[a] and the fire given when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.^(A)

⁵⁴ Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah^(A)

⁵ It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Chislev.^{(A) 6} They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the Festival of Booths,^[a] remembering how not long before, during the Festival of Booths,^[b] they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals.^{(B) 7} Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also palm fronds, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place.^{(C) 8} They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year.