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50 Then they implored Simon to make peace with them, and he granted their request. Expelling them from the citadel, he cleansed it of its defilement. 51 On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the year one hundred and seventy-one, the Jews entered the citadel with shouting and the waving of palm branches, to the accompaniment of lyres and cymbals and harps and the singing of hymns and canticles, because a great enemy of Israel had been destroyed. 52 Simon decreed that this day should be observed each year with rejoicing. He also strengthened the fortifications of the temple hill alongside the citadel, and he took up residence there with his men.

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