Add parallel Print Page Options

51 On the twenty-third day of the second month,[a] in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered the citadel with shouts of praise, the waving of palm branches, the playing of harps and cymbals and lyres, and the singing of hymns and canticles, because a great enemy of Israel had been crushed.(A) 52 Simon decreed that this day should be celebrated every year with rejoicing. He also strengthened the fortifications of the temple mount alongside the citadel, and he and his people dwelt there. 53 Seeing that his son John[b] was now a grown man, Simon made him commander of all his soldiers, and he dwelt in Gazara.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 13:51 The twenty-third day of the second month: June 3, 141 B.C.
  2. 13:53 John: John Hyrcanus, who was to succeed his father as ruler and high priest; cf. 16:23–24.