1 Maccabees 16:2-4

Revised Standard Version

² And Simon called in his two older sons Judas and John, and said to them: “I and my brothers and the house of my father have fought the wars of Israel from our youth until this day, and things have prospered in our hands so that we have delivered Israel many times. ³ But now I have grown old, and you by His mercy are mature in years. Take my place and my brother’s, and go out and fight for our nation, and may the help which comes from Heaven be with you.”

⁴ So John^[a] chose out of the country twenty thousand warriors and horsemen, and they marched against Cendebe′us and camped for the night in Mo′de-in.