1 Maccabees 3:35-37

Good News Translation

     ³⁵ Lysias was ordered to send an army against the Jews, especially the Jews in Jerusalem, to break their power and destroy them, so that no trace of them would remain. ³⁶ He was ordered to take their land and give it to foreigners, who would settle the whole area. ³⁷ Taking the other half of his army, the king set out from Antioch, his capital city, in the year 147.^[a] He crossed the Euphrates River and marched through Mesopotamia.