1 Maccabees 3:37-39

Common English Bible

³⁷ Then the king took the other half of his forces and left his capital Antioch in the year 147.^[a] He crossed the Euphrates River and went through the upper provinces.

Preparations for battle

³⁸ Lysias selected Ptolemy, Dorymenes’ son, as well as Nicanor and Gorgias, two able men who were among the king’s chief political advisors. ³⁹ He sent them with forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry to go into Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded.