1 Maccabees 3:37-39

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³⁷ Then the king took the remaining half of his forces and left Antioch his capital in the one hundred and forty-seventh year. He crossed the Euphrates River and went through the upper provinces.^(A)

Preparations for Battle

³⁸ Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes and Nicanor and Gorgias, able men among the Friends of the king,^{(B) 39} and sent with them forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry to go into the land of Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded.