The Battle at Emmaus

4 Now Gorgias took five thousand infantry and one thousand picked cavalry, and this division moved out by night ² to fall upon the camp of the Jews and attack them suddenly. Men from the citadel were his guides.^{(A) 3} But Judas heard of it, and he and his warriors moved out to attack the king’s force in Emmaus ⁴ while the division was still absent from the camp. ⁵ When Gorgias entered the camp of Judas by night, he found no one there, so he looked for them in the hills, because he said, “These men are running away from us.”

⁶ At daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men, but they did not have armor and swords such as they desired.^{(B) 7} And they saw the camp of the nations, strong and fortified, with cavalry all around it, and these men were trained in war. ⁸ But Judas said to those who were with him, “Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge.^{(C) 9} Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them.^{(D) 10} And now, let us cry to heaven to see whether he will favor us and remember his covenant with our ancestors and crush this army before us today.^{(E) 11} Then all the nations will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel.”

¹² When the foreigners looked up and saw them coming against them, ¹³ they went out from their camp to battle. Then the men with Judas blew their trumpets^{(F) 14} and engaged in battle. The nations were crushed and fled into the plain, ¹⁵ and all those in the rear fell by the sword. They pursued them to Gazara and to the plains of Idumea and to Azotus and Jamnia, and three thousand of them fell.^{(G) 16} Then Judas and his force turned back from pursuing them, ¹⁷ and he said to the people, “Do not be greedy for plunder, for there is a battle before us; ¹⁸ Gorgias and his force are near us in the hills. But stand now against our enemies and fight them and afterward seize the plunder boldly.”

¹⁹ Just as Judas was finishing this speech, a detachment appeared coming out of the hills. ²⁰ They saw that their army^[a] had been put to flight and that the Jews^[b] were burning the camp, for the smoke that was seen showed what had happened. ²¹ When they perceived this, they were greatly frightened, and when they also saw the army of Judas drawn up in the plain for battle, ²² they all fled into the land of the Philistines.^{[c](H) 23} Then Judas returned to plunder the camp, and they seized a great amount of gold and silver, and cloth dyed blue and sea purple, and great riches.^{(I) 24} On their return they sang hymns and praises to heaven: “For he is good, for his mercy endures forever.”^{(J) 25} Thus Israel had a great deliverance that day.

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied^{(A) 18} until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. ¹⁹ He dealt craftily with our people and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.^{(B) 20} At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, ²¹ and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²² So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.^(C)

²³ “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his kinfolk, the Israelites.^{(D) 24} When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷ But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses^[a] aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.^{(E) 33} Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{(F) 34} I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’^(G)

First Campaign of Lysias

²⁶ Those of the foreigners who escaped went and reported to Lysias all that had happened.^{(A) 27} When he heard it, he was perplexed and discouraged, for things had not happened to Israel as he had intended, nor had they turned out as the king had ordered. ²⁸ But the next year he mustered sixty thousand picked infantry and five thousand cavalry to subdue them.^{(B) 29} They came into Idumea and encamped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.^(C)

³⁰ When he saw that their army was strong, he prayed, saying, “Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, who crushed the attack of the mighty warrior by the hand of your servant David and gave the camp of the Philistines into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul and of the man who carried his armor.^{(D) 31} Hem in this army by the hand of your people Israel, and let them be ashamed of their troops and their cavalry.^{(E) 32} Fill them with cowardice; melt the boldness of their strength; let them tremble in their destruction. ³³ Strike them down with the sword of those who love you, and let all who know your name praise you with hymns.”

³⁴ Then both sides attacked, and there fell of the army of Lysias five thousand men; they fell before them.^{[a](F) 35} When Lysias saw the rout of his troops and observed the boldness that inspired those of Judas and how ready they were either to live or to die nobly, he withdrew to Antioch and enlisted mercenaries in order to invade Judea again with an even larger army.

³⁵ “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.^{(A) 36} He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.^{(B) 37} This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’^{(C) 38} He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us.^{(D) 39} Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’^{(E) 41} At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.^{(F) 42} But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God^[a] directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{(H) 45} Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the peoples whom God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,^{(I) 46} who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.^{[b](J) 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸ Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands;^[c] as the prophet says,^(K)

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.^{(M) 52} Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.^{(N) 53} You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”^(O)

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.^{[d] 55} But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^{(P) 56} “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^{(Q) 57} But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸ Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.^{(R) 59} While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”^{(S) 60} Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.^[e](T) 8 ¹ And Saul approved of their killing him.

Saul Persecutes the Church

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.^{(U) 2} Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.^{(V) 3} But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.^(W)

Philip Preaches in Samaria

⁴ Now those who were scattered went from place to place proclaiming the word.^(X)