³⁶ In his days things prospered in his hands, so that the nations were put out of the^[a] country, as were also those in the city of David in Jerusalem, who had built themselves a citadel from which they used to sally forth and defile the environs of the sanctuary, doing great damage to its purity.^(A)

² And Simon called in his two eldest sons Judas and John and said to them: “My brothers and I and my father’s house 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.^(A)