1 Maccabees 5:45-68
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Return to Jerusalem
45 Then Judas gathered together all the Israelites in Gilead, the small and the great, with their wives and children and goods, a very large company, to go to the land of Judah. 46 So they came to Ephron. This was a large and very strong town on the road, and they could not go around it to the right or to the left; they had to go through it.(A) 47 But the people of the town shut them out and blocked up the gates with stones.
48 Judas sent them this friendly message, “Let us pass through your land to get to our land. No one will do you harm; we will simply pass by on foot.” But they refused to open to him.(B) 49 Then Judas ordered proclamation to be made to the army that all should encamp where they were. 50 So the men of the forces encamped, and he fought against the town all that day and all the night, and the town was delivered into his hands.(C) 51 He destroyed every male by the edge of the sword and razed and plundered the town. Then he passed through the town over the bodies of the dead.
52 Then they crossed the Jordan into the large plain before Beth-shan.(D) 53 Judas kept rallying the laggards and encouraging the people all the way until he came to the land of Judah. 54 So they went up to Mount Zion with joy and gladness and offered burnt offerings because they had returned in safety; not one of them had fallen.
Joseph and Azariah Defeated
55 Now while Judas and Jonathan were in Gilead and their[a] brother Simon was in Galilee before Ptolemais,(E) 56 Joseph son of Zechariah and Azariah, the commanders of the forces, heard of their brave deeds and of the heroic war they had fought.(F) 57 So they said, “Let us also make a name for ourselves; let us go and make war on the nations around us.”(G) 58 So they issued orders to the men of the forces that were with them and marched against Jamnia.(H) 59 Gorgias and his men came out of the town to meet them in battle.(I) 60 Then Joseph and Azariah were routed and were pursued to the borders of Judea; as many as two thousand of the people of Israel fell that day.(J) 61 Thus the people suffered a great rout because, thinking to do a brave deed, they did not listen to Judas and his brothers.(K) 62 But they did not belong to the family of those men through whom deliverance was given to Israel.
63 The man Judas and his brothers were greatly honored in all Israel and among all the nations, wherever their name was heard. 64 People gathered to them and praised them.
Success at Hebron and Philistia
65 Then Judas and his brothers went out and fought the descendants of Esau in the land to the south. He struck Hebron and its villages and tore down its strongholds and burned its towers on all sides.(L) 66 Then he marched off to go into the land of the Philistines[b] and passed through Marisa.[c](M) 67 On that day some priests who wished to do a brave deed fell in battle, for they went out to battle unwisely. 68 But Judas turned aside to Azotus in the land of the Philistines; he tore down their altars, and the carved images of their gods he burned with fire; he plundered the towns and returned to the land of Judah.(N)
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